The Living Stones: Cornwall - Softcover

Ithell Colquhoun; Stewart Lee

4.13

100 ratings by Goodreads

9780720618938: The Living Stones: Cornwall

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0720618932 ISBN 13: 9780720618938

Publisher: Peter Owen Publishers, 2016

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With an introduction by Stewart Lee.

'How I envy you if you are about to read either, or both, of Ithell Colquhoun's gnostic travelogues for the first time, for soon you, too, will be post-Colquhoun, and everything will seem ever so slightly altered.' --Stewart Lee

In The Living Stones Ithell Colquhoun, a leading surrealist painter and writer in post-war Britain, drifts through Cornwall, England, in search of an artist's studio and sanctuary from the modern world. She quickly becomes the readers gnostic guide, looking beyond the twee of County Fairs, observing druidic rituals and seeking out the crumbling wells and megaliths. Charming with her style and teasing glimpses into her soul, Colquhoun connects us with the eerie, numinous beauty of the Cornish countryside, quietly insisting that we see the Cornwall she sees: an ancient land and language built over layers of myth and legend. It elevates her writing above everyday travelogue.

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Review:

'Colquhoun's time-travelling survey of Cornwall's culture and history brings ghosts and dead landscapes to life all around you.' --Stewart Lee

About the Author:

ITHELL COLQUHOUN (1906-88) was a painter and writer whose works contributed greatly to the British Surrealist movement before and after the Second World War. Colquhouns phantasmagoric landscapes, her psychically complex and penetrating portraits, hang on the walls of major galleries across the country. The daughter of a civil servant in India, Colquhoun was born in Assam in 1906, but was soon returned to England. She studied at Cheltenham Art School (1925-7) and the Slade School of Art (1927-31), after which she took studios around Europe, studying under the likes of Paul V�zelay and Andr� Breton. In 1942 she married fellow surrealist Toni del Renzio. An acrimonious divorce in 1947 also saw Colquhoun informally separate from the surrealist movement, leaving her free to explore her interest in mysticism, the esoteric and the occult. The results of this pre-occupation are most evident in her writing, which includes the short novel Goose of Hermogenes (1961) and two earlier travelogues, The Crying of the Wind (1955) and The Living Stones (1957). She died in Lamorna, Cornwall 1988.

STEWART LEE is an award-winning stand up comedian and writer with a regular column in the Guardian. Stewart Lees Comedy Vehicle is currently in its fourth series on BBC2.

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