Inspiring Older Readers

posted on 14 Sep 2015

Drawn From Paradise by David Attenborough and Errol Fuller

Anyone who knows me will be happy to confirm that I am not by instinct an outdoors sort of person. The beauties of the natural world and the wonder of the animal kingdom largely leave me - what shall I say - tepid. That's not to say I can't see the beauty or the wonder, it's just that it doesn't really excite me in the way some people get positively passionate.

Browsing in a bookshop in York in 2012 I casually picked up a sumptuous-looking new book by David Attenborough and Errol Fuller about the art of Birds of Paradise. The fact that it was also a signed copy must have also tickled my fancy I suspect. What really surprised me was how delectable the fabulous illustrations were and, more intriguingly, how they had been produced. The 19th century was an extraordinary time for hand drawn and coloured artwork depicting the natural world - photography of the sort we've become accustomed to not being available at the time. These drawings, remarkably, were done by artists who had, in some cases, never actually seen a Bird of Paradise and were working on the basis of written descriptions.

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In essence this is a book about the great art of natural history pioneers and not simply a book for the bird lovers. Go and take a look at this fabulous production and if you're only marginally interested in the birds read the great stuff about the natural history artists and scientists. Most of all enjoy the truly fabulous illustrations as works of art in their own right.

The book was published in 2012 by Collins.

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Terry Potter

September 2015