The stunning, specially commissioned cover illustrations are one of the great joys of the New Naturalist series, lending it a distinctive style which has inspired nature enthusiasts for many decades.

Robert Gillmor was commissioned by Royal Mail to produce four series of stamps featuring British birds. Brought together for the first time in larger-than-stamp size, these illustrations demonstrate the artist's lifelong love and appreciation of our nation's garden birds.

Here is the distilled essence of the definitive account of the birds of Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa - BWP, as it is generally known to thousands of users. The Concise BWP also includes much significant new material. Accounts of more than eighty species have been added and the descriptions of field characters have been revised throughout. The population and distribution sections have been rewritten to take into account new information that has become available since BWP was published. The distribution maps have also been revised and brought up to date. They are now printed in full colour for maximum clarity, and hill shading has been added to indicate the relief. More than 230 new colour plates have been specifically commissioned for this edition to illustrate newly added species or to replace earlier paintings used in BWP. Indexes in seven European languages are included in addition to the indexes of English and scientific names.

After describing his working methods, the author writes of the inspiration behind the 90 prints illustrated. These often evoke memories, autobiographical anecdotes, thoughts about the artistic process and any other ideas that a particular print provokes.