FISH, FLESH, AND FOWL
BRITISH BIRDS IN COLOUR (Advisory Editor, R. S. R. Fitter); Odhams Press, Ltd. N.Z. price, 26/3. THE UNCERTAIN TROUT, by R. H. Wigram; Georgian House, Melbourne. Australian price, 21/-. CURIOUS CREATURES, written and illustrated by Erna Pinner; Jonathan Cape. English price, 12/6. "HE principal charm of British Birds -which must be the most impressive’ piece of popular natural history the Odhams Press has so far published -is in the 65 pages of full-colour plates, all of them pleasing reproductions from John Gould’s The Birds of Great Britain, a monumental work first published in 1873. These illustrations-the joint labour of Gould and his wife-may occasionally seem a little stiff to the modern eye, but they are painstakingly precise in form and coloyr, and as an aid to the British bird-watcher are worth
a good proportion of the purchase-price. They are backed by about 200 fine photographs from such skilled observers as Hosking and Yeates, and by authoritative articles on habits, migration, sanctuaries, and so on. Like so many Odhams books, however, this one suffers from an irritating diffusion of information. There is a good index, but in a book of this kind it should not be necessary to look in, say, 12 different places to gather the sum of information on the Common Gull. More system would improve the book, but it is sti a good one to have. Mr. Wigram’s book is for anglers, and is of a kind that has not been produced often enough in this part of the world. It contains a pretty full measure of wisdom on the kind of trout-fishing we have here (the author’s home ground is Tasmania), but it is never too didactic, and avoids the dryness of the vade mecum., "If one knew all the answers," says Mr. Wigram, "there would be little point in going fishing." This is a pleasantly produced book, but the price must place it beyond the reach of many. Erna Pinner’s drawings are. of the kind that cause despair in the beginner, but she occasionally sacrifices accuracy to art and her text is undistinguished. It is readable enough, but to judge the author on this work would be to place her between Crosbie Morrison and Mr. Ripley-and much closer to the latter.
J.
M.
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 26, Issue 671, 16 May 1952, Page 14
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381FISH, FLESH, AND FOWL New Zealand Listener, Volume 26, Issue 671, 16 May 1952, Page 14
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
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