LOVELY IS THE LEE. By Robert Gibbings. With engravings by the author.

1945 1st edition. 8vo (142 x 220mm). Ppvi,199. B/w engravings by the author. Yellow cloth, spine titled in gilt, gilt sailing boat motif to upper board.

Robert Gibbings, "...author of those charming river books, Sweet Thames Run Softly and Coming Down the Wye, has never written with more ease and grace than in this exploration of the River Lee country in Ireland. ...Here is the simple and ancient life which still exists in Ireland, centred in tiny villages in the southern and western part of the Irish Free State. Gibbings finds every part of that life absorbing. As a naturalist he is sensitive to the bird life of the western counties and islands, and describes with an accurate beauty these winged inhabitants. But even more than nature, the people are celebrated. ...Some of the best of this re-creation of the Irish scene lies in the stories the Irish spin with gusto at the slightest opportunity. The stories are always told as though they were about real people in the neighbourhood, within the memory of man - but actually they are variants of classic tales told all over the world. Most of all there are the supernatural tales, about the fairies, the little people, the good people, all of whom are seen as a matter-of-fact part of everyday living. ...A delightful mixture of anecdote and story, folklore and scenery, bird-lore and fishing, and, above all, good talk."