Marrin's Bookshop

Synopsis

[by] 'b. b.' illustrated by d. j. watkins-pitchford.

Item Description

FIRST EDITION. 8vo. 8.75 x 5.5 inches. [viii] + 183 + [1] pp. Bound in original green cloth, gilt, in pictorial dust wrapper. Slight sunning of spine, but otherwise a very good copy. Illustrated by 13 pages of plates, including frontispiece, numbered in text, and by title page, other preliminaries, and scraperboard vignettes in text. Nature writings including observations of the rare Purple Emperor butterfly, the freezing of his garden pond and the decline of bird species. Denys James Watkins-Pitchford (1905-90), naturalist, illustrator and children's author, was born in Northants, attended the Royal College of Art and taught at Rugby School for seventeen years from 1930. He wrote under the pseudonym 'B. B.' (a reference to the size of lead shot he favoured), but used his real name as illustrator.