I've been not had a bit of a love affair with spiders all my life actually, and I can blame my parents for this. When my sister and I were very young, my mum always got us interested in natural history, and I always remember her showing us the little stripey black and white jumping spiders, and how they were in the sunshine and how they moved and looked at you, because they've got very good eyesight. I used to come to the Natural History Museum quite regularly, and I always thought how wonderful it would be to work here, never actually realising that I would. The specimens in the collection come from all over the world, and many of them are over 100 years old. This specimen here was actually collected in 1896.


我这一辈子，算是与蜘蛛们纠缠不清了。这都怪我的父母，在我们姐妹小时侯，母亲总是注意培养我们对大自然的兴趣。我总记得她指给我们看，身上有黑白条纹的跳蛛，给我们讲它们如何沐浴阳光。如何移动，如何观察我们，要知道它们的视力可是一流。我那时经常来自然历史博物馆，我总想，哪天要能在这工作就太好了。那时候真不知道竟会美梦成真，这里的标本来自世界各地。其中许多都有一百多年历史了，这个标本制作于1896年。