Brenda Chamberlain

Brenda Chamberlain was born in Bangor in 1912. She studied at the Royal Academy, but gave up painting temporarily for poetry during the Second World War, while she was living at Llanllechid, near Bethesda in Caernarfonshire. It was during this period that The Caseg Broadsheets was produced; the venture is described in Alun Lewis and the Making of the Caseg Broadsheets (1969). The Green Heart (1958) reflects both her time in Llanllechid and her experiences in Germany, which she visited in 1946. In 1962 she published her most important prose work, Tide-Race, an evocation of life on the island of Barsdsey. Her only novel, The Water Castle (1964), again draws on her experiences in post-war Germany. In 1961 Chamberlain moved to the Greek island of Ydra, where she remained until the colonels’ coup overthrew democracy in Greece. A Rope of Vines (1965) describes her life there. Poems with Drawings (1969) was published after her return to Bangor.

This work offers a lively account of Brenda Chamberlain’s life together with a detailed analysis of her poems and prose. It draws on the strong recollections of many friends to sketch a portrait of this complex, sensitive and imaginative Welsh writer and artist.