Kirjahaku

Tide Race is a remarkable account of life on Bardsey (known as Ynys Enlli to Welsh speakers), a remote and mysterious island off the coast of North Wales.Brenda Chamberlain lived on the island from 1947 to 1961, during the last days of its hardy community. The combination of Bardsey, ancient site of Christian pilgrimage, wild and dangerous landscape, and Brenda Chamberlain, Royal Academy trained artist, results in a classic book, vividly illustrated by the author's line drawings.This edition includes an Afterword by fellow artist Jonah Jones. "Brilliantly compelling… it glows with small sharp pictures and arresting images"The Sunday Times"The book is lush, idiosyncratic and haunting"The Observer"Miss Chamberlain writes of the dangers and beauties of the place in a prose as taut and clear as her paintings... The line illustrations are admirable, and the typography excellently suited to present the constant undercurrents of poetry in the writer's reflections"Arts ReviewPainter and writer Brenda Chamberlain ( 1912-1971) lived on the island of Bardsey from 1947-1961, during the last days of its hardy community. The combination of Bardsey, site of ancient Christian pilgrimage, wild and dangerous landscape, and Chamberlain, Royal Academy trained artist, resulted in a classic book, vividly illustrated by the author's line drawings.

"A Rope of Vines Journal from a Greek Island" is a beautiful and personal account of the time spent by Brenda Chamberlain on the Greek Island of Ydra in the early 1960's. Sea and harbour, mountain and monastery, her neighbours and friends are unforgettably pictured; these were the reality outside herself while within there was a conflict of emotion and warring desires. Joy and woe are woven fine in this record: the delight of a multitude of fresh experiences thronging to the senses, the suffering from which she emerges with new understanding of herself and human existence. Both in the intensity and force of the writing and the eloquent island drawings, "A Rope of Vines Journal from a Greek Island" is a distinguished achievement.

The Water-castle is a journal of love, romance and discord in 1950s Germany as a Welsh artist and poet, Elizabeth Greatorex, travels with her French husband to meet her former lover Klaus, a German count. Elizabeth maps a frost- and snow-bound landscape of desire against the hardening borders of a newly divided Germany. In her revealing diary, she records her struggle to bridge the distance between Wales and Germany, East and West while considering her own mythologised past and real diminished present. Brenda Chamberlain's writing pits creative idealism, emotional hunger and sexual longing against the brutal displacements of post-war Europe.

Lemon, venetian vetches; orchis, fritillary. How hard to remember an olive tree when the soul is behind bars...Never before published, written 'at white-heat in three weeks' in autumn 1967 after two visits to the detention island of Leros in the Greek Dodecanese, the play is Chamberlain's response - both heartbreakingly lyrical and disturbingly visceral - to the right-wing Colonels' Coup of April 1967. A dangerous, dissident text that draws on the conventions of Absurdist theatre, The Protagonists is the dark culmination of Chamberlain's profound, career-long exploration of individuality, belonging, incarceration, imaginative freedom and the social role of the artist. It is also a startlingly candid articulation of her own emotional and psychological 'internment' at this time.

'Vivid yet dream-like, wise and intimate, A Rope of Vines reveals in spare, poetic language a world of fishermen and nuns, and villagers driven wild in a white-hot wilderness. Chamberlain is unsentimental yet passionate about the harsh, raw beauty of the island and the solace of sea and wind. Mesmerising and wonderful - a classic to be read and re-read.' Jennifer Barclay A beautiful and personal account of Brenda Chamberlain's life on the Greek island of Hydra in the early 1960s. Sights, sounds, colours, sea and harbour, mountain and monastery, her neighbours and friends are unforgettably brought to life; as are the emotions and warring desires within her. Both in the intensity and force of the writing and the eloquent island drawings, A Rope of Vines has become a modern classic.