NEWS AND REVIEWS

N E W S & R E V I E W S

Endorsements

Of 'Cars in the Landscape':

"Having seen the initial draft I thought it might be rather good but the final outcome is excellent, and even better than I could have imagined. The photographs have been really well reproduced, the captions are humorous, factual and insightful and your essay extremely interesting." KC-K

"I absolutely love it! I'm surprised at myself as I have very little inclination towards cars except for getting me from a to b, but there is something poetic and interesting and multi-level which reveals itself through the locations of them." MA

"... [the] book [has] given such pleasure - you're a philosopher deep down - reading the essay magical - such beautiful writing - the artistry of those photos and the writing takes one into another world - an awful lot of people don't see anything - and there is so much out there - the writing illuminates so much and ... so full of meaning - exquisitely wonderful ... beautifully written, covers everything ... a sort of philosophy essay." EHR

“Maybe not what I would normally look at but, having opened it, I was gripped and spent a very happy hour reading it and enjoying the photos: so much so, that at the end I almost felt I had been on a blissful European holiday ! It's a beautifully produced volume which I'm absolutely delighted to have." JM

"I got drawn into your nostalgic passion for those splendidly majestic products of a more leisured age. Plus the very evocative settings in which they were photographed. The whole makes a pleasingly elegant addition to my library, which for the time being I shall place strategically on the green baize table in the library ... in order to show I am a person of refinement and discriminating taste." NP

"I loved the photographs. They are quirky and amusing and some of the angles they are taken from are very clever indeed ... I also like the delightfully down-and-out old cars that have literally become part of the landscape. Your essay is also very interesting with an interesting quote from V.W. [Virginia Woolf] ... I think if I was a car, I'd like to have been the 2CV - it looks very good in sepia!" BZ

Of 'On A Road, On A Journey":

"The book is a pocket treasure and deserves wide appreciation." AH

"I have 'read' it at two different speeds already, and particularly enjoyed that you have curated from many years, as well as locations, which further spreads the scope and strangely distils the focus of the concept ...
I am so glad you have your work 'made flesh' in your hands, which I know is so satisfying. I can only wonder at the rich experience you must feel as you revisit each image, but I can assure you it is just as impactful to come to them for the first time." SP

"I think your book is absolutely amazing - just love the verse from Wordsworth's Prelude - and your writing as well as being profound is pure poetry, like music which brings joy and understanding, sort of an understanding to the inner being - puts one on a journey oneself, and the wonderful truths that are expressed - it's absolutely beautiful, beautifully written." EHR

"Thought provoking images. As you note, art is full of figures making their journey to the hereafter – I think of Samuel Palmer – to the extent that the landscape comes to embody the art in one's mind, as much as the art the landscape. When I see tracks leading to the horizon I often think of Isaac Levitan's painting of the Vladimirka; Russia's tragedy has thus become a topic for reflection during my walks in Richmond Park. The literary treatment, while less vivid, has more scope for irony. It has always amused me that the nearer Chaucer's pilgrims get to Canterbury, the further they get from heaven." DR

"As you know, I have always admired your atmospheric and closely observed writing style, and was delighted to receive your Photo Essay Collection. It was especially nostalgic on Australia, where it brought to mind The Red Roads on which, in those days, was played the game of Laterite Roulette, as overtaking drivers emerging from the cloud of dust put up by a cattle truck, had some memorably exciting moments ...

I am a contemporary of Clive James, when words were made to do the work of pictures. Your choice of photos has brought me up to date, on roads less travelled, each redolent of a way of life or of an atmospheric or threatening moment, to be savoured without shifting." DAG

"I'm really enjoying it and it puts me in to a sort of meditative state whilst looking at it. I'm very impressed as I know that was your intention but I am amazed that you have managed to achieve it purely with photographs. They really are very evocative and I am interested that they need no text other than their location to achieve that effect." MA