Beyond East and West: Memoirs, Portraits and Essays

"In our time, Bernard Leach has done for pottery what Henry Moore has done for scuplture. This ...infinitely rewarding book is an account of his pilgrimage through life". ("Times"). Bernard Leach (1887-1979) was as renowned in Japan and the East as in Europe and America, both as an artist-craftsman and as a thinker. His interpretation of the traditions of the Orient in the making of pots - and in evolving a philosophy of life - was a lodestar for many potters in the West. "Beyond East and West", first published in 1978, is more than an autobiography. Full of sharply-etched and amusing recollections, it contains much of Leach's deeper thought and a great deal too about the practical application of his ideas. Its recurrent theme is the meeting of East and West at all levels - artistic, cultural, social, political.