Issue 42 (December 2012, Volume 7, Number 6)

As the dark December days draw in we might be forgiven for thinking ‘the whole of England (is) like Norfolk on a grey afternoon . . . flat and bleached of all colour.’

This is one of the many imaginative repostes given by author Kazuo Ishiguro in his conversation with Celyn Jones, which opens this issue. Our staff reviewer, Susan Meehan, was in the front pew at Friends’ House to absorb the wit and wisdom of both writers. Discussion centered around Ishiguro’s last published novel, Never Let Me Go, but ranged across all manner of miscelleany, revealing a few unexpected traits in this often misinterpreted writer.

In our first review, Tim Holm rediscovers a pilgrimmage made by the maverick Japanese photographer Daido Moriyama in the early 1970s, applying his photographic chiaroscuro to a tour of Tono in North-Eastern Japan. Re-examining the contents of this unsettling photobook, Holm finds Moriyama in a playful between stark documentary and veiled memory. The collection includes some of Moriyama’s most iconic images and is the first ever English edition to be printed.

Another highlight of our December issue is Sir Hugh’s exploration of a famous potter’s first love in The Etchings of Bernard Leach. Internationally recognised for his outstanding pottery, Simon Olding reveals that Leach first journeyed to Japan to teach the art of etching. You will find reproductions of these early artworks on the final pages of this issue, from landscapes produced in China and Japan, to portrait studies and decorative details later re-used in Leach’s ceramics.

For best results, read this issue crouched over the yuletide log while the winter snows rage outside . . .

• Kazuo Ishiguro and The Man Booker talk
  
  
• Tales of Tono
  
  
• Crossfire
  
  
• Zero Focus 
  
  
• Arrietty
  
  
• The Etchings of Bernard Leach

Contributors