One Man's Island: A Naturalist's Year

by Keith Brockie

The young and acclaimed naturalist-painter presents, with full-color drawings and paintings, a portrait of the landscape, flora, and fauna of a small island off the coast of Scotland

Genres: Art

150 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 1984

About the author

Keith Brockie has worked as a full-time wildlife artist for more than twenty years. His work has been exhibited around the world and appears in many books. He is actively involved in wildlife conservation, in particular in the successful efforts to re-establish the osprey in Scotland.

Reviews

[Phil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brockie spent a year on the Isle of May, sketching and painting the wildlife he observed there, and in particular, the birds. This book is primarily a collection of these paintings and sketches, divided into four sections: Breeding Birds, Other Wildlife, Migration and Grey Seals. Brockie has written an introduction to each section, but the majority of the book is made up of the pictures.

I enjoyed this book very much, although I preferred the middle two sections as they contained more variety. In the 'Breeding Birds' section, there are numerous pages of drawings of the same species, and the small variations are probably only of interest to the dedicated wildlife artist or naturalist. I found the same problem with the section on Grey Seals - there are only so many pictures of seals you can look at before it starts to feel a bit same-y!

It's still a very worthwhile read for anyone interested in British wildlife and especially the wildlife to be found in one small area. I've been browsing through this book in my coffee breaks over the past few days, and it has been a real delight.