
The Crying of the Wind
Description
<b>'A rare and beautiful book' <i>TLS</i>
'Original and stimulating' <i>Irish Times</i></b>
Into the world of 1950s Ireland - a lushly green, windswept landscape studded with holy wells and the decaying country houses of a vanished ruling class - arrives Ithell Colquhoun. An occultist and a surrealist painter, Colquhoun's travels around the island are guided by her artist's eye and her feeling for the world beyond our own, as well as her spikily humorous view of the people she meets. We encounter faeries and pagan rituals, ruined churches and Celtic splendour, rowdy bohemians and Anglo-Irish landowners fallen on hard times, as the author carouses through Dublin and tramps the hills of Connemara in this classic travelogue.
Richly visual and full of sly wit, this is an account of Ireland as only Colquhoun could see it, a land where myth and magic meet wind and rain, and the song of the secret kingdom is heard on city streets.
<b>Part of the Pushkin Press Classics series: timeless storytelling by icons of literature, hand-picked from around the globe.</b>
Ithell Colquhoun (1906-1988) was born in British India and brought up in the United Kingdom. She studied at the Slade School of Fine Art and started exhibiting her paintings in the 1930s, gaining some renown as one of the few women associated with British Surrealism. She began visiting Cornwall during the Second World War, and eventually moved there, continuing to write, paint, and pursue the study of the occult until her death. As well as <i>The Crying of the Wind: Ireland</i>, she is the author of <i>The Living Stones: Cornwall</i> and the novel <i>Goose of Hermogenes</i>, also available from Pushkin Press.
Reviews / Votes
A rare and beautiful book...Has the authentic touch of the Gothic novelist * TLS * Marvellous... A beguiling, superbly written mix of travelogue, reportage, nature-writing, art criticism and - on its deepest level - an inquiry into religion, spirituality and the big questions of philosophy... At times she captures some essential truth at the core of things so perfectly - somehow expressing the inexpressible in words - that you get that shiver of recognition which really only great art can provide * Irish Independent * She has not only a painter's eye but something of the natural sociability and engaging nosiness of the travelling artist...an original and perceptive companion * Sunday Times * Exquisitely strange... Colquhoun's writing is lit from within by an incandescent glow... An enchanting read * Irish Times * She was that vanishingly rare thing, someone who was wholly, unaffectedly, unapologetically herself * Washington Post * Colquhoun is an incisive observer of Irish social mores... An eccentric visitor not only willing to embrace the country but also to expend her creative energy on its history, idiosyncrasies and traditions -- Philippa Conlon * Apollo * I swear this book burns invisibly with its own quiet and consoling heat. * Stewart Lee * An intelligent and evocative piece of roving reportage on a high literary level. This scholar, poet and painter is a keen observer who has read widely and deeply...Original and stimulating * Irish Times * Colquhoun has a very beguiling pen...To Irish landscapes she brings a painter's eye, writing particularly beautifully about skies, twilights, river valleys, sea-frayed coasts and the intensive atmosphere of remote places * Tatler * A gem of a book about Ireland, art, philosophy, travel, religion - Colquhoun touches on everything here and does so with considerable style * Connaught Telegraph *More details
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Persons
Content
The Liffey Valley
Dublin
Glendalough
Lucan
East to West
Letterdyfe
Roundstone
Croagh Patrick
Tobar Breanainn
Legendary Background
Finvarra and the Seven Daughters
Midsummer
The Martins
Cashel and Toombeola
West to East
Dublin Again
Night Life
Near Drogheda
The Hag's Mountain
Knowth and Slane
Tara of the Kings
The Municipal Gallery Visited