A man who started drawing his own book of animals when he was a child finally finished it more than 20 years later.
Josh Gabbatiss, 30, a climate journalist from south London, began planning and writing ‘Josh’es (sic) Book of Animals’ in 2001 and completed it last month.
The animal lover shared his completed creation on Twitter, writing that he was “proud” to do so.
He said: “I think it just goes to show that these childhood passions can be really important and shouldn’t be taken lightly.
“For me it’s really special because I know that in a lot of ways, I feel the same way I did when I was nine about these things.
“I feel just as excited about this thing.”
The book consists of 118 pages divided into six sections, covering invertebrates, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals – including descriptions and terminology, as well as an index at the end of each section.
Mr Gabbatiss said: “My two passions 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 an almost anti-climax feeling, because you’re doing that last draft, and it’s like, right, well, this is what I’m imagining now.
“As a child I committed myself to making these markers. I was just trying to copy all my favorite animal books that I had. So I finished this last draft and said, “Well, I guess I should do an index,” for consistency’s sake.
Josh – who lived in Wootton, a village in West Oxfordshire, as a child – said his earliest memories of working on the book include “climbing” with Coronation Street in the background.
He also said he would often add to his work at friends’ houses at night with a torch.
Started when he was nine years old, he continued to work on the book “consistently” until his teenage years, before life got in the way.
“There was a period towards the end of my teenage years where I got distracted maybe by other things during my teenage years when it was a bit more sporadic,” he said.
“These are the times when you can see some very big improvements in the quality of maybe designs.
“I pushed it to the side when I went to university (and) had about three pages to do for several years – I just knew I wanted to finish it one day and I just never got around to it.”
Mr Gabbatiss said he was “really very proud” of some of the later drawings and added that he may give the book to his parents who he thinks “maybe appreciate it more”.
However, having shared it with the world on Twitter, it was seen by thousands of people in less than a week.
“I’d never really shown it to anyone except my parents, who saw me draw it growing up,” he said.
“And then partners and ex-partners have seen it over the years, but I’ve never really shown it to friends or anything. It was always something very personal.
“I think people are really excited because I think a lot of people remember their obsessions from when they were kids – projects that they worked on and maybe never finished.
“Or they talk about the things their kids are obsessed with now, which I think is really cute, how their kid really loves dinosaurs or something.”
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