Tricia Osborne’s Green and Pleasant Land: A colouring book nature trail through countryside and garden.

This book will appeal to anyone of any age who has advanced beyond the entry-level colouring books. If you love the English countryside and its fauna and flora then this book is for you. The author has been drawing all her life and for this collection of drawings she’s used many of her sketchbooks for reference in which she’s accumulated material to use in her pastel paintings. Some of these have been reworked to make suitable illustrations to colour. There are a variety of images. Some are traditional compositions as you might expect in a painting and others where the design and layout take precedence. All are drawn with a strong emphasis on traditional draftsman-ship and attention to detail but most of all they are intended to be appealing and attractive to look at, so that after hours of colouring there is a finished piece that is not only unique to you but that could also be hung on the wall. The book is in two halves. The first half takes you on a countryside ramble. Here you’ll find a rare-breed Gloucester Old Spot pig munching apples under the spreading apple tree, Hares peeping out of a meadow of daisies and buttercups, and a cockerel perched on an old rabbit hutch keeping an eye on his hens below. The second half invites you to take a stroll in the garden where bunnies wait outside the cottage garden gate – the cottage door surrounded by roses and hollyhocks, butterflies and bees. A cat sits patiently by the side of a pond watching the goldfish swim between the water-lilies and a frog hides among the spring flowers. Finally after all that rambling and strolling – when you reach the last page – you can relax with a nice cup of tea.