AEI Gallery | Brent

An English Impressionist: Gallery

Here are a few images that might add to the reading of the novel. The photos were taken in September 2016 as I was starting to piece together scenes for the story.

Captions, where relevant, are taken directly from the text of the novel.

* Click on a picture for an enlarged view

To recreate the atmosphere of the book’s Part One, the first three images must be reimagined in the gloom of night-time!

…he arrived at a barrier of fixed wooden posts blocking access to the perimeter walls. As expected it was firmly shut and a familiar notice posted at eye level as a warning to trespassers: CHANTIER INTERDIT AU PUBLIC

…allowing him to squeeze through and on to the flat grassed expanse that is bound on three sides by the long rim of stone.

…the tortuous blade of the Dordogne as it cuts west through the silent, shadowy valley.

We called it a garden but you might think of it rather as a field: a large flat field, close to one hectare, I would say, which rises and tapers to a crest at the far end, a field planted to this day with neat lines of walnut trees, more than one hundred, enchanting to us children, a vast open playground to explore or a space which offered quiet hidden corners for a moment of solitude. (Part 2, chapter 1)

The Château de Castlenaud loomed ahead, partly hidden by the trees clinging to the hillside, its pale stone ramparts catching the sun, rising into the sky. (Part 3, chapter 12)

As they drifted beneath the central arch of a wide, cream-stone bridge, Penny found himself paddling alone; his passenger was transfixed by the fleeting view of the castle…

…the nemesis of Beynac came into view, a second seat of power in local stone, defensively set to face the river’s approach,…

…a marker to the enemy offering a supreme challenge to the reckless English, perched unfeasibly high and on the very edge of the sheerest of cliffs. (Part 3, chapter 12)

A little way beyond was a stony beach where they could take a rest, a sip of water,…

…a photo of the château and its spectacular seat. (Part 3, chapter 12)

The great bird, mercury grey, was already fidgety. (Part 3, chapter 3)

The climb is harder now, his legs feel like logs of wood,… (Part 3, chapter 22)

He stops and sits on a low wall to catch his breath. One or two tourists nod to him as they pass on their way down the narrow, uneven steps.

…the wall runs down to a lower space, to the squat rectangular chapel, to the perimeter of a flat area of lawn, to what looks like the corner of a small church garden.

Way down in the bosom of the valley he spots the shape of a tourist boat steering its languid course around the bend.

Below him is a dizzying emptiness, an unforgiving drop of hundreds of feet to the rocky outcrops (…) then further down to a knot of treetops… (Part 3, chapter 22)