Brian Cook's Landscapes of Britain: A Guide To Britain In Beautiful Book Illustration, Mini Edition

I feel like I have been aware of Brian Cook's dust jacket artwork.......forever. And I've always admired it. Happily this book provides many great examples but also answers the question: "What else?". Aside from his well-known distinctive color-blocking style, this book reveals work done with a tweedy color palette and lots of descriptive brush work. Lovely. I appreciated the page layout -- Some images appear full-page, full-bleed; others are cropped. However, all of the artwork shown is given a good showing, and the horizontal format of the book is spot-on. As an illustrator, I greatly admire that his work has a strong signature but never reverts to a formula. And his depictions are totally timeless. Dare I say: these book covers literally pull readers from across the room: "I want to look at THAT!". Mission accomplished, Mr. Cook.

This larger sized volume is simply beautiful. There is a smaller sized version that is also charming. Brian Cook's paintings (and the book(s) they grace) are referenced throughout the television series "Penelope Keith's Hidden Villages" (available for streaming on Amazon/Acorn -- and highly recommended). I wanted to purchase the book after viewing the television series. I am not disappointed except with the efforts required and the time it took to finally receive a book; I tried multiple times, with multiple sellers. The book is absolutely beautiful.

Gorgeous book--the front and back covers are printed--no dust jacket--so it is easy (and pretty enough) to display. Colors are vibrant and the paper is excellent quality, nice and thick so there is no bleed through. Text is informative and the list of books illustrated on this subject by the artist is very useful. If I had to find a quibble it would be that I wish it was larger, but that's nitpicking. I'd pay twice the price for this book.

This is a delightful little book with beautifully colored pages. The paintings of the landscapes and towns of the U.K. are lovely.

After watching the Penelope Keith series where she tours villages around England, I bought this book of images from the original guidebooks. Amazing use of color and fun images from all over England. I used this book as a resource for selecting colors for new bathroom accessories. Brian Cook uses a delightful palette of colors in his artwork. Highly recommended for fans of the Penelope Keith series.

I had just finished the delightful series Hidden Villages of England hosted by the iconic Penelope Keith and she referred to Brian Cook's artwork and books frequently so I bought them (of course dear old Amazon had them!!! so it was easy). The series is truly worth seeing and long enough to lose yourself in and look forward to. This book features the art of Brian Cook and it is lovely. As an art major I would term it commercial art, not fine art but nonetheless it is charming. Cook's use of color is highly professional and delightfully surprising. I highly recommend if you love art and the English landscape.

I fell in love with the art from the Batsford series. Wanted to find prints to frame and hang but for now could only find this book. Arrived in like new condition and delivery was very prompt. I would easily use seller again.

I bought two of Brian Cook's Landscape books. His work is enchanting and I highly recommend if you like art and you like color and you like to see color used in interesting and surprising ways. I first was introduced to these books by Penelope Keith in her delightful series The Hidden Villages of England.

Delighted to discover this book for myself and as a gift - full of delightful images of a Britain which has almost vanished. I do have some of the original 1930-50s hardback books for which these images were used on covers but it is a a joy to see the full range of the artist's work.

I love pictures like these, where landscapes are turned into blocks of colour. A very simple way of looking at things. The pictures are of Batsford book covers, which were about villages and areas of Great Britain, brought together as a collection.They start in the 1920's and run to the 1950's.Often the villages depicted are still very recognisable, but there are some paintings about a very bygone age from farming and the way we lived. Most of the book covers England but there is a section at the back for Scotland, Ireland and Wales.Overall I liked this book very much.

Well packaged lovely book. Was pleased to be able to get it as out of print. I am trying to copy Cooks style so it was just what I neded with lovely illustrations.

This is a lovely book depicting lots of Brian Cook's paintings.Some of them are reproduced twice - only very slightly bigger on the opposing page. A bit of a waste of space that could've been used to print a few more of his pictures instead.Very good colours and interesting text make it a useful addition to my collection of art books and I shall reference it in some of my own art ( strictly amateur and not for general circulation!)

I like the clear large colour pictures of Brian Cook's work. The book could have been bettered with less picture duplication and also some words regarding what artistic methods he used, his materials, methodology. However that said I can do this research myself separately and it is still a good book for those who like his work.