C F Tunnicliffe from The Ladybird Nature Series: ‘What to Look for in Autumn’

The Royal Academy in London recently hosted a small but beautifully curated exhibition of C F Tunnicliffe’s work.   I made reference to it in an earlier Instagram post. I have seen some of his wonderful engravings reproduced as cards but had completely forgotten that he illustrated so many of the Ladybird books which lined my childhood bookcase. (Interestingly he was also responsible for much of the artwork on PG Tips tea cards which were very collectible during the same era).

Recently, and quite by chance, I discovered an original and well-thumbed edition of ‘What to Look for in Autumn’ in a local second-hand shop. I bought it and found it so informative that I tracked down the other three books in the series.  They are packed full of fascinating facts about nature, the farming year, flora, fauna and the changing seasons and are of course accompanied by Tunnicliffe’s detailed and well-observed watercolour illustrations.

I have chosen the image above as it features a ‘pin-cushion gall’ growing on a briar. I had photographed one of these in a hedgerow recently and wondered what it was. Now I know thanks to a Ladybird Nature Book.  The structure indicates the presence of a gall-fly larva and provides it with food and protection.  This was one of the very many interesting facts I discovered while re-visiting this informative little series.