found this book at an estate sale for 25 cents....truly a beautiful find.

After a doctor's appointment in Houston I dropped by a small privately owned bookstore I thought looked interesting. As the owner and I spoke she said she could tell I would love this book because of my love of gardening,birds and nature--but that obtaining it would be very difficult. I asked them to put me on a search list and a few months later it arrived. The author's drawings and observations as she watches nature are captivating. Edith started this journal in 1906 and it was never shown to anyone until it was discovered on a shelf in an old country home and then published. There is a sweetness and innocence in the writing that's hard to describe. The pages are like a rather like a thick piece of manilla paper and if I had an extra copy of this book I would frame page after page. I purchased it sight unseen and consider it one of my great treasures.

This book was a bestseller when it was originally published in the 1970's, and there was a good reason for it. Edith Holden, the artist of this work was a very accomplished watercolorist. This book is filled with her views of the fruits, beauty and wonder of nature. It shows the flowers, birds and insects of the natural world as they appear over a year accompanied by appropriate poems and quotations.

The watercolours are simply breathtaking. The closest thing to this book that I have seen is illuminated manuscripts, but the effect here is quite different.

The publishers have been very wise with publication. You get a page-by-page facimilie in full colour, reproducing the original manuscript. They have not cluttered the book up by reproducing pages and putting their own text next to it.

If you run across a copy of this pick it up and let it take you away to another world.

I bought this book years ago and foolishly gave it away. I recently repurchased it and am glad to have it back. I give it four stars instead of five because I figure five stars should be reserved for John James Audubon.

For the most part I like the older edition (ISBN 0-03-021026-7) better. It is printed on yellowish paper with darkened edges, purposely made to look a bit aged. The colors are darker and the detail on the illustrations shows up better. But this 2001 edition has its good points too. It's printed on pure white paper so even though some of the pictures look a little washed out, the colors look clearer and brighter, not so muddy. So some people might prefer this new edition.

There's a biography of Edith Holden, out of print, that I'd be interested to read. (Edwardian Lady: The Story of Edith Holden, by Ina Taylor.)

When i found out that the Country diary of an Edwardian Lady was to come back in print after more than five years in the wilderness, i remembered feeling elated, why, because Ms Holden and her talents was the best thing ever to have happened to the book world,and this new edition showing what the diary looked like at the time it was written is the best ever, she put rural warwickshire on the map in a way no other author could have or will do, the book is not only a teaching of nature (remembering that Edith was a teacher) but also a portable art gallery of in my opinion some of the best surviving examples of her artwork, i have long been a holden devotee (the word fan is reserved for rowdy pop stars)i have and always will treasure this beautiful book and its sister publication the nature notes of an edwardian lady, we love this book perhaps for its nostalgic charm for all things turn of the century, but more importantly because most of ediths beloved nature trails around her home in Olton Hollow, solihull now no longer exist, so my advice, buy this book and give it pride of place in the cabinet

I purchased this book as part of our home school lesson. I wanted to teach the children about nature journaling. We live in a fabulous area with many of opportunities to observe nature.

The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady looks exactly as she had written it, beautiful drawings with proper name labels as well as her observances of the mother nature.

This was a joy to look through and read. Very inspirational and it goes well with my growing collection of Edwardian, Georgian and Victorian books.

i have a reseach paper due on this book and i need to make direct quotes on it. please help! thanks.

Charlotte Mason was an educator in England in the last century, and one of her main educational methods was to have every student keep a Nature Notebook or Nature Diary---a record of the natural world as the children observed it first-hand. The student's Nature Notebooks were filled with poetry, prose, line drawings and watercolors.

"The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady" is the perfect example of a fully developed Nature Diary. The author went out amid the English countryside and recorded what she observed---the flowers, trees, birds, insects.

The artistry of the drawings and watercolors in this is absolutely breathtaking. If you're looking for an introduction to the idea of Nature Diaries, or you simply enjoy a book of true grace and beauty, then this is the book for you.