 Where Nothing
Sleeps
-
- The Complete Short Stories
- and other related works
-
- by Denton Welch
-
- Edited by James Methuen-Campbell
-
- This
definitive collection of seventy-six short stories and
related autobiographical writings, presented in the two
volumes of Where Nothing Sleeps, is suffused with
the paradoxical appeal of Denton Welch: his
self-obsession and the Gothic morbidity of his outlook,
ranged against his dogged individualism and ability to
charm and fascinate the reader with the 'freshness and
pin-point detail of his perceptions'.
-
- Admired
by literary luminaries as diverse as William Burroughs
and Edith Sitwell, Welch, author of Maiden
Voyage, was only thirty-three at his death in
1948. An Old Boy of Repton and Goldsmiths' College, he
had a memorably idiosyncratic personality and never lost
his feeling of being excluded from society in general,
perhaps because of his early childhood in China and, as
he became aware later in life, his homosexuality. But the
fact that he was able to rise above severe physical
infirmities inflicted by a tragic road accident when he
was twenty to create some memorable writing and artwork,
demonstrates that he also possessed a remarkable strength
of character.
-
- James
Methuen-Campbell is the author of the biography
Denton Welch, Writer and
Artist (Tartarus Press, 2002) and has also
written on classical music, specialising in the history
of piano playing. His book, Chopin
Playing (Gollancz, 1981) has appeared in three
editions. In recent years he has developed his interest
in art, ranging from the Old Masters to Modern British
Painters.
-
- Where
Nothing Sleeps is a slipcased set of two sewn hardback
books of 380 and 390 pages.
-
- Price
£70/$125 inc. p&p.
-
- ISBN
9781872621944
-
- Contents:
- Volume
1:
- 'Preface' by James Methuen-Campbell, 'I
Can Remember', 'Narcissus Bay', 'At Sea', 'The Happiest
Time', 'The Coffin on the Hill', 'I First Began to
Write', 'The Barn', 'The Trout Stream', 'Mr Clarke',
'Some Memories Evoked by Music', 'A Visit to my Bois
Relations', 'A House Lost in the Darkness and Wintry
Fields', 'At Sir Moorcalm Lalli's', 'The Packing-case
House and the Thief', 'Mrs Hockey', 'A Child Meets Church
and State and Poetry in Strange Places: Lady Astor', 'The
Death of My Mother', 'The Big Field', 'An Afternoon with
Jeanne', 'When I was Thirteen', 'An Old Boy Takes me Out
at Repton', 'Ghosts', 'The Earth's Crust', 'The Youth
Rang the Bell', 'An Encounter by the River', 'Back to
Repton as an Old Boy', 'I Left my Grandfather's House',
'A Free Ride', 'When I was an Art Student', 'A Novel
Fragment'.
-
- 'Volume
2:
- The
Judas Tree', 'Strange Discoveries', 'In Brixham Harbour',
'A Party', 'Sickert at St Peter's', 'A Picture in the
Snow', 'Evergreen Seaton-Leverett', 'A Fragment of a Life
Story', 'Leaves from a Young Person's Notebook', 'Faces
at the Stage Door', 'Wainwright Home', 'Fat Woman
Sleeping in a Wood', 'Touchett's Party', 'The War Breaks
Out', 'Velvet', 'The Fire in the Wood', 'A Dream of
Vestals', 'Fear', 'Cupids from a Wedgwood Jar from a
Bartolozzi Print from a Drawing by Lady Di Beauclerk',
'Memories of a Vanished Period', 'Man in a Garden', 'A
Morning with the Versatile Peer, Lord Berners, in the
"Ancient Seat of Learning" ', 'A Mews Flat in the
Country', 'A Lunch Appointment', 'Reading my First
Review-in Spring', 'Brave and Cruel', 'In the Vast
House', 'John Trevor', 'Full Circle', 'Roger Saw the
Man', 'The Cottage After Dark', 'Roger Lay on the Cliff',
'Weekend', 'Amy Lechworth', 'Lady Gertrude', 'Constance,
Lady Willet', 'Anna Dillon', 'Alex Fairburn', 'The
Hateful Word', 'The Diamond Badge', 'When I Lie Awake',
'In the Autumn Weather', 'The Secret Life', 'The Window',
'Two Cows', 'A Postscript', End-notes,
Bibliography.
-
- “Denton Welch makes the
reader aware of the magic that is right under his eyes…
Whenever a student tells me he has nothing to write about
I refer him to Denton Welch. It is time Denton received
the attention he deserves.”
- — William S.
Burroughs
-
- “Delicacy of perception
is precisely the same thing as delicacy of description.
Denton Welch is like a British baby Proust in his
astounding grasp of his own (usually ‘mundane’)
experience. Nothing much happens in his books but the
most wonderful writing.”
- — Richard Hell
-
- Reviews:
-
- "James Methuen-Campbell, the
editor of this new and definitive collection
of [Welch's] short stories and other
writings, wrote a biography of Welch in 2002
which did much to establish his reputation as
an artist" - Ian Irvine, Independent on
Sunday
-
- "Edited by Welch's most
recent biographer, Where Nothing
Sleeps brings together in two
handsome volumes 76 of his short stories 'and
related autobiographical writings', together
with expansive notes. Having the pieces
presented thus, one makes discoveries..."
Christopher Martin, Rare Book
Review
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Page updated
5th September 2009
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