Bibliography 2

Books of Eric Ennion's work published since 1981

The Living Birds of Eric Ennion

Edited by John Busby, with an introduction and commentry.

Victor Gollancz, 1982

280 x 195 mm. 128 pages. Illustrated throughout in colour and black-and-white. Bibliography compiled by Robert Gillmor.

Focuses on field sketches from the 1930’s to the 1970’s and working drawings and preparatory studies for paintings. Includes many of the composite plates Eric Ennion prepared for the then unpublished Bird Man’s River, and plates from The British Bird reproduced in full-colour. Passages of descriptive text are taken from Eric Ennion’s books and articles; includes notes on sketching birds taken from unpublished manuscripts.

The Waxwings on the dust jacket were painted for the back cover of Bird Study in a Garden.

Living Birds

Birds and Seasons

Edited, with an introduction, by Bob Walthew.

Arlequin Press, 1994

265 x 305 mm. 152 pages, 74 paintings and other artwork reproduced in colour (36 of them full-page), 94 line drawings, 4 pencil drawings and a black-and-white photograph of Eric Ennion. Text from Eric Ennion's magazine articles and books.

The edition was limited to 55 copies leather-bound, each with an original pen and ink drawing from the unpublished Field Study Book Flight in Bird and Plane, and 945 copies cloth-bound.

To read Bob Walthew's illustrated memoir about how Birds and Seasons came to be published, click on the cover.

Birds and Seasons

A Life of Birds

Edited by Bob Walthew.

Introduction by Robert Gillmor.

The Wildlife Art Gallery, 2003

280 x 210 mm. 80 pages, 83 illustrations in colour. Decorative endpapers reproduced from a layout drawing, printed in grey.

The text is taken from The Countryman’s Log and focuses on Eric Ennion's time at Monks' House and Shalbourne in the 1950's and early 1960's.

Reproduces the 83 paintings commissioned by Shell in the 1960’s: 81 square-format pictures illustrating individual species and the covers for two Shell Nature Records.

Copies are available from Benton Street Books.

A Life of Birds

One Man’s Birds

Edited, with an introduction, by Bob Walthew.

The Wildlife Art Gallery, 2004

280 x 240 mm. 144 pages, 496 illustrations in colour. The dust jacket has 3 additional watercolour studies and 1 repeated from the book.

The text is taken from magazine articles (some previously unpublished) and The British Bird.

Reproduces Eric Ennion’s field sketches from the 1930’s including the 26 composite plates he prepared for Bird Man’s River.

Copies are available from Benton Street Books.

One Man’s Birds

Other books with examples of Eric Ennion's work

The BBC Naturalist edited by Desmond Hawkins. Rathbone Books, 1957
Has a 3 page contribution by Eric Ennion, An Unusual Summer Holiday, about Field Centres and Bird Observatories. Illustrated with photographs. No Ennion artwork.

The Bird Notes Bedside Book edited by Gwen Davies, RSPB, 1962
Reproduces Eric Ennion's article Winter Fare from Bird Notes RSPB magazine, Spring 1961. 1 full-page line drawing.

A New Dictionary of Birds edited by Sir A Landsborough Thompson, Nelson, 1964
Eric Ennion contributed the Trapping entry, with diagrams of a Heligoland trap and a single pole clap-net.

A Dictionary of British Bird Painters by Frank Lewis. F. Lewis, 1974
1 Eric Ennion watercolour reproduced in half-tone.

Flights of Imagination – An Illustrated Anthology of Bird Poetry, compiled by Mike Mockler. Blandford Press, 1982
1 work by Eric Ennion: a very late picture of Ringed Plovers.

Eric Ennion: A Personal View by Bob Walthew. The Bury Press, 1983
A 20 page memoir; card covers. 11 line drawings which originally appeared in the East Anglian Magazine in the 1930's; a pencil study of Redpolls, reproduced in sepia on the cover.

The Owl in Art, Myth, and Legend compiled by Krystyna Weinstein. Universal Books, 1985
1 work by Eric Ennion: Tawny Owls – also in The Living Birds of Eric Ennion (page 60).

Twentieth Century Wildlife Artists by Nicholas Hammond. Croom Helm, 1986
Devotes 6 pages to Eric Ennion and his work, reproducing 9 paintings (5 in colour): Bittern and Bearded Tits (Birds and Seasons page 115), Spotted Redshanks, Grey Herons and Mallards (Birds and Seasons page 102), Yellow Wagtails, Canada Geese and goslings (Birds and Seasons page 147), Kingfishers courtship feeding (Birds and Seasons page 30), White-spotted Bluethroat, Great Crested Grebes and Coots (Birds and Seasons page 119), Skylark and Marbled White; also a photograph of the artist.

Drawing Birds – An RSPB Guide, by John Busby. RSPB, 1986
5 works by Eric Ennion: 3 pencil drawings (Blue Eared Pheasant, Chaffinches, Snipe displaying), a pencil and wash study of White-fronted Geese, and a plate from Bird Man's River.

Drawing Birds – Second Edition, by John Busby. Christopher Helm / RSPB, 2004
6 works by Eric Ennion (5 new): 2 pencil drawings (Willow Tits and studies of waders), 2 pencil and wash drawings (Grey Wagtails and a composition layout of Moorhens with young), a plate from Bird Man's River, and a painting of a pair of Redstarts (Birds and Seasons page 87).

Modern Wildlife Painting by Nicholas Hammond. Pica Press, 1998
1 work by Eric Ennion: Cock Greenfinch – also in Birds and Seasons (page 126).

The Birds of Cambridgeshire: Checklist 2000. Cambridge Bird Club, 2000
Reproduces 10 line drawings by Eric Ennion, taken from other publications.

Making Waves – Artists in Southwold, by Ian Collins. Black Dog Books, 2005
2 works by Eric Ennion: Bittern, and Bearded Tits – both from the series of square-format pictures painted for Shell.

Birds Britannica by Mark Cocker and Richard Mabey. Chatto & Windus, 2005
1 work by Eric Ennion: Spotted Redshanks and a shoal of fry – also in The Living Birds of Eric Ennion (pages 44 & 45).

Nature Tales compiled by Michael Allen and Sonia Patel Ellis, Elliott & Thompson, 2010
Reprints an extract from The House on the Shore (Bass Rock) without illustrations.

Ten Thousand Birds by Tim Birkhead, Jo Wimpenny & Bob Montgomerie. Princetown University Press, 2014
Includes Eric Ennion illustrations from the Shell series.

The Art of the Bird by Roger J. Lederer, The University of Chicago Press, 2019
Reproduces 4 illustrations by Eric Ennion (one heavily cropped), all taken from other publications.



Eric Ennion artwork © The Estate of E A R Ennion