Laurel Tucker

Laurel Tucker (née Cook) was born in Guernsey (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guernsey) in 1951, attending Ladies College before moving to England in 1970 to complete a Degree Course at the Faculty of Art and Design at Bristol Polytechnic.

Laurel was 2nd Bird Illustrator of theYear 1979.

Swift Apus apus on church arch (Laurel A. Tucker)

 

Kittiwakes Rissa tridactyla (Laurel A. Tucker)

 I discovered her evocative line-drawings in the book "The Big Bird Race" by Bill Oddie and David Tomlinson (1983); a book I bought in a second hand bookshop a few years ago in Newcastle when I was attracted by its illustrations.

 

Her work can be found in other bird books: the Handbook of Bird Identification for Europe and the Western Palearctic, the RSPB Handbook of British Birds and the MacMillan Guide to Bird Identification.

Sadly this talented young illustrator's life was cut short when she suffered a cerebral hemorrhage aged just thirty-five from which she never regained consciousness. She was working on the Macmillan Field Guide to Bird Identification by Alan Harris, Laurel Tucker and Keith Vinicombe (1989) (she completed 18 of the plates) and on the Handbook of Bird Identification for Europe and the Western Palearctic.

Plovers plate by Laurel Tucker from the Macmillan Field Guide to Bird Id

Plate by Laurel Tucker from the Handbook of Bird Identification