Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #24554 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09-06
• Binding: Paperback
• 480 pages

Guardian
'A superb biography, written with as much sensitivity and attention to detail as one of Bewick's woodcuts.'

Evening Standard
'Delightful ... Bewick always meant for his work to be accessible: 250 years after his birth, it still is.'

Sunday Times
'Bewick emerges from her pages as a rare artist whose work ... has an originality that transcends the time and place in which it was created.'

Customer Reviews

Outstanding biography
This is an outstandingly good biography of this amazing engraver whose work I have long admired. It is very easy to read and although he lived to a ripe old age, the story does not drag. Uglow evokes smoky, smelly, cramped Newcastle-upon-Tyne superbly and contrasts this with the wilds of Northumberland where Bewick grew up and where his heart remained. A must for anyone interested in history, art, countryside or just life!

Best book I've read this year


I had heard of Thomas Bewick, and had seen the occasional woodcut (especially of his rightly-famous birds), so I was delighted when this biography by Jenny Uglow came out From page one, Uglow makes Bewick come alive. Apart from a short, unhappy spell in London as a young man, Bewick lived all his long life in Northumberland, growing up in a small village and first learning, then perfecting , his trade in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. He comes over as a dedicated artist, a devoted family man and a loyal friend. Yet Uglow doesn't sugarcoat him-his faults and weaknesses are here too.

I can't imagine how this biography could be bettered. Excellent lively writing, extensive research, fascinating subject living in a fascinating period of history (late C18th-early C19th ). The text is accompanied by engravings and, of course, by some of Bewick's own woodcuts.

the magic of good biography
I didn't know I'd heard of Thomas Bewick. You have, too, if you have read Jane Eyre. You've seen his influence if you've read Beatrix Potter. Bewick was famous and very influential until technology, in the form of photography, xerox, and the laser printer, rendered his art form obsolete. Imagine how difficult it would be to engrave the image of a lion when one had only ever seen one (1) in a traveling zoo. This is a fascinating book; I learned so much!