A PLANK BRIDGE BY A POOL

Thelwell is an English freelance artist who transformed some strong childhood memories of a pond with boats and ducks into an adult reality, creating at his Hampshire home a classic pastoral scene. Lambs gambol over the cupressus hedge, swallows nest in the boathouse rafters, ducks and swans settle on the manmade pool. It's a gently organized confusion, which grew in stages and appears here in numerous, nicely placed illustrations. He's watched the launching--and sinking--of his first boat, struggled with an eel in another boat, shooed away nuisance herons and cormorants, and kept the pike in check. He's also surprised roe deer by the foot bridge and enjoyed the changing view. The quiet sharing of an attractive private idyll.