In his final year at University Charles Booth-Clibborn published The Scottish Bestiary under his imprint The Paragon Press. Booth-Clibborn had invited the Orkney born writer George Mackay Brown to produce texts, in the form of poetry and prose, to accompany 20 prints by Scottish artists depicting 19 animals – real and mythological. Howson had made few prints prior to the Bestiary. He made numerous drawings for each of three prints. In the poem Fieldmouse Mackay Brown refers to the poet Robert Burns who, in his own poem To a Mouse (which begins with the line Wee, sleekit, cowrin’ tim’rous beastie), and meditates upon the good life the mouse is to have in his home by the farm.

Further reading:
Contemporary Art in Print, Scottish National Gallery of Modern and The Paragon Press, 1995, texts by Jeremy Lewison, Duncan Macmillan and Patrick Elliott