St Ives is unique in British art history. Between the Second World War and the 1970s, many progressive artists chose to work and often settle around this small port in the far west of Cornwall.

Michael Bird opens up new ground in exploring connections - often unexpected - between the St Ives artists and contemporary developments in society, literature and other fields. As the idealism of pre-war constructivism was transformed by St Ives artists in the post-war decades, he shows how local themes of landscape and community reflected much wider social and cultural changes during the Austerity era and beyond.

For the first time, this book fully integrates the St Ives artists into the cultural narrative of twentieth-century Britain, especially from the 1930s onwards. It ranges from the intense hopes that accompanied the Labour victory in 1945 to the explosion of consumerism and American influence in the 1950s, and beatnik youth culture of the 1960s - all of which connected interestingly with St Ives. The artists emerge as vivid and very different personalities, as often embroiled in conflict as in any shared artistic agenda.

Drawing on fresh research, Michael Bird has created a fascinating and highly readable account of St Ives and its artists. The question 'What was St Ives art really about?' is often asked. This book provides some authoritative, provocative and entertaining answers.

Contents: Acknowledgements; Introduction: Outside the Glass; Arrival, 1946; Artists and Gentlemen: A Short Colonial History; Connecting Circles: A Detour via Hampstead; Leaders must Migrate: St Ives 1938-45; Landscape with Wild Men: The Postwar Influx; Partisans: Community Politics in the Early 1950s; Getting Social-Personal: Class and Contacts; Keep it Real: Trouble with Abstraction; Western Horizons: Views Across the Atlantic, 1956-60; Home Ground: Women Artists in St Ives; Spaced Out: Into the 1960s; Terrible Times Together: The Poetry of Departures, 1965-75; Notes; Select Bibliography; List of illustrations; Index of People and Places.

About the Author: Michael Bird is a freelance writer, editor and broadcaster based in St Ives and is author of Sandra Blow (Lund Humphries 2005).

Reviews: A guidebook gives facts but many visitors are hungry for a deeper sense of the spirit of place. Every street in St Ives in Cornwall has been polished by many eyes, yet the town isn't easily known. Michael Bird's The St Ives Artists: A Biography of Place and Time (Lund Humphries) opens doors to a hidden past. His wit and readability make light of his meticulous research, and his narrative approach makes this a compelling story. There are entertaining anecdotes about wild times and warring egos, but there is also a deep understanding of the cost of this art to its makers. St Ives is one town in the Mediterranean glitter of its sunny days, and another as the mist comes down and the light vanishes. In the same way light and darkness alternate in the lives of its artists. Bird writes illuminatingly about Peter Lanyon's painting, his restless spirit and early death, but one of the most moving stories in the book is that of the friendship between the painter Roger Hilton and the poet WS Graham. Alcoholism, loneliness and depression scarred their days but at the same time there is an elation there and an intimacy that survives all the mutually assured destruction. As Graham wrote on the death of Hilton: "I loved him and we had / terrible times together" ("Lines on Roger Hilton's Watch"). Those who read this book and visit St Ives will see some of the ghosts that make sense of the present day. The Guardian

'The setting of St Ives within a particular post-war cultural history and the comparisons with literary culture are very important and successful.' Chris Stephens, Tate Britain

'A most enjoyable read' - The Royal Academy Magazine 2008

'A fascinating and highly readable account of St Ives and its artists' - Cornwall Life 2008

'... a book of startling anecdotal richness and imaginative historical reinterpretation ... a broad and thorough analysis of the sociological and cultural context of the St Ives phenomenon.' The Art Book