MANKA, THE SKY GIPSY: THE STORY OF A WILD GOOSE. Written and illustrated by D.J. Watkins-Pitchford ('B.B.'). With a foreword by Sir Peter Scott.

(1939) 1979 3rd edition reprint. 8vo (142 x 222mm). Ppxiv,258. B/w illustrations by D.J. Watkins-Pitchford. Blue boards, gilt feather motif to upper board, spine titled in gilt.

"From the silent mysterious Arctic the wild geese come every winter to those well-loved lands which the writer knows so intimately and describes so well. One of them stands out in the great arrowhead, leading his fellows. It is Manka, the white goose, whose story is told in this book. Like every other wild creature, Manka's life is a perpetual struggle, against nature and against man. The hostility of man is crystallized in the efforts of Foxy, the cunning old marshland poacher, to entrap Manka, whose freedom is a challenge to his skill." "I personally was absorbed from start to finish and put the book down with a feeling of satisfaction that I rarely feel when I have read an animal story... the best book of its type I have read or am likely to read." (Brian Vesey Fitzgerald).