Seen but Not Heard: Lilian Medland’s Birds is Christobel Mattingley’s latest book and her 52nd. Published by the National Library of Australia in May 2014, this handsome volume contains the paintings of 883 Australian birds by English born Medland who came to live in Australia in 1923. Commissioned in the 1930s for a Handbook of Australian Birds proposed by important ornithologist Gregory Mathews, with the outbreak of WW2 the book was never published, and eventually Mathews donated the paintings to the National Library. Christobel has written the essay in the book, describing the life and work of this remarkable woman, who, although she lost her hearing at the age of 27 through diphtheria, spent her life painting the birds she loved but could no longer hear. “I have special empathy with Lilian, because my father, who encouraged my love of birds, lost his hearing when I was a child. My first writing was published when I was 10 in the nature magazine Wild Life and in the children’s pages of the Sydney Morning Herald, about the birds I loved to watch in our garden and in the bush near our home. And when I was 11, I actually met the great Gregory Mathews!”
Seen but Not Heard
July 10, 2014 by christobelmattingley
Posted in Christobel Mattingley, General | Leave a Comment
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