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Clay

A Human History
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( 44 ratings, 5 reviews)
Brief Description
'An engrossing history of the deep connection between humans and clay' – Katherine May, author of Enchantment 'Fascinating and powerful' – Brian Eno Clay: A Human History is baked into our culture: we have been taking handfuls of earth and forming them into their own image... Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
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A human history told through clay, from the critically acclaimed author of The Foghorn's Lament

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'An engrossing history of the deep connection between humans and clay' – Katherine May, author of Enchantment 'Fascinating and powerful' – Brian Eno

Clay: A Human History is baked into our culture: we have been taking handfuls of earth and forming them into their own image since our history began. In Clay: A Human History, Jennifer Lucy Allan navigates the story of humankind and our relationship to making and creativity through our relationship with this enigmatic, ancient material.

Born out of a desire to know and understand the spiritual and practical applications of clay in both its micro and macro histories, Clay: A Human History is a hybrid of archaeology, history and lived experience as an amateur potter.

'I have loved learning from every chapter in this beautiful and affecting book' – Vashti Bunyan

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781399607650

Publisher: Orion Publishing Co

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 12 June 2025

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: White Rabbit

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 24.0mm

Width: 128.0mm

Height: 196.0mm

Weight: 220g

Pages: 320

About the Author

Jennifer Lucy Allan is an author, journalist and broadcaster with a PhD in foghorns. Her first book, The Foghorn's Lament, was published in May 2021. She is a presenter on BBC Radio 3's long running music show, Late Junction, and presented Life, Death and the Foghorn, and Oh Yoko! for BBC Radio 4. As a journalist she has written on underground and experimental music for over 15 years, and also co-ran the record labels Arc Light Editions and Good Energy.

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  • The Foghorn's Lament
    'A truly unusual and strangely revealing lens through which to view music and history and the dark life of the sea' - Brian Eno 'As memorable, pleasurable and irrational as all the highest quests' - John Higgs 'A perfect example of the power and beauty of industrial music' - Cosey Fanni Tutti What does the foghorn sound like? It sounds...
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  • Clay
    Clay contains infinite possibilities in its transmutations, evidenced on the shelves of our homes, our galleries, and museums. Every time we make something with clay, we engage with the timelines that are in the material itself, whether it was dug from a clifftop, riverbed, or pit. In firing what we make, we bestow the material with function, meaning, or feeling,...
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