Limited Edition of 400 copies numbered and signed by Frank’s widow, Jane Ironside.

Frank Jarvis’s fascination with natural history began at an early age. This little new book published by Chatterpie is a facsimile of two of the many notebooks that Frank made as a child. 

He started creating these in 1947, aged between 8 and 9. He carried on keeping records and making small books filled with lists, and drawings of  the wild life  he saw around him amongst the sewerage farms, locks, and the debris of post war  London where he lived in North London.

At 16 he began t go to evening classes and cycle to Whipsnade Zoo, to draw the animals there At 18 he went on to study at Hornsey Art School.

Frank grew up to be an artist and illustrator of bird books, travelling the world and seeing in the field and illustrating many of the exotic species  he dreamt about seeing as a child.

 He wrote often in pen and ink, in school exercise books though sometimes he made his own books by hand stitching sheets of paper together.   The books reproduced here were made over 70 years ago which accounts for the discolouration of the paper.  Fortunately his mother kept some of his art school sketch books and many of his childhood creations.

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All About Birds and Insects

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