The Stricken Oak illustrates the title page of a novel about an imaginary English village called Monk’s Norton. For Portrait of a Village, the artist visited and sketched around Evesham and Pershore in Worcestershire. The quiet presence of the gnarled old oak tree is emphasised by Hassall’s meticulous approach. In her memoir she writes: ‘Every mark on the wood should be with intent and not a collection of tool marks. A wood-engraver’s palette is black, white and an infinite variety of expressive greys achieved by means suitable to the subject in hand.’