BOOKS: Portrait of the Artist; John Minton: Dance till the Stars Come Down, by Frances Spalding, Lund Humphries Pounds 35/ Gertrude Stein, A Woman without Qualities, by G F Mitrano, Ashgate, Pounds 49.95. Review by Richard Edmonds

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Byline: by Richard Edmonds

When I first encountered John Minton's work many years ago it was in book form - the artist as illustrator - when books were, in fact, cheaper than they are today.

The book in question was Time Was Away - A Corsican notebook, by Alan Ross, which Minton illustrated with his usual strong line drawings depicting Corsican ports, fisherfolk, and its powerful landscape.

Originally published in 1948, Time Was Away came into my possession many years later when I found it at a bring and buy charity book sale for pounds 1.

Today, the same book has soared up to a couple of hundred pounds.

Minton's life and work (since the two …