The name of St Ives has been synonymous with the visual arts since early in the last century, and in particular with more experimental artists since the arrival of Hepworth, Nicholson and Gabo in 1939. 

But the little harbour town also acts as a portal to the wider enchanting and mysterious Land’s End peninsula. David Whittaker, who has been exploring the region for four decades, portrays an assortment of colourful figures who were lured to the area, thereby having their lives and work enriched and transformed, including Bryan Wynter, Tony O’Malley, Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, Jeremy Le Grice, Breon O’Casey, Michael Canney (Curator of Newlyn Art Gallery), Michael Snow, Nancy Wynne-Jones and her husband, the Irish sculptor Conor Fallon; the Lamorna trio of reclusive eccentrics – Marlow Moss, Ithell Colquhoun and John Tunnard; and the poet Sydney Graham (recording his fruitful relationships with painters). David also tells the remarkable story of Rowena Cade and the origins of the Minack Theatre; and he contributes a tender account of the caring art of Roger Slack, GP to St Ives for nearly forty-years. 

Furthermore, there is a judiciously chosen miscellany of important writings by many of these artists not easily available elsewhere.

Peter Lanyon, a native of St Ives, is represented by a liberal selection of his own astute writings on the creative process, while his intrepid spirit pervades the entire book. 

As a photographer, David has developed an aficionado’s eye for rust, rocks, ruins and wrecks in the landscape and he provides us with a haunting medley of these images. In addition there is a valuable section on the meanings of many exotic Cornish place-names, which add to the distinctive character of the place.

St Ives Allure is a unique personal record of people and places, the result of David’s love and passion for the elemental land of Cornwall.

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192 pages, illustrated throughout in colour – £20 + £3 pp (inland)