Laurel Tucker (née Cook) was born in
Guernsey (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guernsey) in 1951, attending Ladies College before moving to England in 1970 to complete
a Degree Course at the Faculty of Art and Design at Bristol Polytechnic.
Laurel was 2nd Bird Illustrator of theYear 1979.
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| Swift Apus apus on church arch (Laurel A. Tucker) |
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| Kittiwakes Rissa tridactyla (Laurel A. Tucker) |
I discovered her evocative line-drawings in the book "The Big Bird Race" by Bill Oddie and David
Tomlinson (1983); a book I bought in a second hand bookshop a few years ago in
Newcastle when I was attracted by its illustrations.
Her work can be found in other
bird books: the Handbook of Bird Identification for Europe and the Western
Palearctic, the RSPB Handbook of British Birds and the MacMillan Guide to Bird
Identification.
Sadly this talented young
illustrator's life was cut short when she suffered a cerebral hemorrhage aged
just thirty-five from which she never regained consciousness. She was working on the Macmillan Field Guide to Bird Identification by Alan Harris, Laurel Tucker and Keith Vinicombe (1989) (she completed 18 of the plates) and on the Handbook of Bird Identification for Europe and the Western
Palearctic.
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| Plovers plate by Laurel Tucker from the Macmillan Field Guide to Bird Id |
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| Plate by Laurel Tucker from the Handbook of Bird Identification |
