Nature’s Engraver: A Life of Thomas Bewick by Jenny UglowFarrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007 (originally Faber and Faber, 2006)

Smart and well-researched and thoroughly enjoyable, if sometimes scattered: why is it that we get a detailed description of how letterpress printing works in the prologue, but don’t learn the names of the tools engravers use until page 238? Still, I was happily engrossed in the story of Bewick and his world: the streets and workshops of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, the surrounding countryside where he grew up. Uglow quotes Bewick’s letters and other writings often and well, really giving a sense of his voice. I loved reading about and seeing Bewick’s art: the tailpieces for stories and fables, but most of all the woodcuts from the Quadrupeds and the books of British birds. The willow wren on p 373 is a delight, all fine line and sharp eye and inquiring pose; I also loved Uglow’s description of Bewick’s conception of his book on the next page: “a bird-filled sky within binding and boards.”