In the 1990’s and early 2000’s Arlequin Press published a large number of Birdwatching Guides to different areas, with suggestions for places to go, birds to see and, of course, a tick-list of possible species to cross off one’s lifetime list.
The publishing house was set up to offer limited edition wildlife art books (starting with John’s Nature Drawings and including Donald Watson’s One Pair of Eyes and Eric Ennion’s Birds and Seasons (edited by R Walthew) see RW’s memoir ) so it is not surprising that the Birdwatching Guides also featured illustrations by wildlife artists, among them John Busby!
In the studio I came across a number of covers and illustrations from the books, including alternative covers for Extremadura and Eastern Spain and the originals of Algarve and Southern France. It is interesting to compare the alternatives with what was chosen. (The wild boar didn’t make the cut on the Extremadura cover, although I prefer the flying Azure-winged Magpies myself!)
The drawings and pen and wash illustrations were used in several books as appropriate, most of these found so far are from France South of the Loire, and Eastern Spain. I shall keep looking for others.
