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.
I’m proud to announce a project that has been nearly 22 years in the making:
Josh’es [sic] Book of ANIMALS ?
Since the age of nine I have been writing and illustrating my own animal encyclopedia, and as of last week I can confirm that it is finished… pic.twitter.com/tnP7gUOY3L
— Josh Gabbatiss (@Josh_Gabbatiss) January 30, 2023
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.”
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.
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.
“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.”
However, having shared it with the world on Twitter, it has been viewed by thousands of people in less than a week.
“I had really never shown it to anyone apart from my parents, who saw me drawing it growing up as a child,” he said.
“I think it’s really touched people, because I think a lot of people are remembering their obsessions from when they were children – projects they were working on and maybe never finished.
“Or they’re talking about the stuff that their children are obsessed with now, which I think is really cute, how their child is really into dinosaurs or something like that.”
