The UK winter of 1947 Delight, adventure, chaos. Snow for children is the suspension of the ordinary, and the re-imagining of the landscape into one of slide and speed, crunch …
The Virgin’s Breast
St Luke drawing the Virgin by Rogier Van der Weyden, circa 1435 Musée de Bruges St Luke may be a self portrait of the artist. “That’s what breasts are for, stupid,” …
The Kakapo
Kakapo at the Oxford University Natural History Museum Kakapo You my flightless bird undiscovered, green as grass, large and quite absurd. Being a child in the 70’s and 80’s in …
Guarding the Gateways
The main gate to the Citadel of King Sargon II Many years ago, I was lucky enough to be an apprentice in the Department of Ancient Near East in the …
The Serpent of Creation
Adam and Eve by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1526 in the Courtauld Gallery, London I have been fascinated by the use of animals as symbols in art for many years. …
Grendel’s Mother
From the Beowulf Manuscript, BL Cotton MS Vitellius A. XV, f.132 Sometimes a poem comes to me, and it is like meeting an old, dear friend unexpectedly. But sometimes a …
Artists and Hunters
Reindeer from Lascaux Cave, Dordogne, France To enter a cave …
The Chameleon
Twenty years ago in the Zambezi valley of Zimbabwe, my husband-to-be gave me a present: a small and unimpressed chameleon he had found near the clinic where he was working. …
The Goldfinch
Het puttertje (The Goldfinch) by Carel Fabritius 1654 in the Mauritshuis, Den Hague Every day for more than fifteen years, I have looked at a print of this painting. Now …
Words of the Naturalist
Galápagos Marine Iguana by Charlesjsharp – Own Work Some time ago, I came across an extract from the Commonplace Book kept by Charles Darwin during his voyage on the Beagle …