Let Us Now Praise Famous Men

When Clare Leighton moved to the countryside in the 1930s she tuned her exceptional creativity to the Chiltern landscape around her. Already considered one of the finest engravers of her time she immediately began a series of portraits in words and engravings which explored the nature and rhythms of rural life. With subjects as varied as picking primroses the village witch and smithy harvest festival chair bodgers the local pub felling trees and country cramps Leighton documents the idiosyncrasies and nuances of rural culture leaving us with a valuable and beautiful record of a way of life that has now vanished. Illustrated with her own bold and elegant engravings here is an affectionate unsentimental portrait of the English countryside. Book jacket.