General Editors of the Coole Edition: T.R.Henn CBE and Colin Smythe

Edited and with a Foreword by Daniel J. Murphy

ISBN: 978-0-900675-91-1

21.4. x 13.8 cm.   .  frontis, t.e.g.

Lennox Robinson's selection from Lady Gregory's Journals was first published in 1946 as the culmination of many years' nego­tiations between the Trustees of Lady Gregory's Estate and her London publishers, Putnam & Co., but it was only a fraction of the material that Lady Gregory had expected would be published when she sent the typescripts over to London in 1931.

Since the publication of that small selection (which appeared in the U.S.A. in 1947), no one saw the complete typescripts until they were purchased as part of the Lady Gregory archives by the Berg Collection of the New York Public Library in 1964. After being cata­logued, they were made available to scholars. Now at last, Daniel Murphy's edition is available in two volumes, the first containing Books 1 to 29 and the second Books 30 to 44.

The Journals contain fascinating accounts of Lady Gregory's efforts to get back the Lane Pictures for Ireland, the Troubles, her activities at the Abbey Theatre, her life at Coole and her determination to keep it for her grandson Richard, as well as recording her friendship with W. B. Yeats, one of the most important and influential in English literature: thus the Journals are important for social and political as well as for artistic reasons, and are a prime source for all students of the literature and history of Ireland. They also provide a remarkable insight into the life and work of a woman whom Bernard Shaw called 'one of the most remarkable theatrical talents of our time' and 'the greatest living Irishwoman'.

21.6 x 13.8 cm.        xx,  257 pp.  index      1990

Born in Melbourne, Australia, in October 1884, W.J.Turner left his home city in March 1907, determined to create a career for himself as a writer in London. By 1946, when he died, he had contributed to the literary and musical life of England in ways that establish him as a unique and fascinating figure. A man of independent mind and provocative originality, he was perhaps the most outspoken critic of his time and, in Arnold Bennett's judgement, the only one of his generation whom it was a `pleasure to read for the sake of reading', as well as being a poet whose `majestic song' left Yeats, in his own words, `lost in admiration and astonishment'.

Wayne McKenna's work provides an overview of Turner's life and work, discussing his plays, novels, short stories, poetry drama criticism and literary editing, and well as commenting on the more important literary friend ships in his life, such as those with Yeats, Siegfried Sassoon, and Lady Ottoline Morrell.

22.8 x 15.0 cm.

Bernard Shaw, who made his international reputation as a playwright in London, and Augusta Gregory, founder-director of the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, are generally considered as belonging to different theatrical traditions. But in 1909, when the Abbey produced The Shewing-up of Blanco Posnet, which had been banned in England, there began a close involvement of Shaw with Irish theatre and a warm personal friendship with Lady Gregory.

The complete surviving correspondence between the two, published for the first time, reveals their developing relationship: the battle with Dublin Castle over Blanco, Shaw’s support for Lady Gregory in the rows over Synge’s Playboy in America; the controversy with military authorities over O’Flaherty V.C., written for the Abbey in 1915; the lively exchange of views on Ireland, politics, the Hugh Lane pictures, the schooling of the Gregory grand­children; which ended only with Lady Gregory’s death in 1932.

Drawing upon letters to and from other corre­spondents, diaries and engagement books, private memoranda, newspaper reports, and press releases, the editors have enlarged the correspondence into a comprehensive record of Shaw’s important and previously unrecognised contribution to the Irish theatre. Shaw and Lady Gregory’s crisp, witty and informal letters, in the context of their joint commitment to the Abbey, make the book rewarding reading for all those with an interest in the theatre.

21.6 x 13.8 cm.   xii, 260 pp.  1997   Irish Literary Studies series (ISSN 0140-895X) volume 50

In 1829 Mrs S.C.Hall, an Irishwoman living in England, published a book of sketches set mainly in her native Wexford. Sketches of Irish Life and Character was an immediate success both with literary critics and the general public. A second series of Sketches appeared in 1831 and established Mrs Hall's reputation in  England as an interpreter of Irish character. Her later works on Ireland – Lights and Shadows of Irish Life (1838), Stories of the Irish Peasantry (1840) and The Whiteboy (1845) – reinforced this view, and were very popular with her English and Scottish readers. She collaborated with her husband, the journalist Samuel Carter Hall, in the writing of a three-volume guide to Ireland, Halls' Ireland, its Scenery, Character, etc. (1841-43), and this too was accepted as an informed description of Irish life and character.

In fact, Mrs Hall wrote as an observer imbued with colonial attitudes who believed in the superiority of everything English. Out of a genuine love for Ireland, however, she wished to make the country better known and understood in England, and she hoped through her writings to cure the Irish people of their faults. What makes her work interesting is the fact that it displays a tolerance and a lack of bigotry that was unusual for its time, and that she is openly critical (especially in her novel The Whiteboy) of government mismanagement and misrule.

CONTENTS

1. Ireland – 'The Great Mart of Fiction'; 2. Mrs Hall – Marriage and Markets; 3. Teaching – The Taste of the Times; 4. Sketches of Irish Life – The Voice of the Colonist; 5. Lights and Shadows – a melancholy book; 6. Stories of the Irish Peasantry – Correcting the 'evil habits of poor Pat'; 7. Halls' Ireland – 'Guidance for those who design to visit Ireland; 8. The Whiteboy –' 'A truly national novel'; 9. Three novelists with a common cause; 10. Assessments – then and now; Index.

Maureen Keane was educated at Dominican College, Eccles Street, Dublin, and University College, Dublin. After graduating with an M.A. she worked for a time as a teacher and then took up a career in journalism, first as a freelance and then as an editor. Returning to academic life, she received her Ph.D. from Maynooth College for a study of didacticism in the works of William Carleton, Mrs S.C.Hall and Charles Lever. This is her first book.

ISBN: 978-0-85105-372-1

21.6 x 13.8 cm   368 pp.  1984    Volume 5 of  The Modern Irish Drama, a documentary history

The Art of the Amateur, the fifth volume in the documentary history, The Modern Irish Drama, describes and documents the Irish theatre from 1916-1920, some of the most turbulent years of the emerging nation. Against the background of the Easter Rising in Dublin and its violent aftermath, and of the Great War in Europe, the authors chart how the Irish theatre coped with, mirrored, and curiously, often ignored the trauma of the times.

As the authors of The Art of the Amateur note, the theatre, especially the theatre as entertainment, flourishes in times of public horror. With the deaths of Pearse, MacDonagh, MacSwiney and Sean Connolly, the Abbey player, there was more than enough horror. If few masterpieces immediately emerged, the stage in the period covered in this volume, both public and private, was being set for the emergence of the plays of Sean O’Casey and Denis Johnston.

The Modern Irish Drama, of which The Art of the Amateur is the fifth volume, is a documentary history with transcriptions of contemporary reviews and full cast lists. As The Irish Press commented, ‘Professor Hogan and his distinguished collaborators . . . have produced a rich, fascinating and, to the drama-junkie, indispensable book on a generally neglected period of Irish theatrical history.’

24.5 x 17.5 cm.    32 pp.   with 16 illus.   Third edition, with extra illus.  1995
(First published by Dolmen Press in 1965, 2nd edition 1977)

In 1917 the Norman Tower at Ballylee in the West of Ireland was adopted by W.B. Yeats as his home. But the tower was much more than his residence. It became his monument and symbol. Here he conceived and wrote some of his greatest poetry, and in his inscription to commemorate its restoration he pre­dicted the ruinous state into which the building lapsed after his death. The restoration of the Tower in the 1960s was inspired mainly by the enthusiasm of the Kiltartan Society and Mary Hanley. Liam Miller edited and extended Mrs Hanley’s text to set Yeats’s occupancy in a historical context. The illustrations include plans of the Tower, a map of the locality, photographs taken in the years when Yeats lived there, and some sketches by Lady Gregory.

The front cover illustration is of T. Sturge Moore’s design for the front cover and jacket of the first edition of The Tower (1928) as it appeared when blocked on the book.

21.6 x 13.8 cm.      xii, 315 pp.  + 16 pp. with 19 illus.  1994   Ulster Editions & Monographs series (ISSN 0954-3392) volume 5

Strangers to that Land, subtitled ‘British Perceptions of Ireland from the Reformation to the Famine’, is a critical anthology of English, Scottish and Welsh colonists’ and travellers’ accounts of Ireland and the Irish from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries.

It consists exclusively of eyewitness descriptions of Ireland given by writers using the English language who had never been to Ireland before and were seeing the country for the first time. Each extract, where necessary, is set in context and briefly explained. The result is a vivid, continuous record of Ireland as defined and judged by the British over a period of four centuries.

In their general introduction the editors discuss the significance of these changing historical perceptions, as well as the impact upon them of literary conventions which played a part in shaping the emerging texts. It is argued that the relationship between Ireland and England within a British context constitutes a unique case study in the procedures of racial stereotyping and colonial representation, the exploration of cultural conflict and the aesthetics of travel writing.

There are twenty-one contemporary illustrations  in this, the fifth volume in the Ulster Editions and Monographs series.

Andrew Hadfield is lecturer in Medieval and Renaissance Literature at the University of Wales, and John McVeagh is Senior Lecturer in English at the University of Ulster at Coleraine.

General Editors of the Coole Edition: T. R. Henn CBE and Colin Smythe

With a Foreword by T. R. Henn

ISBN: 978-0-900675-35-5

Studies and Translations from the Irish, including nine plays by Douglas Hyde

22.7 x 13.8 cm.  286 pp.    illus.  1974   Volume 11 of the Coole Edition of Lady Gregory's works

In Poets and Dreamers Lady Gregory has gathered together a number of essays and translations she had made from the Irish of Douglas Hyde, An Craoibhin Aoibhinn, ‘the Sweet Little Branch’, who was founder and President of the Gaelic League at the time and later to be the first President of the Republic of Ireland.

Lady Gregory has also written about other poets in this volume, notably Raftery, who was the model for Yeats’s Red Hanrahan, and also writes about West Irish ballads, and those by Jacobite and Boer and that beautiful poem by the expatriate Shemus Cartan, ‘A Sorrowful Lament for Ireland’.

Her other essays are covered by the Dreamers part of the title, ‘Mountain Theology’, ‘Herb Healing’ and ‘Workhouse Dreams’ among them. This edition contains a further five plays by Hyde, translated by Lady Gregory, three of which have not hitherto been published.

The Ap­pendices contain a number of early versions of poems and articles and includes ‘Dreams that have no moral’ by W. B. Yeats. This has been added from his Celtic Twilight (1902) as an Appendix in order to give an example as to how Lady Gregory worked together with him in providing him with material for his volumes. Lady Gregory refers to the story in ‘Workhouse Dreams’.

The Editors have also added a quant­ity of her revisions and an essay, ‘Cures by Charms’, which first appeared in the Westminster Budget with two of the other essays in this volume, but which was not included in the first edition.

General Editors of the Coole Edition: T.R.Henn CBE and Colin Smythe

Edited by Daniel J. Murphy, with an Afterword by Colin Smythe

ISBN: 978-0-900675-92-8

21.4 x 13.8 cm.      frontis.   t.e.g.

Lennox Robinson's selection from Lady Gregory's Journals was pub­lished in 1946. It only contained a small fraction of the total material that she typed out (editing as she did so) from her manuscript diaries. In 1964 the bulk of Lady Gregory's archives were bought by the Berg Collection of the New York Public Library, and the typescripts of her diaries, which formed part of the archive, were prepared for publica­tion by the present editor, Daniel Murphy. The first volume of this edition, containing Books 1 to 29, was published in 1978. This second volume, contain­ing Books 30 to 44, not only completes the typed version of her diaries (which ended in November 1930), but also adds the unedited text of the manuscript diary she kept from then until a fortnight before her death.

It describes her continuing efforts to get the Lane Pictures returned to Ireland, the passing of Coole into the hands of the Irish Forestry Depart­ment, Abbey Theatre problems, the row over Sean O'Casey's The Plough and the Stars and the break with him over its refusal of The Silver Tassie, Denis Johnston's connection with the Abbey as producer and playwright (with illu­minating insights into the Abbey's refusal of The Old Lady Says 'No!’), and other controversial matters.

Plagued by rheumatism and twice operated on for cancer, Lady Greg­ory was nevertheless determined not to give in to old age, and she relates the daily battle with her infirmities with objectivity.

Thus, with W. B. Yeats's account of her last hours, ‘The Death of Lady Gregory’, published here for the first time, the reader is given a far more complete picture of the last years of Lady Gregory's life than has hitherto been available.

Appended to this is an Afterword by Colin Smythe which describes the problems relating to the publication of the Journals and Autobiography following Lady Gregory’s death.

ISBN: 978-82-90601-09-1
20.8 x  13.8 cm.     80 pp.     1995

This is a book about Healing. Not ‘Faith Healing’, as Matthew refuses to call it that. As he writes, ‘The idea that healing only works if you believe in it is simply not true! Healing can work on a sceptical person yet sometimes fail to help a believer. Healing also works in test-tubes in laboratories, as well as on animals and brain-damaged children. It cannot be said that these results are brought about by psychological factors, faith or placebo. There is no faith required.’

Contents: Introduction – Healing in the Laboratory – The Healing Experience – Healing Ourselves.

We distribute this book in Britain for Eikstein Publishers, of Øyslebø, Norway.

Illustrated by Joyce Dennys.
With a prefatory note by Maurice Collis

ISBN: 978-0-86140-010-2
19.0 x 13.5 cm.   128 pp.  1978 (reduced facsimile of first 1970 hardcover edition)

Lady Gregory was the cornerstone of the Irish Literary Revival in the first quarter of the century. At Coole Park in Co. Galway she was host to many literary figures and painters of the time: W. B. Yeats of course, J. M. Synge, Bernard Shaw, Douglas Hyde, A. E. (George W. Russell), Sean O'Casey, John Masefield, George Moore, and among the painters, J. B. Yeats the elder, Jack B. Yeats and Augustus John.

As well as spending a large part of her time as hostess of Coole, being a prolific author and playwright, a Director of the Abbey Theatre, the chief campaigner for the return of the Lane Pictures to Dublin, and an excellent landlord, she is remembered as a great personality.

This book is written by one of her grandchildren, Anne, who, with her brother and sister, was born and brought up at Coole, and in it she gives a new dimension to what we know of Lady Gregory and her guests.

As Maurice Collis writes in his Prefatory Note, ‘The narrative is Anne Gregory's recollection of what living at Coole with her grandmother was like. Her account is very cleverly constructed. The stature of Lady Gregory is subtly increased. She was a wonderful woman and a wonderful grandmother.’

'One of the most delightful books I have ever read ... a truly lovable book.' Gabriel Fallon in The Evening Press

'A charming book and Joyce Dennys's pictures are a delight.’ The Spectator

‘a MUST for children of ALL ages.' Sunday Independent

‘The book shows us the great through a child's eyes, skilfully, wittily, and sometimes surprisingly.' British Book News

20.6 x 22.1 cm      335 pp.  80 colour and 220 b/w illus.    1994
ISBN: 978-1-873821-03-9

'The Book of Aran is a handsomely produced and generously illustrated update on Aran as seen by the multi-faceted eye of scholarship." Irish Times

'The Book of Aran has managed to convey some of the magic, isolation and cultural richness that island communities often have.' Irish Press

'The book is beautifully produced and the text achieves that happy state of being scholarly while eminently readable. The selection of pictures is superb. At the very least, the book is a minor publishing triumph.  Don't even contemplate going to Aran without it." Evening Press

Over the centuries many people have felt the attraction of the landscape of the Aran Islands, with its impressive monuments that go back thousands of years, its distinctive culture that offers glimpses of a rich and distinctive pattern of life and a people whose island isolation forged a sense of independence and endurance. The Book of Aran is the first publication to deal with all the many different aspects of the three islands of Inis Mór, Inis Meáin and Inis Oírr, including the natural environment, archaeology and history and the cultural heritage of the islands. It is aimed at the general reader who wants to gain a deeper understanding of one of the most intriguing landscapes in Europe.

Contributors: John Feehan, Cilian Roden, Michael O'Connell, Gordon D'Arcy, J.W. O'Connell, John Waddell, Paul Walsh, John de Courcy Ireland, Anne O'Dowd, Dara Ó Conoala, Pádraigín Clancy, Lelia Doolan, James Duran, Anne Korff, Joe McMahon, Patrick F. Sheeran and Pádraig Standún.

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21.6 x 13.8 cm.    x, 252 pp.   2000
ISBN: 978-0-86140-413-1

For generations in Northern Ireland, unionist and nationalist communities have been frozen in isolation from one another, preferring demonstrations of communal solidarity to negotiation and cooperation. This absorbing book was published in 2000, and therefore reflects the situation at that time, and examines the many attempts to resolve the conflict in Northern Ireland, beginning with the civil rights movement and Prime Minister Terence O'Neill's reform efforts in the mid-1960s, continuing up to the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. It finds that early attempts at peacemaking suggested only mechanical political solutions, which only deepened the antagonistic pattern of relationships. It was not until these existing relationships were challenged, most crucially through the Anglo-Irish agreement of 1985 and subsequent initiatives jointly determined by the British and Irish governments, that the main parties began to participate in efforts to create a democratic peace. The authors contended that a political and cultural process was now in motion that gave peace its first real chance in Northern Ireland's history.  Fifteen years on, we can see how much the situation in Northern Ireland has changed and what problems still remain.

ISBN: 978-0-86140-319-6

23.4 x 15.5 cm.    189 pp. incl. over 100 illus.

This book contains Revd Geoffrey Edmonds’ work, last published by this company in 1968, and Dr Audrey Baker’s hitherto unpublished history of Bulstrode, past home of Judge Jeffreys, the Dukes of Portland and then the Dukes of Somerset.

While Chalfont St Peter dates back to before the Norman Conquest, and Bulstrode to the time of the Knights Templar, the parish of Gerrards Cross is a newly formed entity, being carved out of five neighbouring parishes, and greatly expanded following the 1906 opening of the London to High Wycombe Great Western & Great Central Joint Railway line which passed through the village.

Through their separate histories both Dr Baker and the Revd Edmonds chart the history of the locality through the centuries, showing how it has evolved from Anglo-Saxon and medieval times, through the Reformation, the Cromwellian period and Restoration, the Hanoverian and Victorian eras to the 20^th century, and how the great families who came to live here gained or lost power, rose, fell or moved on, as well as the creation of Gerrards Cross over the past century.

In addition to the hundred or so illustrations within the book (including a number showing the construction of the railway through Gerrards Cross), the cover reproduces a watercolour of Chalfont Park by J.M.W.Turner, that was unknown until 2002.

The index features every person, place and house mentioned by the authors so residents can see what parts of the book relate to their home or the part of the villages in which they live

The Revd Geoffrey Edmonds (1902-75) was born in Rochester, Kent. He obtained an MA degree at Pembroke College, Cambridge, before studying Divinity at Mansfield College, Oxford. He was Congregational Minister at Oxted, Surrey, and in 1950 moved to Gerrards Cross, where he was Minister until his retirement in 1972, and where he continued to live until his death. Apart from being a keen chess player, and a keen historian, he was very interested in the activities of the village, being a Trustee of the Gerrards Cross Memorial Centre, a Governor of the local school and a Rotarian.

After reading Modern History at St Hilda’s College, Oxford, Audrey Baker studied History of Art at the Courtauld Institute and received her doctorate from the University of London. She specialised in medieval art, and published a number of long and detailed articles in major periodicals such Archaeologia, and the Archaeological Journal. She sometimes collaborated with Dr E. Clive Rouse. In the last years of her life she concentrated on local history and published various articles in The Records of Buckinghamshire, the journal of the Buckinghamshire Archaeological Society. Dr Baker and the Revd Geoffrey Edmonds were co-founders of the Chalfont St Peter and Gerrards Cross Local History Society.

ISBN: 978-0-86140-279-3
21.6 x 13.8 cm.

Kahlil Gibran of Lebanon is a guide for all those interested in the life and work of Kahlil Gibran who want further information, be they general readers or scholars.

It explains the fascinating world of the author of The Prophet which is one of the most celebrated works of the twentieth century. Modelled on Gibran’s own writings, simple and concise in presentation, the first half of this work is devoted to significant events in Gibran’s life. It provides the reader with the necessary back ground to his writing and painting, with particular reference to the individuals and and works that have been major influences. These are further explored in the second half, which is a critical study of Gibran’s work and contribution to the literature of the world.

Suheil died in September 2015. Obituaries can be found at http://ysnews.com/news/2015/09/suheil-badi-bushrui and at http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/obituaries/bs-md-ob-suheil-bushrui-20150927-story.html, https://arabhyphen.wordpress.com/2015/09/10/suheil-badi-bushrui-passes-away-1929-2015/  and elsewhere.

CONTENTS
Introduction
PART 1, HIS LIFE:  Family background and early years - Kahlil Gibran and Mary Haskell - Early career in Boston, Paris and New York - Maturity - Last years.

PART 2, HIS WORK: Early Arabic writings - Influences and parallels in the mature works - Mature works up to The Prophet - The Prophet ­- Last works.
Notes.
Bibliography

ISBN: 978-1-873821-07-7
18.5 x 23.5 cm,  120 pp.        94 b&w photographs    

A record, in image and word, of a coastal community's social and economic life, its traditions and the changes it has experienced since the late 19th century. The volume includes photographs taken between the 1890s and the 1960s which offer glimpses into an era when Kinvara was a busy port and market town, yet working and living at a slower pace – that of horse carts, sailing boats and manual labour. The explanatory captions which accompany the photographs contain details on folklore, traditions and local history. Quotes and anecdotes capture the wit and humour of the Kinvara people. The book's introduction places the town's development in a wider historical context.

'This book is first rate and recommended to all, even those who have never heard of Kinvara. A unique selection of historical photographs and a splendid compilation of locally sourced information. The photographs, spanning the period 1880 to 1960, reflect the lives of Kinvara's people before huge social and economic changes produced different moulds, imported patterns, new shadows for the same substance. This is a moving book.'  Connacht Tribune

This book is full of information covered by the Kinvara Guide & Map.  To go directly for information on the Kinvara Map Click Here

ISBN: 978-0-86140-266-3
21.6 x 13.8 cm.   xii, 296 pp. + 16pp. with 33 illus. 

Founded in 1907, the history of the Club reflects the creative life of the city and nation, with a membership of many of the leading literary and artistic figures of the last eighty years. Patricia Boylan chronicles the ups and downs it suffered, how it was affected by historical events, and describes the often colourful lives of its more famous members.

Contents: Genesis – The People and the Place – Celebrated Names – Limited Company – An Auspicious Year – Minute by Minute – A Shameful Year: 1913 – Sad Goodbyes – The Club in Wartime: 1914-1915 – Rebellions: 1916 – The Real Irish? 1916-1918 – Business as Usual: 1919-1920 – A Neutral Zone: 1921-1922 – Carrying On: 1923-1924 – Coming and Going: 1925-1929 – Betty Bolts – A Cold Eye: 1933-1939 – The End of an Era – Changing Times – Doldrums – The Latest Chapter

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21.6 x 13.8 cm.     viii, 145 pp.   + 8pp. illus   
ISBN: 978-0-905715-33-9

The author of this book has succeeded where many have failed: he has written the history of the Vatican, the House of Peter, from the days the first Christian martyrs were executed on the Vatican Hill, to the present, and he presents us with an account the reader will find difficult to put down.

The book’s outstanding quality is that it complements and enhances the splendid and sumptuous impression the Vatican gives today with St Peter’s Basilica in its centre and surrounded on one side by Bernini’s colonnades, and on the others by the many palaces which serve as residences and museums.

Reading this book we see far beyond the familiar façade of the Vatican: there is nothing boring about this kind of history; for example, the author’s description of the erection of the obelisk in St Peter’s Square makes the reader view that familiar landmark with a far greater understanding of the tremendous feat that was accomplished. Here, and elsewhere, the author’s narrative is complemented by largely unknown illustrations from the Vatican Archives.

Count Antonio Alberti-Poja was ideally placed to write on the subject: he was one of the consultori (member of the Council of State) of the Vatican City State, and Head of the Administrative Council of Peregrinato ad Petri Sedem for foreign visitors to the See of St Peter.

The author’s deep commitment to, and care for, the millions of visitors who come to the Vatican provided the motive, and his position in the government of the Vatican City State gave him the opportunity for his research, but neither would have guaranteed such an absorbing narrative.

To those who have visited the Vatican in the past,, it will bring back memories and probably change many concepts formed by that overpowering edifice that greets today’s visitors and pilgrims. After reading The House of Peter, those who come to the Vatican – for the first time or as seasoned visitors – will see the Holy City in a new light, looking beyond the splendid façade and the other works created by man for the greater glory of God, back through time to that first, small memorial that marked the grave of the rock of the Church, the Apostle Peter.

A Centenary Tribute, with a foreword by his children

"In the centenary clamour of 1982 and the celebrations and reconsiderations of O Conaire, Joyce, Stephens and Woolf, Colin Smythe's slim Robert Gregory . . . might easily have been overlooked. It appears, however, that the editor of Books Ireland found it beguiling – and so does this reviewer. For one thing, although it is a centenary tribute, Robert Gregory exudes grace and charm; it lends itself to appreciation rather than to contentiousness, and it convinces the reader, utterly, that Gregory, if not our 'Sidney and our perfect man', was a Renaissance figure whose early death might have been an illustration for the maxim that whom the gods love die young. . . .

"[It] is not of interest merely because of Gregory's connections with literary and artistic life, fascinating as they are. It is a montage of poetry, reminiscences and many illustrations and photographs which, though they underline the connections, ultimately serve to illuminate the man. This book is not – contrary to what the reader might think at first glance – in the least ephemeral. One wants to leaf through it again and again, so strong, and yet so evocative, is the sense of Gregory which it imparts." Janet Madden-Simpson, in Books Ireland

Selected Prose & Related Documents

336 pp. 23.4 x 13.5 cm illus. in colour and monochrome

Poet of the Second World War and peacetime dramatist, Francis Warner was 75 this year (2012). This, the first selection from his prose, gives readers of his work some indication of the historical and intellectual background from which his poetry has sprung: of 'the giant race before the flood' who lived on to help shape Britain's post-war imagination.

Starting with memories of the Blitz and his poem 'Blitz Requiem', Warner recalls his schooldays at Christ's Hospital, Horsham, recovering from six years of war, and the role played by music.

He writes of his friends: 'Henry Chadwick: Musician', Kathleen Raine as fellow poet, C. S. Lewis and the Psalms, Henry Moore, Francis Bacon, Edmond Blunden, and Samuel Beckett, reproducing the manuscripts off two short plays Beckett discussed with and gave to him. Other subjects include W. B. Yeats, Benjamin Britten and the Japanese Noh plays, Samuel Palmer as poet, and Hugh Wybrew's Liturgical Texts of the Orthodox Church.

The book concludes with 'Francis Warner as Musician in Performance' an illustrative CD with music by Honegger, Vaughan Williams, and Warner's collaborator the composer and organist David Goode: and Stephen Cleobury conducting the Choir of King's College Cambridge singing one of their anthems.

Francis Warner DLitt, Hon. DMus, is Emeritus Fellow of St Peter's College, Oxford, and Honorary Fellow of St Catharine's College, Cambridge.

Contents

Armageddon and Faith: a Survivor's Meditation on the Blitz, 1940-45
Blitz Requiem
Remembrance Sunday Sermon, King's College Chapel, Cambridge, 2011
Four War Sonnets
Christ's Hospital Three and Sixty Years Ago
Henry Chadwick: Musician
The Song that is Christmas
A Cambridge Friendship: Kathleen Raine and Francis Warner
C. S. Lewis and the Revision of the Psalter
A Blessing on C. S. Lewis's home in Oxford, The Kilns
Foreword to Hugh Wybrew: Liturgical Texts of the Orthodox Church
The Bones and the Flesh: Henry Moore and Francis Bacon
Samuel Palmer's Poem 'The Sorceress'
James Joyce's Poetry
J. M. Synge's Poetry
Edmund Blunden's Pastoral Poetry
Richard Wall's rondeau cycle In Aliquot Parts
Japanese Noh plays and W. B. Yeats, Benjamin Britten and Samuel Beckett
Manuscript of Beckett's Breath
The Absence of Nationalism in the Work of Samuel Beckett
Manuscript of Beckett's Sans, and covering Letter
A Cup of Coffee in Paris, by Penelope Warner
Francis Warner as a Musician in the1950s, by Bernard Martin
Compact disc: Francis Warner as Musician in Performance
Anthem for Christ the King
Notes
Index