Hennell '... was engaged to illustrate another of H.J. Massingham's books in August 1939. Chiltern Country was to be the third book by Massingham which Hennell contributed to in the space of ten months. Massingham's prolificacy as an author arose from the fact that he lived by his pen and, in those pre-NHS days, had to pay the 'alarmingly heavy expenses' of the many surgical procedures which followed his near-fatal leg injury in 1937. The publisher this time was B.T. Batsford Ltd and Chiltern Country was issued as part of their bestselling Face of Britain series, which celebrated the distinctive character of the isles' regions. Britain was less than a month away from war when Hennell willingly accepted the commission, putting aside his etching instruction manual to cycle to the Chiltern Hills on 9 August 1939.'
Jessica Kilburn, Thomas Hennell, The Land and the Mind, London: Pimpernel Press, 2021, page 195
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