Saint Francis and his feathered friends.

Brian’s deep connection to Saint Francis, the patron saint of ecologists, began as a boy, kneeling at his First Communion in Hoyland Common, Yorkshire. Embarrassed by the holes in his shoes, he noticed a statue of Francis nearby, cradling a lamb, with a squirrel on his shoulder, and felt the saint’s kindness as if he were saying, “It’s not the soles of your shoes, but the soul within your body that I am looking at, lad.”
This experience left a lasting mark on Brian, and sparked a lifelong interest in the man, which later led to exhaustive research, and, in turn, to his 1995 book about his life, of which the Oxford Times critic wrote, that he had “filled the pages with the lines and colour of a stained glass window.”

In memory of both my dad, his love of birds and of his hero, I have made the best possible reproduction of his original illustration that is now available for purchase as both a card and a stunning print.