Letters to Gwen John
- Author Celia Paul
- Narrator Rachel Bavidge
- Publisher Random House
- Publish Date 5 May 2022
- Run Time 7 hours and 42 minutes
- Format Audio
- Genre Biography: arts and entertainment, Diaries, letters and journals, History of art, Individual artists, art monographs, Memoirs, Portraits and self-portraiture in art, The Arts: art forms.
Flexible Pricing & Rewards For Listening
At xigxag, the more you read, the less you pay* on select audiobook and x-book® titles, as in the table below. Pricing updates automatically in the app and resets one year after your first purchase. And you can always find a selection of brilliant titles available for only £3.99.
Titles Purchased
- 1-5
- 6-10
- 11-15
- 16-20
- Over 20
Price per title
- £8.99
- £7.99
- £6.99
- £5.99
- £4.99
*Only the full price titles you buy count toward your personal pricing tier. Full price titles don’t include Listen for Less or other books bought with a voucher or discount code.
Listen to a sample
What to expect
Brought to you by Penguin.
A unique combination of memoir and artistic biography, interspersed with original artworks, from the acclaimed artist and author of SELF-PORTRAIT.
We are both painters. We can connect to each other through images, in our own unvoiced language. But I will try and reach you with words. Through talking to you I may come alive and begin to speak.
Celia Paul has felt a lifelong connection to the artist Gwen John. There are extraordinary parallels in their lives and work. Both have always made art on their own terms. Both were involved with older male artists. Both worked hard to keep themselves and the sacred flame of their creativity from being extinguished by others.
Letters to Gwen John is Paul's imagined correspondence with Gwen John, whose life and work have loomed so large in hers. These intimate, passionate, haunting letters allow Paul to reach across eras, to weigh up the sacrifices she has made, and to explore the rich possibilities of a life apart. With illuminating insights into the life and work of Gwen John, Letters to Gwen John is a unique form of memoir and conversation, and an unforgettable insight into a life devoted to making art.
© Celia Paul 2022 (P) Penguin Audio 2022
Critics Review
Beautiful, tender, and riveting. I have taken this book into my heart.
[A] quiet, musing, moving book of imaginary letters from one artist to another.
A miraculous, door-opening book
Since the publication of her memoir, Self-Portrait, Celia Paul has become almost as famous for her writing as her art… [In Letters to Gwen John] the analogies between the two painters – solitary, spiritual, quietly magnificent – become even clearer.
Paul interweaves John’s biography … with accounts of her own life and lyrical readings of John’s paintings … summoning a version of the artist at her most imaginative and prolific.
| Author | Celia Paul |
|---|---|
| Narrator | Rachel Bavidge |
| Duration | 7 hours and 42 minutes |
| Release Date | |
| ISBN | 9781529199147 |
| Format | Audiobook |
| Publisher | Random House |
| Genre | Biography: arts and entertainment, Diaries, letters and journals, History of art, Individual artists, art monographs, Memoirs, Portraits and self-portraiture in art, The Arts: art forms |
| Availability | AU, GB, IE |
More from the same
About xigxag
xigxag is an independent, UK-based audiobook platform and the UK’s only B Corp certified audiobook company. We offer nearly 150,000 audiobooks, all with professional human narration. No AI-generated voices. xigxag is rated an Ethical Consumer Best Buy for audiobooks and a top-rated ethical bookshop.
There is no subscription. You buy the audiobooks you want, you own them permanently, and prices start at £8.99. The more you listen over the year, the less you pay per book, and there is always a selection in Listen for Less from £3.99. You can also send audiobooks as gifts using our audiobook gift cards or in-app gifting.
Every audiobook on xigxag has honest reviews covering both the book and the narration, and our community features make it easy to share what you are listening to, discover what others recommend, and find your next listen.
Download or stream on iOS, Android, or in your browser. Browse the full catalogue at xigxag.co.uk.