Dear Mercia, edited by Janet Boulton and with an introduction by Clare Colvin, was published over 30 years ago in 1991. Each copy is bound in paste paper made by Clare Maziarczyk (a very similar paper to the one that now provides the wonderful cover for our small book on Vivien Gribble), housed in a slipcase, and contains a folded copy of ‘The Pink Man’, an illustration from Letter 26, in a pocket at the rear of the book.

The book details Paul Nash’s letters to childhood friend Mercia Oakley. Paul and Mercia first met as neighbours and Paul’s letters to her are an important record of his early development in both life and work; few groups of Nash’s letters from this period survive. As Colvin’s introduction concludes:

‘These letters to Mercia capture Nash’s youth, his innocence and his receptive mind. They complement his autobiographical fragment Outline, in both time and spirit, but Outline was a retrospective piece written with hindsight and maturity many years later. These letters are unedited and speak directly with the freshness and vigour of a youthful heart.’

These books, recently rediscovered at the Fleece Press, are now for sale for £45 + £4 postage, or, if bought with any other book, for £20.

To order this book, please email me at simon@fleecepress.com (the button below can be used if you have email set up on your device’s Mail app) or call me on 07535 220869.