|
The Secret Life of Fishes by Helen Buttfield
The Secret Life of Fishes by Helen Buttfield
Helen Buttfield is a brilliant watercolourist. Well known as a photographer and illustrator worldwide, she has many postage-stamp designs to her credit.
Her book The Secret Life of Fishes is a vehicle for displaying her work, softly illustrating the creatures of the coral reef in a very careful and feminine way. At first glance one could be forgiven for thinking the book was aimed at children, because its style is one that is used in many upmarket children's volumes. Get into the text and you soon realise that this volume is very much for grown-ups.
Ms Buttfield's text reveals behavioural details of the animals she paints so well. The book aims to fascinate and inform the public about creatures they might see only desiccated in a curio shop or imprisoned in an aquarium.
The author has drawn on only the best scientific sources for her information-packed book. The fact that I read in it little I hadn't read before did not detract from my enjoyment. This is the sort of book one picks up idly in a bookshop and instantly decides to purchase. For those with little prior knowledge of coral-reef life, and anybody who appreciates good illustration, it's a good buy. John Bantin |
The Secret Life of Fishes by Helen Buttfield, Abrams (020 7845 5032). Hardback, 70pp, £12.95
|
|
|
Archive | 
