Happy Bank Holiday Weekend!

A window on chalk stream wildlife, Ovington Hampshire.

It’s Endangered Species Day today. From the humble hazel dormouse to the giant Volcan tortoise, they’re all here in my book… published back in 2021.

Who’s heard a cuckoo this spring? This cuckoo illustration of mine originally appeared on the cover of Traffication published by Pelagic.

It’s peak bluebell in my local Hampshire woods.

Harvest mouse and dandelions. Happy Easter.

Blackbird fledglings and auricula. We’re lucky enough to have blackbirds raise their families in our garden. This game of hide and seek amongst the flowerpots is a common occurrence.

Quick landscape ink sketch.

Crows and apple blossom illustration from the book, How to Know a Crow, written by Candace Savage and illustrated by me for Greystone Kids Books.

It's back! The government have announced that the GCSE in Natural History is going ahead!

The next children’s book I’m illustrating is set in Madagascar and features this amazing lemur - the aye-aye.

Hello spring!

Blackbird, wren and snowdrops.

Blackbirds and fieldfare.

A deceit of lapwing. This lot are certainly cooking up a conspiracy.

Kitchen table card shuffle: spring birds…

Curlew and Grass of Parnassus. Just shipped to the Shetlands.

Sneaky peak inside #TurtleLives children’s picture book, illustrated by me, written by Annika Johansson, coming this July with Starfish Bay Publishing.

TURTLE LIVES - cover reveal for my next children’s book out this July with Starfish Bay Publishing.

#happyyearofthesnake Here are two of the three species we have in the UK - grass snake and adder. (Previously published in Wildlife Watch Magazine and my debut book from 2021, 100 Endangered Species.)

Florence Nightingale had a pet owl, Athena, that she kept in her pocket and introduced to her patients. She also had a pet cicada, called Plato. Looking at this illustration, can you guess what happened to Plato?’

Dippers and kingcups, aka marsh marigolds. Created with linocut, mono-print, mark making and digital collage. (One of the sights along a healthy chalk stream.)

Kingfishers and the first mayfly. A glimpse of the cover star for the RSPB’s 2026 Family Organiser. Launches this September. Inspired by the chalk stream wildlife along the Itchen.

Hi, I’m Rachel and I’m an illustrator based in Hampshire UK. I specialise in animal, wildlife and landscape images.