The novel opens with the discovery of a wild boy, Philip Warren, living in the basement of the South Kensington Museum after running away from a pottery town. He is taken in by a visiting author of modern fairy tales, Olive Wellwood, and sent to work as an apprentice to Benedict Fludd, a master ceramicist. The Wellwood household is a model of domesticity in the Fabian fashion: a sprawling farmhouse in Kent decked out in Arts and Crafts movement decor run over with children of varying parentage, with an open door policy to rebels, artists, and financiers alike. The Fludd house, conversely, is a nightmarish parody of domestic life in which a tortured genius patriarch smashes as many pots as he makes, ignores his drug-addicted wife, and has incestuous relations with his daughters. As the book progresses and secret histories come to light, it becomes clear that the terrors of the Fludd house are no less present at the Wellwoods’ because art and family are both, always and inevitably, founded on betrayal. JHu
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Acknowledgments
Quintessence Editions would like to thank the following people for their help in the preparation of this book:
Mark Abley, Bianca Jackson, and Simon Doubt for researching contributors; Martha Magor for researching quotes; Reg Grant for writing picture captions; Sonia Land at Sheil Land Associates for liaison with Peter Ackroyd; Liz Wyse, Cathy Meeus, and Siobhan O’Connor for copyediting; Victoria Wiggins and Helena Baser for editorial assistance; Elaine Shatenstein and Lisa Morris for proofreading; Ann Barrett and Kay Ollerenshaw for the index; Maria Gibbs for picture research and for compiling the picture credits; Simon Goggins, Nick Jones, and Rod Teasdale for design assistance; Phil Wilkins and Robert Gillam for additional photography; Irene Scheimberg, Marcus Deyes, Lucy Holliday, and Elisabeth de Lancey for the loan of books.
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