Twenty-six of Llewelyn Powys's

finest Wessex Essays

A paperback of 160 pages

Price £ 9.99

ISBN-10: 0955152348   

ISBN-13: 9780955152344

Dimensions: 210x140mm

'Consider the glow, the glory of being alive, the incredible chance of it! How heart-piercing, how shocking, how supremely beautiful is this unexplained, wavering movement that troubles all that is, from the Milky Way to a common sting-nettle!' 

‘The arrangement of the essays in this collection suggests a sort of tour of Wessex, covering as they do a wide range of places and topics, from Corfe Castle to Lyme Regis, from Cerne Abbas to Studland. But this is no mere tourist handbook, rather an ideal companion to one. Powys was a wonderfully observant writer, whether contemplating the delicate imprints of deer hooves in the parklands of Sherborne or aerial battles between ravens and falcons, or recalling the “pantaloon trousers” of his grandfather at Stalbridge Rectory carrying primroses for his wife or the “round shining belly” of a kitchen kettle that Thomas Hardy said was his earliest memory.’

CONTENTS: The Durdle Door - The White Nose - A Bronze Age Valley - Bats Head -The Fossil Forest - The Castle Park of East Lulworth - St Aldhelm’s Head - Studland - Corfe Castle - Herring Gulls - Stalbridge Rectory - The River Yeo - Cerne Abbas - Stinsford Churchyard - The Grave of William Barnes - Weymouth Harbour - Portland - A Famous Wreck - Hardy’s Monument - The Swannery Bell at Abbotsbury - Lyme Regis - Montacute House - Ham Hill - On the Other Side of the Quantocks - Exmoor - Dartmoor

Llewelyn Powys is one of the rare writers who teach endurance of life as well as its enjoyment. Philip Larkin

For those with wit to heed his calls to observe and consider, the rewards of reading Powys are apparent … He is a writer of often exquisite perception. The Times Literary Supplement

It is Llewelyn Powys’s distinction of attitude, style and personality that makes his writing remarkable. Peter J. Foss (bibliographer)

When Llewelyn Powys puts pen to paper, something miraculous happens with words. The New York Herald Tribune

Civilisation needs men like Llewelyn Powys, such men who combine the austerity of a saint with the zest of a pagan. Ethel Mannin

"These two books, Durdle Door to Dartmoor (2007) and Still Blue Beauty (2008), are handy in size, in softback format and attractively priced. They come with very useful short introductions and wonderful covers." (From a review in the Powys Society Newsletter, July 2008)

"Llewelyn Powys, a brother of the possibly better known John Cowper Powys, published a number of short essays on the landscape and features of Dorset and Somerset in a variety of books and newspapers. The Sundial Press have gathered twenty six of these in a delightful little book, giving us a guided tour of one of the most historic and beautiful parts of England. Strictly speaking, it is from Studland to Dartmoor, but that would spoil the alliteration of the title.

Powys demonstrates a joy in nature and history, and has a poetic writing style (that occasionally goes over the top). The essays are unfortunately too short to develop any sustained deep thought, but there are many nuggets of wisdom and vivid description to take away. I read this book mainly on grim commuting trains in London, and was imaginatively carried into an almost idyllic world I would love to explore. If I went on a tour of ‘Wessex’, I would surely take this book as a guide to the interesting places he describes. However I may suffer some disappointment, since these pieces were written in the 1930s, and in them he often harks back another twenty to fifty years. So much of what he describes may have been steamrollered to oblivion by modernity.

There are many treasures in this collection, but one of my favourites is ‘On the other side of the Quantocks’. He describes these individualistic hills based on a journey to visit a grave. “I set out on my expedition proposing to spend my first night at Crowcombe, a small village which lies at the foot of the Quantocks, and from there to walk over the moors to Watchet.” One realises, with a shock, that he walked there for two days (and presumably walked back). He had the thoughtfulness and leisure to walk to four days to commune at the grave of a dead friend. How many of us would today spare that time?!

Then I realised that ‘sparing the time’ is hardly the right phrase. This is time well spent, walking over the English countryside, thinking, observing, feeling and enjoying. Permeating the essays therefore is a view of life we could well benefit from, if we would only emulate it even slightly. Powys sits in the parlour of the Carew Arms by a “wide old-fashioned fireplace” and eats “whortleberry jam and Devonshire cream”. After his meal he walks up Crowcombe lane with “periwinkles out on the crumbling walls and everywhere primroses”. This is not an invented idyll. It is the world of his beloved England in which he lived in the 1930’s, evidently savouring every moment. Inspirational!" - John Vernon (founder of Renaissance Training www.rtraining.co.uk)

To read more about Llewelyn Powys please click here.

To read 'The Wessex of Llewelyn Powys' - an article that appeared in the Blackmore Vale Magazine on 30th November 2007 - please click on the above link which will open in a new window in PDF format. 

To listen to a short excerpt from a reading of Stinsford Churchyard by Christopher Wilkinson please click here (This may take a minute or two to download and may not supported by all Web browsers.)

DURDLE DOOR TO DARTMOOR

Wessex Essays of

Llewelyn Powys

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