AUTHOR Nigel Tattersfield travelled from London to Newcastle yesterday to launch his three-volume epic work on the region’s famed engraver and naturalist Thomas Bewick.

London-based Mr Tattersfield has invested 20 years in researching and writing The Complete Illustrative Works of Thomas Bewick, which is published by the British Library.

It covers the vast volume of illustrations turned out in the Newcastle workshop of Bewick and his partner Ralph Beilby, and later that of Bewick himself.

Although Northumberland-born Bewick is celebrated for his major books on the histories of quadrupeds and birds, Mr Tattersfield’s volumes include around 1,000 illustrations which poured out of the workshop.

From its inception in 1765 until its demise in 1849, the workshop provided illustrations to books, pamphlets, exercise books, periodicals and newspapers.

The range of illustrations also included natural histories, children’s story books and even a book of sermons.

Mr Tattersfield was invited by the North East’s Bewick Society to hold the launch in the Bewick Gallery of Newcastle City Library. Society spokeswoman June Holmes said: “We wanted to honour 20 years of hard work on the author’s part.

“Thomas Bewick is a major artist for the North East and we wanted the book to be launched here rather than in London.”

The book was available on the night at a substantially discounted rate of £125.