YEAR IN THE COUNTRYSIDE

Insect, bird, animal, tree and flower, this is an enthralling sequence following the fortunes of the passing days of the year by the naturalist and pioneer of wildlife photography, Frances Pitt (1888-1964). 'We see the leafless countryside of January when the trees wave bare boughs against a grey sky. When the world of Nature seems at its lowest ebb, and the thoughts of joy and love-making seem far away; yet a turn of the head shows a primrose peeping from a rosette of green leaves in a snug nook on the hedge bank, and when evening comes we hear the husky bark of the dog-fox saluting his lady. February fill-dyke not only fills ditch and pool with muddy flood-water, but brings more tidings of coming spring... April comes in joyous mood, smiling away the tears of March, causing daffodils to bob their flowers like children skipping and dancing; while the voices of lambs come down the breeze, and birds hail the season with glorious song... Mayflies dancing on the summer air, gauzy-winged dragonflies flitting over placid waters, and fat trout rising lazily from the deep cool depths of the stream...' Frances Pitt's knowledge of British nature is second to none, based upon years of close observation and an intuitive understanding. Arranged month by month on a journey through the ever-changing countryside, there are 32 exquisite woodcut illustrations by Stanley Herbert of the long-tailed mouse, sparring hares, the great spotted woodpecker, hawthorn blossom, the weasel, hedgehog, robin, tortoiseshell butterfly, sleeping bat, mute swan and smooth newt among them. 104pp, paperback, illus.