South London man finishes animal encyclopaedia he began 21 years ago

Poppy Huggett
Sun, 5 February 2023

South London man finishes animal encyclopaedia he began 21 years ago (Image: Ellie Demetri /Josh Gabbatiss/PA)

A man who began drawing his own book of animals when he was nine years old has completed it more than 20 years later, saying: “I feel the same way as I did when I was nine about these things.”

Josh Gabbatiss, 30, a climate journalist from south London, began drawing and writing ‘Josh’es (sic) Book of Animals’ in 2001, and completed it towards the end of January this year.

The animal enthusiast has shared his finished creation on Twitter, writing he was “proud” to do so.

News Shopper: Undated handout photo issued by Kathryn Gabbatiss of Josh Gabbatiss who began drawing his own book of animals when he was nine years old and has completed it more than 20 years later.

Undated handout photo issued by Kathryn Gabbatiss of Josh Gabbatiss who began drawing his own book of animals when he was nine years old and has completed it more than 20 years later. (Image: PA)

He told the PA news agency: “I think it just shows that those childhood passions can be really important and shouldn’t be seen lightly.

“For me it feels really special because I know that in many ways, I feel the same way as I did when I was nine about these things.

“I feel just as excited about this stuff.”

The book is comprised of 118 pages divided into six sections, including invertebrates, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals – it includes descriptions and terminology, as well as an index at the end of each section.

News Shopper:

Mr Gabbatiss said: “My two passions really have always been animals and art, so obviously it was a great opportunity to combine those two things.

“It was very satisfying to finish it.

“There’s kind of a sense of almost anti-climax, because you do this last drawing, and it’s like, right, well, that’s done now I guess.

“As a child I committed to doing these indexes. I was just trying to copy all my favourite animal books that I owned. So I finished this last drawing and I was like, ‘Well, I guess I have to do an index’, just for consistency.”

News Shopper:

He lived in Wootton, a village in West Oxfordshire, as a child.

His early memories of working on the book include “scribbling away” with Coronation Street on in the background, as well as adding to his project at friends’ houses at night with a torch.

Having started when he was nine, he continued to work on the book “consistently” into his teens, before life got in the way.

“There was a period towards the end of my teens as I got distracted maybe by other things during my teenage years, when it was a bit more sporadic,” he said.

“Those are the periods where you can see some quite big improvements in the quality maybe of the drawings.

“I pushed it to the side when I went to university (and) it had about three pages left to do for several years – I just knew I wanted to finish it one day, and just never quite got around to doing it.”