The Fens, standing in for the Ouse. © D.Tyler 2010
I heard Olivia Laing talking about her book To The River on Woman's Hour in April and immediately felt that this was a book I was going to love. The idea of weaving a narrative through and along a river had been haunting me since reading Dart by Alice Oswald, a book that I was drawn to after swimming that river at various points for Wild Swim.
Anyway, "To The River" is a wonderful book, you'll find excellent reviews all over the place, many evoking the "new nature" writings of Deakin and Mabey and the psycho-geography of W.G.Sebald. I think it's beautiful, honest and transportive and when I was contacted by the publishers to ask if I might have a image in my archive for the paperback edition all I could think was that I really hoped I did.
Initially we looked at work from Wild Swim and in particular images that were strong but that didn't get into the book. As well as these I sent some other work from different projects that I thought might be suitable and it's one of these that was eventually chosen, an image from my Watermarks project. The proofs (see below) arrived yesterday and I'm delighted with the result, even more so because I hear that the author and the publishers are also pleased. I can't think of an un-cheesy way to express how proud I am to be a part of a really great work, a small part, but a part.
Such a beautiful cover for a beautiful book. Just perfect - well done! In case you're interested, I've written about To the River and walking here: http://emilybooks.wordpress.com/2012/04/04/walking-to-the-river
Posted by: Emily Rhodes | April 04, 2012 at 09:40 AM