A book that I produced as an entry for the exhibition Book To Book.
I chose to concentrate on the impact of books on my life.

Buffeted by Beowulf

It is a fact universally acknowledged that children do not like to wait for Christmas to see their presents. My brother and I were no exception. Our parents found it increasingly difficult to find hiding places. The time when they used the top of the bookcase, under the impression that this was too high above our sightline for us to notice, was particularly memorable, and potentially lethal. Fortunately for us, the bookcase wobbled back upright, after we let go of the shelves which we were attempting to climb, though some books thudded down on top of us. My best guess is that from then, our presents were kept at our Berkshire grandparents’ house.
The books on the shelves reflected the fact that my dad taught English. After puzzling at home over Beowulf in Anglo-Saxon, Chaucer was an easier read, though Griselda certainly tried my patience.

Beowulf,
Dylan Thomas, ‘Under Milkwood’, 1954
W. B. Yeats, ‘The Collected Poems’, Macmillan, 1950.