How To Bird.

Sometimes, the connections you randomly make are so fortuitous that afterwards you end up scratching your head about what would have happened if you’d never made the call. We needed an illustrator for our second book – the as-of-then rapidly taking shape On Nature. We knew we wanted something timeless but not necessarily vintage. While our last book (Words On Water) had picked through the genius archive of Robert Gibbings, we knew we wanted the follow up to feel different… something of ‘our own’ even.

We were first introduced to Jon McNaught’s work by the very good people at St Judes who had exhibited pictures of his. They were perfection. Contemplative and mellow snapshots of a Britain captured at peace with itself; hand drawn images reflecting the wide-eyed wonder of nature. We didn’t really think twice about asking him to illustrate the book and were chuffed when he said yes. And then regularly floored when pictures were delivered.
How to tell the difference between a grasshopper and a cricket.

Jon’s work now graces the front page of this site; there’s a lot more of it in On Nature. We’re really honoured that he wanted to work with us; so much so we’re not sure what the book would feel like without his pictures – they’ve become as much a part of it as the writing. Hope you like the introduction to his work.

P.s. Here’s a link to an interview with Jon about his comic work.