Safari Sketchbook: A painter’s odyssey

Familiar to many as the illustrator of the ground-breaking Birds of Africa series, Martin Woodcock is based in Norfolk, but is drawn to Africa and it’s birds, and has made many return trips since his first in 1961. Many of these were as fieldwork for the mammoth task of illustrating Birds of Africa, and during that time Martin gathered a huge collection of sketches and paintings he made in the field. The cream of these is presented in this book, and reveals a much free style than we are perhaps familiar with. Beautiful and evocative of the myriad birds and diverse habitats, a book to treasure.

Book reviewed by Su Gough