First published in 1966, this acclaimed Irish classic is an account of time as an apprentice stonecarver by a craftsman who was one of Ireland’s most respected sculptors. The young Seamus Murphy, studying modelling at the Crawford School of Art in Cork in the 1920s, took the unusual step of apprenticing himself to a master stone carver to learn the ancient craft of the mason.
‘Stone Mad’ tells the story of his seven years of growing knowledge of the challenges and joys of stone – and of the men who worked it. His artistic feeling for quality responded to his workmates’ reverence for the ‘well made thing’. The result is a book of surpassing beauty, full of warmth, humour and profound perception.
