Petrushka and the dancer

The extraordinary mind of the novelist John Cowper Powys (1872-1963) has never been so revealingly displayed as in this decade of diary entries, for the most part previously unpublished. They begin in America, as Powys withdraws from twenty-five years of freelance lecturing, and end in Wales, with the completion of Owen Glendower. Day-to-day preoccupations - from the aesthetic to the anatomical - are here, along with reflections on his works in progress (books on philosophy, religion and literature, and five novels including A Glastonbury Romance), encounters with members of his family, and observations of rural life in upstate New York, in his beloved West Country, and in Wales. The entries also chart the complexities of his exceptional intimate life with Phyllis Playter, to form her biography as well as his autobiography. Skilfully edited from the vast original text, this selection distils the essence of Powys's life.