Accordion Books: Hound

"The hound book would always have been a celebration of my beautiful companion, Ivy, a Bedlington Whippet cross, an elegant goddess of a hound. Now it has become more than that. She died a few weeks ago so the drawings, and then the paintings are made from memories, from photographs. Someone once said that grief is love with nowhere left to go. I am pouring my grief into this celebration of her life. To have shared some of my days with her has been a privilege. And I guess this book is for anyone who has ever loved and lost, for in spite of the pain of loss, the joy of life remains greater and creative grieving really helps the soul to come to terms with the loss."

An Accordion Book doesn’t open, it unfolds.

One side is filled with beautiful watercolour images of an animal: sometimes in motion, sometimes at rest. The other is filled with text – poems, descriptions, invocations – inspired by the same animal.

Together they work as spells to summon the animal’s spirit.

Jackie Morris has painted these beautiful hounds with her favourite sumi stick on clayboard.

Fox and Otter were the first two Accordions in a series that now includes these absolutely stunning sequels: Hare and Hound.