The Place of Stones

The Place of Stones includes five new and previously unpublished essays, namely, ‘The Pink & White Terraces’, ‘On Stones’, ‘Luogo di Pietra’, ‘Waterfall’ and ‘Beyond Tnorala’. New Zealand-born and resident in Sydney, Australia, Edmond ranges across both countries in these powerfully evocative essays, and sometimes, too, into realms of dream and the imagination. The book has an epigraph from Charles Olson: ‘I hunt among stones’. Martin writes: 'Since a young age I have randomly picked up stones & some of these I have kept about me for a shorter or longer time. There is something planetary about stones & familiarity with individuals seems only to increase their mystery; and yet what could be plainer? These pieces attempt to survey some small aspects of that vast field that lies between the stones & the stars; inevitably, perhaps, they tend to resolve into essays on landscape, past, present or future.' The essays are accompanied by nine colour photographs by Maggie Hall who came to the medium via digital technologies; she is currently studying the older, analogue forms, especially developing and printing, at Newcastle TAFE. This is her second book length collaboration with Martin Edmond.