“Just like my first Star Trek film, I couldn’t take my eyes off this book (A filth of starlings). Designed and created by PatrickGeorge this book not only teaches you about animal group names, it also has some beautiful design ideas in every page.”
By Blake Waters, copywriter, KK Outlet.



KK Outlet is a multifunctional office combining a communications agency with a shop and gallery space. It was set up in 2007 by the Amsterdam based communications agency KesselsKramer.

Amanda Craig reviews two children’s books with magical illustrations

A Filth of Starlings and A Drove of Bullocks are compilations of animal group names, brilliantly exploited by PatrickGeorge. If you think that these are too sophisticated for a child of 6+, think again. From a parliament of owls, whose eyes are made up of two Big Ben clock faces, to a pod of dolphins (listening to iPods), a school of whales (a schoolmasterly face with a whale’s tail forming moustache and tie), these are stylish, witty visual puns. They are books to read and explain, but the elegance with which each picture is drawn would work on T-shirts or calendars. View article.

A drove of bullocks
A filth of starlings
Written, illustrated, designed and published by PatrickGeorge £9.99 each
ISBN: 978-09562558-0-8
ISBN: 978-09562558-1-5

There is a wonderful, uninhibited, colourful approach to these compilations of collective nouns. Full of charm and wit, the lively pictures are fun for all the family and immensely stimulating for young artists. The text is informative and accessible – some of the group names are very well known, but I’m certain you will enjoy the more fanciful ones. Challenge your Christmas Party guests to identify the illustrations!

This year’s UKLA International Conference theme was ‘Making Connections: Building literate communities in and beyond the classroom’. Our books, which were for sale at the conference bookshop, inspired the following review in the current UKLA newsletter.

“For children (and all teachers of literacy and/art) there were two beautifully produced books about words, images and colours which defy description. A filth of starlings and A drove of bullocks (both published by PatrickGeorge) are well worth seeking out. They could inspire magical language or art work with youngsters as well as being absorbing to read alone or – better still – alongside a friend to share thoughts about each page.”

“Following in the tradition of Lionni, Rand and Chermayeff, these books (A drove of bullocks and A filth of starlings) are finally designed for today’s younger generation and not least
some adults.”

“Collective nouns have always been slightly crazy but two great new books, A filth of starlings and A drove of bullocks take it all a step further. These splendidly designed books are for art departments as well as English departments and should be in every school – yes, secondary too. The stunningly original graphics illustrate collective nouns old and new – I love ‘A flamboyance of flamingos’ and ‘An implausibility of gnus’ and, and… How rare it is to find books that are a joy to browse through, that can be looked at again and again – and if learning there must be, are great for growing vocabulary and creative thinking.”



Wendy is a children’s book author and founder of Bookstart, a national programme which gives free books to every child in the UK. She is also winner of the Eleanor Farjeon award, given in recognition of an individual’s contribution to the world of children’s books. In addition to being an author, editor, and reviewer, Wendy Cooling is a well-known consultant in the field of children’s literacy, and she often appears as a guest on radio and television programmes to discuss children’s literature.

Far too often my phone rings and a voice says ‘I’ve written a book for children and…’ and… and I know it is privately published, or vanity-publisher produced, effort which more often than not is poorly edited, not at all attractively set out and of far less value to the world than in the author’s own estimation. But very occasionally what arrives can be an absolute gem. These two books (A drove of bullocks and A filth of starlings) are wonderful, fresh looking with exemplary design, layout and print and with stunning quality colours. And yes they are ‘privately’ conceived, created and produced, by a husband and wife team with their own group-of-two name of PatrickGeorge. Within both books each double-page spread is devoted to a collective noun for a group of creatures and all are accurate and true however unlikely some might appear at first. Each has a graphic representation of the collective phrase and each of these is brilliant, bold, delightful, clever, funny and very, very witty. Each has a short paragraph of explanation and enlargement on the lower left-hand of the pages with a silhouette of the animal featured. The overall effect is visually highly attractive and so almost impossible to convey in a verbal descriptive piece, hence the illustration to accompany this review.



The few words are very well phrased so that, for example, ‘A litter of kittens’ has these cosy, soft pets ‘purring, kneading and trusting’ with, of course, the middle one of these three, the paw/claw settling movement, pronounced as needing when read aloud. Whilst I could think of so many uses with these books in both primary and secondary schools the main focus has to be on sheer enjoyment, they are such fun! The pair of them make for a real duo of delights, and to cap it all I understand that currently school or school library direct sales are at a cost of £6.99 each. Irresistible – put them near the top of any acquisitions shortlist – buy them.

“Your two books (A drove of bullocks and A filth of starlings) are stunning, gorgeous, and tremendously appealing…the quality of the design and the colour printing is superb. The words for each ‘entry’ are so unusually precise and yet brilliantly expansive in effect. And the whole thing is so witty.”