The Shell Nature Book

 Published in 1964, with beautiful illustrations by Edith and Rowland Hilder and other fine artists, this book takes me back to my childhood. It is not unlike the Ladybird nature series I enjoyed then, with text by Geoffrey Grigson. I know the illustrations well as some of them, printed in poster form,  I used as a primary teacher to accompany my classroom nature table throughout the changing seasons. There is something very comforting about these scenes, although one would have to be very lucky to see so many species of birds on a bird table or seashore. But that is why I love it, as I did those Ladybird illustrations; it lifts me into a perfect world, a rural idyll and I am quite content to bask in its loveliness.