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The White Road

A pilgrimage of sorts

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The White Road

By: Edmund de Waal
Narrated by: Michael Maloney
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About this listen

Book of the Week on BBC Radio 4

"Other things in the world are white, but for me porcelain comes first."

A handful of clay from a Chinese hillside carries a promise: that mixed with the right materials, it might survive the fire of the kiln and fuse into porcelain - translucent, luminous, white.

Acclaimed writer and potter Edmund de Waal sets out on a quest - a journey that begins in the dusty city of Jingdezhen in China and travels on to Venice, Versailles, Dublin, Dresden, the Appalachian Mountains of South Carolina and the hills of Cornwall to tell the history of porcelain.

Along the way he meets the witnesses to its creation - those who were inspired or made rich or heartsick by it and the many whose livelihoods, minds and bodies were broken by this obsession. It spans a thousand years and reaches into some of the most tragic moments of recent times.

In these intimate and compelling encounters with the people and landscapes who made porcelain, Edmund de Waal enriches his understanding of this rare material, the ‘white gold' he has worked with for decades.

©2015 Edmund de Waal (P)2015 Random House AudioBooks Adventure Travel Art Biographies & Memoirs Europe Travel Writing & Commentary

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Profile Image for Blair

A beautiful surprising wonderful book

Finally finished the white road. I’ve been listening to it on repeat for 5 months but kept stopping before the end. The ending however is beautiful and perfect and makes me feel a swell of pride towards the author and artist. I think Edmund De Wall should be taught about in art schools all over. His view on the creative process is fascinating and his life is well, amazing but very well earned. His two books have kept me company and feeling safe in some of on hardest loneliest moments. I do suggest everyone read the Hare with Amber eyes and the white road, you don’t need to like art to like either, the man is a master writer as well as potter and his stories are increasingly researched as well as introspective and beautiful:

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