Man, aged 30, finishes animal encyclopaedia he started when he was nine

Josh, now aged 30, started his animal book when he was nine

A man who started writing an animal encyclopaedia aged nine, has finally finished it over 20 years later.

Since the age of nine, Josh Gabbatiss has been writing about and illustrating every living creature in his book.

After various breaks in writing, during his teenage years and whilst he was at university, Josh has now completed his encyclopaedia.

He said: "I think it just shows that those childhood passions can be really important and shouldn't be seen lightly."

We want to know if you have any passions or interests? Head to the comments to let us know.

Animal encyclopaedia

Josh illustrated the book too

Josh Gabbatiss is a climate journalist from south London and started "Josh'es Book of Animals" in 2001.

From the entries you can see his drawings and grammar have improved, but he said his handwriting "has remained pretty terrible."

"You can tell that I was in it for the long haul because instead of going straight for the big charismatic species I started with corals, worms etc," said Gabbatiss.

The format is copied from other animal books and Gabbastiss started with simple animals and invertebrates, then to fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals.

The book has 118 pages, six sections and an index "in case any of my readers wanted to find something specific", he said.

It took over 20 years to complete the animal book

He started off quite consistent, filling up the book regularly until he started to get busy during his teenage years.

When he had done most of the mammals section, with only three pages to go, the book was forgotten about again during university. "The animal book was too precious to move to a different city," he said.

During the covid lockdown he picked it back up, writing and illustrating more unknown mammal groups including elephant shrews and flying lemurs.

Josh said his handwriting hasn't improved much over the years

But it was only last month when he finally completed the project, with the last drawing of a chimpanzee.

"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," he said.

What is your passion?

This drawing of a chimpanzee was the final part of the book which is now complete

It may have taken more than 20 years for Josh to complete the project, but he is happy with his final book.

We want to know, are you working on a project? Maybe you have a special passion or interest, such as stamp collecting or writing your own novel.

Maybe you enjoy bird watching, or recording all the animals you see out on a walk.

Head to the comments to let us know what you're working on and what your special interest is!