Tartarus Press

publishers

Where Nothing Sleeps is a

slipcased set of two sewn

hardback books of 380 and 390 pages, printed lithographically, with silk ribbon marker, head and tailbands, and d/w.

 

Limited to 500 sets.

 

ISBN 9781872621944

 

Sorry: Out of Print

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.

 

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