DOGS are wonderful, but they’re naughty, too,’ declares illustrator John Holder. ‘They do terrible things. They slobber, they sniff bottoms, they always seem to go to the loo at the wrong time and they tear things to bits—but, then again, there’s not much fun in a dog sitting quietly, is there?’
This summer sees the release of No Dogs on the Bed, a joyful and humorous collection of illustrations by Mr Holder, celebrating the misdemeanours of Man’s best friend and exhibiting scenes that will be embarrassingly familiar to the nation’s dog owners —from the inevitable destruction of furniture when a pampered pooch is home alone, to a gundog’s sudden development of selective hearing in the shooting field. Yet, in spite of the chaos and frustrations, the book captures the way in which we dote on these mischievous mutts, forgiving their foibles in return for their steadfast loyalty, unparalleled companionship and natural ability to make us laugh.
‘I thought it might be a good idea to have quotes from public figures accompanying the illustrations in the book, but almost all of them go on about how marvellous dogs are. It took a lot of hard work and research to find some that mentioned the other side to them,’ laughs Mr Holder.
I have 19th-century dip pens and thousands of nibs–I’ve collected them all my life
Denne historien er fra June 30, 2021-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra June 30, 2021-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Save our family farms
IT Tremains to be seen whether the Government will listen to the more than 20,000 farming people who thronged Whitehall in central London on November 19 to protest against changes to inheritance tax that could destroy countless family farms, but the impact of the good-hearted, sombre crowds was immediate and positive.
A very good dog
THE Spanish Pointer (1766–68) by Stubbs, a landmark painting in that it is the artist’s first depiction of a dog, has only been exhibited once in the 250 years since it was painted.
The great astral sneeze
Aurora Borealis, linked to celestial reindeer, firefoxes and assassinations, is one of Nature's most mesmerising, if fickle displays and has made headlines this year. Harry Pearson finds out why
'What a good boy am I'
We think of them as the stuff of childhood, but nursery rhymes such as Little Jack Horner tell tales of decidedly adult carryings-on, discovers Ian Morton
Forever a chorister
The music-and way of living-of the cabaret performer Kit Hesketh-Harvey was rooted in his upbringing as a cathedral chorister, as his sister, Sarah Sands, discovered after his death
Best of British
In this collection of short (5,000-6,000-word) pen portraits, writes the author, 'I wanted to present a number of \"Great British Commanders\" as individuals; not because I am a devotee of the \"great man, or woman, school of history\", but simply because the task is interesting.' It is, and so are Michael Clarke's choices.
Old habits die hard
Once an antique dealer, always an antique dealer, even well into retirement age, as a crop of interesting sales past and future proves
It takes the biscuit
Biscuit tins, with their whimsical shapes and delightful motifs, spark nostalgic memories of grandmother's sweet tea, but they are a remarkably recent invention. Matthew Dennison pays tribute to the ingenious Victorians who devised them
It's always darkest before the dawn
After witnessing a particularly lacklustre and insipid dawn on a leaden November day, John Lewis-Stempel takes solace in the fleeting appearance of a rare black fox and a kestrel in hot pursuit of a pipistrelle bat
Tarrying in the mulberry shade
On a visit to the Gainsborough Museum in Sudbury, Suffolk, in August, I lost my husband for half an hour and began to get nervous. Fortunately, an attendant had spotted him vanishing under the cloak of the old mulberry tree in the garden.
