Visions of Llandaff / John Freeman and Chris Humphrey

‘This superb collection of poems, each one accompanied by Chris Humphrey’s impressive colour photographs, comprises observations about different walks written in sections that are linked by landscape, small journeys, reflections and moments of vision that are ‘undramatic and intangible but real’. …John Freeman, as always, shows himself to be an outstanding poet. But there is something about this sequence which, to me, feels more haunting than usual, a joyful vision but one that is also fugitive and sad. Yet, the ending is clear. A candle is lit in a ritual that is not hollow. A path leads through ‘a tunnel of buddleia’. Something has happened and changed. ‘The space is not empty.’’ Mandy Pannett, Tears in the Fence

‘This is such a lovely book. …Almost every scene is illustrated by full colour photos, abetting the text, which had me cheering. [Freeman] is such easy company. Being devotedly secular I’d been prepared to find myself distant. How wrong was I? I was fully engaged throughout. That old haiku prescription – to find the universal in the particular – here fulfilled.’ Sam Smith, The Journal

‘… I’m seeing things,

but more than seeing is the feeling –

the way the permeation of water

through air under tall trees and taller spire

creates a soft fellowship in which things,

bloom and are tenderly magnified…’  (from Visions of Llandaff)

The Lonely Press is proud to present Visions of Llandaff, an exquisite collaboration between the poet John Freeman and the photographer, Chris Humphrey. Featuring thirty colour photographs placed alongside some of Roland Mathias Prizewinner John Freeman’s most evocative poetry, this is a book to treasure.

Visions of Llandaff is available now and can be ordered from our Online Shop for £9 plus p&p.

John Freeman has published thirteen collections of poetry and his work has appeared in many magazines and anthologies. He won the Roland Mathias Prize in 2017 and the Bridport Prize in 2018. His latest collection is Plato’s Peach (Worple Press, 2021). He was born in Essex, grew up in south London and lived in Yorkshire before settling in Wales, where for many years he taught English Literature and Creative Writing at Cardiff University. He now lives in the Vale of Glamorgan.

 

Chris Humphrey grew up in Wiltshire before studying English Literature at Cardiff University. Since graduating, he has worked as a photographer and journalist, with articles appearing in The Guardian, The Washington Post, Al Jazeera, Mongabay and Wales Arts Review. He currently lives and works in Hanoi where he is the Vietnam Bureau Chief for Deutsche Presse-Agentur.

Chris Humphrey photo taken by Bao Khanh.