Raymond Sheppard and My Little Bird Book + Birds of the ... by Elizabeth Gould

My Little Bird Book - Dustjacket

A review in the Guardian (24 June 1952) of My Little Bird Book  by Elizabeth Gould seems rather patronising and I would imagine made Raymond Sheppard cross: 

 The presentation of "Nature" for children is always, though, a problem Blackies. those staunch, old children's publishers (on that rather rough, thick paper), have three new books which break no new ground in well-trodden fields. Elizabeth Gould's My Little Bird Book (6s) is agreeably easy about bird-identification, but in a rather cosy context, and with coloured illustrations by Raymond Sheppard that are always pretty, often good, but invariably, on the important question of eggs, completely unhelpful, a child who can read about "mucous" without being given explanations surely does not need Mr Jerry and Mrs Jenny Wren?

Why refer to 'eggs'? Sheppard was obviously asked to draw an example of each bird's egg with the bird. Here's the thrush. As the books are printed at approximately 7inches by 5.5 inches, it's not surprising the eggs are not very distinguishable. 

My Little Bird Book, p.8 - showing the egg insert

 My Little Bird Book, by Elizabeth Gould (Blackie & Son) appears to have been published on 24 April 1952 (at a cost of 6/-) which is curious as the component parts that have been amalgamated from 4 books seem to have been printed first. This concept is not too surprising as individual titles have always been combined into an omnibus edition, but the individual books I own appear strange. None have a title page! Looking on the Internet this looks correct. I'll say more when covering the individual titles. The four books in question are: Birds of the garden; Birds of the meadow and stream; Birds of  the woodland and hedgerow and finally Birds of the Moorland, hill and sea. 

Also of interest are the two endpapers

 

My Little Bird Book, Endpapers

Now if this image appears familiar, it's because it is a mirrored image of the dustjacket - and I notice Sheppard has not signed it at all - helping the mirroring!

I'll post the images from all four books as separate entries as quickly as possible. If you want a short bibliography of the mysterious Elizabeth Gould I've covered that here.