Through the woods

H.E. Bates's evocation of a year in the life of an English woodland has been reprinted to make a suitable gift for gardeners and nature lovers.

Bates has an eye for every detail describing the sights and sounds of the countryside and the endless variety of plants and animals as each emerges in turn with the changing seasons.The text is complemented by Agnes Miller Parker's wood engravings, from full-page evocations of a fox stalking its prey to tail pieces showing a bunch of catkins or an owl against the night sky.H.E.

Bates is the author of "The Darling Buds of May". Agnes Miller Parker is the illustrator of "Down the River" and "The House and the Apricot".