House clearances, charity shops, jumble sales and skips… 
The significance of everyday possessions, heightened by absence…
If objects could talk of the dead, what would they say?

Book blurb

Taking in its sights ‘the significance of everyday possessions’, All that Remains is a powerful and poignant collection resulting from a collaboration between disciplines of art. 

Featuring ten beautiful full-page paintings, interwoven with poems, it forces us to consider what we leave behind in the everyday items we have amassed.

My thoughts

Mute Objects of Expression | Comb | Hair Dryer with painting | Shoe Brush | Sandals/Father/Ghana 1943 with painting | Book | Spider in Copal/Great Aunt/New Zealand 1932 with painting | Postcard | Purse and Image/Brother/India 1973 with painting | Perfume Bottle | CD | Estée Lauder Lipstick/Aunt/Wiltshire 2022 with painting | Trowel | Glove/Aunt/London 2018 with painting | Garden Ornament (Bird) | Fuzzypeg/Child/Somerset 1956 with painting | Sweater | Crochet Heart/Sister/Canada 2008 with painting | Memory Box | Cassette (Unplayed)/Mother/Somerset 1973 with painting | Photograph | Book/Father/Sierra Leone 1941 with painting

Memories evoked by an everyday object of someone who is now lost to us in this life. Each of us can relate not necessarily to each specific object but to the action of clearing, of remembering, of loss and of how a small everyday object can evoke such strong emotions bringing that loved one back in a moment if only for a moment.

The hole that is left after a loved one dies cannot be filled except with love and kept alive through our memories. The interaction between objects, memories and love. Is that person really there in that object? They touched it, wore it and seeing it, smelling it fills you with them. It is bittersweet, it is memory, it is love.

This is a beautiful collection of thoughts brought about by objects that belonged to a loved one of that loved one. It is a moving and powerful collection that speaks to the reader about loss, grief and the everyday objects that instantly makes us remember them. It is a small but beautifully produced book with gorgeous art and a wonderful collection of poetry that describes the interaction with everyday objects evoking our memories of a loved one perfectly.

Book: Purchased – through my Renard Press subscription

NovNov24

Check out our hosts for this years NovNov24 for all the information you will need to get involved. If you join in I hope you’ll have a great time as this is such an enjoyable challenge.

Host – Cathy @ 746books | Host – Rebecca @ bookishbeck

Where to add your links – introduction and review links for NovNov24.

Information

Published: Renard Press | 02/09/2024 | ISBN:9781804471296 | 56 pages, 10 Illustrations

Buy: Renard Press | Hive | Bookshop.org (affiliate link) | Your local bookshop | Your local library

Authors

Sarah Hemings: Sarah Hemings is a poet and chartered librarian from Bristol. Her debut pamphlet, Night after Night in the Quiet House, was published on National Poetry Day 2022. She has won First Prize in the Gloucestershire Writers’ Network Poetry Competition on three occasions and is currently working towards her first full collection.

Vanessa Clegg: Vanessa Clegg trained in Fine Art Painting. She later studied Theatre Design in London, where she worked in animation, theatre and film. A frequent exhibitor at the RWA, she won First Prize at the 2020 ‘Open’ for Watercolour. Vanessa now has a studio at East Quay in Watchet.