BEASTS It’s all about the animal kingdom this season, as books
exhibit all things wild and untamed
We’ve been glued to David Attenborough’s latest masterpiece on the BBC, ‘Africa’ – and the glorious imagery continues in the accompanying book, which off ers digital extras to make animals ranging from antelopes to zebras come to vivid life. Africa: Eye to Eye with the Unknown by Michael Bright (Quercus) is out now. Attenborough’s personal collection of Edward Lear’s
meticulously drawn, hand-coloured bird prints is now available to everyone – Attenborough's own volume, Birds Drawn for John Gould, which he had encased in 19th-century leather binding, has been reproduced in facsimile by the Folio Society. Fantastical beasts abound in a 2013 calendar put
A toco toucan, one of 80 bird portraits by Edward Lear; and Ed Vere’s monster at work in Storytellers Inc’s calendar (below)
together by specialist children’s bookshop Storytellers Inc, based in Lancashire. Discover exclusive drawings from illustrators including Catherine Rayner, Emma Chichester Clark and Chris Riddell in the calendar, which is available for £10 at storytellersinc.co.uk. Stunning wild animal imagery forms a signifi cant part of one of the largest postcard collections in existence – now collected in a gorgeous book, The Postcard Age by Lynda Klich and Benjamin Weiss (Thames & Hudson, out February).