Who would win a race between a carrier pigeon and a silver-haired bat? Is the Australian tiger beetle faster or slower than a basset hound dog?

Find out all this and more in The Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Fast and Slow Animals! This fascinating book gives you the inside track on 60 amazing animals – from fast-swimming gentoo penguins and slow-moving gila monsters to immortal jellyfish that can live ‘forever’. Whoa!

So whether you enjoy life in the slow lane or like to take things super-fast, make sure you catch up with this brilliant book! On your marks, get set… read!

Hi Sami! What inspired you to write this book?
I’ve loved uncovering new and unusual animals with every book I’ve written. And while I already knew about some famous fast and slow animals, I always wondered why they could do the things they did. So this was the perfect opportunity to learn! 

What’s your favourite fact from the book?
There are so many! Did you know that the Australian tiger beetle is the fastest insect on the planet?! It runs 2.5 metres per second – even though it’s just 2cm long!
I also discovered it uses its strong jaws to break apart its prey and squirts digestive juices onto its victim to slurp the meal up. Gross, right?! 

Would you rather be a super- fast or super-slow animal?
I think I’d like to be a flying fish. They can glide up to 400m in around 45 seconds! But it would also be cool to turn back into a baby again, like the immortal jellyfish! 

Wow! What’s the most unusual fact you discovered?
I was blown away by the fact that the quickest animal in relation to its size is the Californian mite, a 0.7mm arachnid. If we humans could run 322 body lengths per second (like this mite does), we’d be going 2,317kmph! 

What other encyclopaedias would you like to write?
I’ve always got so manyideas running through my mind. But I’d love to one
day make an encyclopaedia of cute animals (to go alongside my ugly animal encyclopaedia) – so watch this space!

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Illustrations © Sami Bayly 2025.