Presence and Place

Jeremy Hooker's journal records his close friendship over more than 40 years with the sculptor and painter Lee Grandjean. They have collaborated together and made many excursions together, and shared times at Lee's Norfolk home. Their relationship continues to be a long conversation, in which each has learnt more about the other's art, and about their affinities as image-makers and seekers of new vision in an imaginatively impoverished time. "I have no record of the date when I first met Lee Grandjean but I remember the occasion well. It was towards the beginning of my period as creative writing fellow at Winchester School of Art and I had introduced myself to the students by giving a reading of my poetry. At the end of the reading, to my astonishment, a man in a white boiler suit stood up and clapped. Nervous on this occasion, my first thought was that this was intended as satire. It was, in fact, appreciation, and this was my first encounter with Lee Grandjean, who, at that time, held a sculpture fellowship at the School of Art. We talked after the reading and it wasn't long before he was showing me the sculpture he was at work on. Thus began a creative relationship that has been, and continues to be, immensely important to both of us." -Jeremy Hooker

About the Author :
Jeremy Hooker was born in 1941 and grew up in Warsash near Southampton, and the landscape of this region has remained an important source of inspiration. Many of his poems were written in Wales, where he has lived for long periods of his life, and now lives in retirement. His academic career has taken him to universities in England, the Netherlands and the USA and he was Professor of English at the University of Glamorgan before his retirement. As well as his many collections of poetry, including a Collected Poems from Enitharmon and a large Selected Poems 1965-2018 from Shearsman Books, Hooker is also well-known as a critic and has published selections of writings by Edward Thomas and Richard Jefferies, as well as studies of David Jones and John Cowper Powys, all of them important to his own creative life. Lee Grandjean (b. 1949) is a sculptor, draughtsman and teacher, born in London, although he lived for part of his youth in Romania. He studied at North-East London Polytechnic, then Winchester School of Art. He had a studio in London, 1971-80, then moved to Reepham, Norfolk. From 1980-81 he was research fellow in sculpture at Winchester School of Art, having lectured at Wimbledon School of Art since 1976. In 1991 became sculpture tutor at Royal College of Art, appointed senior tutor from 1977. He has also worked widely as a visiting lecturer and examiner. Grandjean works in various materials and is interested in "the transformation of material" and, with non-European and ancient civilisations, shared a desire to "render raw materials into another expressive substance".