Drawn to Nature

Simon Martin is a curator and writer and director of Pallant House Gallery. Sir David Attenborough is one of the UK’s most-loved broadcasters, and the Life series, which he writes and hosts, has helped to form a comprehensive survey of all life on the planet.

“Martin is the director of the Pallant House Gallery in Chichester, which last year staged an exhibition about White’s influence on artists. He has now transformed that show into a book that elegantly blends art history and biographical detail with a visual valentine to the English countryside.”—Simeon House, The Mail on Sunday“The illustrations are astutely selected and Simon Martin’s insights are informative. Occasionally he sounds a note of warning, an exhortation to emulate White’s attention to detail, to ‘notice and take care of the nature on our doorsteps, before it is lost’—a comment on the perilous state of today’s natural world that would no doubt bewilder White himself.”—Lev Parikian, Times Literary Supplement“Delightful. . . . This is a beautiful little volume.”—Martin Gayford, Spectator“This book is well produced, with fine quality colour printing of the illustrations, useful notes and a bibliography, and is reasonably priced. It will especially appeal to readers who are drawn to the romanticism and nostalgia of English landscape art.”—Diana Donald, Journal of Natural History“Rarely is [the Revd Gilbert White’s] essential Englishness understood, but it comes across church-bell clear in the superb Drawn to Nature.”—John Lewis-Stempel, Country Life“One of the most eye-delighting, visually alluring and agreeably readable examples of the book-making of the second half of the year.”—The Tablet“Beautiful, insightful and delightful.”—Rupert Toovey, West Sussex Gazette