Ellie Evelyn Orrell – författare

I follow the patterns in ever-widening circles. Gathering dust in the heat of summer. Rainwater in all seasons. Occasional snow, glimpsed in the kernel of a persimmon seed. Bramble, acorn, hawthorn and cherry. Tracing the lines of a landscape and the patterns of a year. Towards a greater appreciation of what was there all along.Along the seasons of a year, Gathering Days recalls the ways in which the act of collecting might offer a sense of purpose in times of uncertainty. Walks across the fields and coasts of Wales bring encounters with stories from elsewhere – a quiet garden in Kyoto or a lamplit street in Seville.Woven together, these contemplations of land, self and place form a memoir that celebrates the small yet miraculous moments of everyday life, while asking the question of how we might steady ourselves against a landscape.

‘There is a certain feeling – standing between rows of richly dyed blue cloth – that you are within an enclave of protection, that within this ocean you can feel calm; a separation from the outside world.’One summer, a mother and daughter are reunited in the small village of Betws Gwerful Goch in North Wales following the death of a father and grandfather. Ellie returned from studying at university, while Jeanette had been studying the art of indigo dyeing in Japan. In this lyrical memoir, Ellie Evelyn Orrell transports readers to their hillside garden, reflecting on a summer spent learning to work with indigo, and witnessing the power of creativity in moments of mourning and recovery. In it, she weaves together stories of resettling in a once-familiar landscape; the healing powers of art; the historical, mythological and present day properties of indigo; and the presence of this indelible colour within the Welsh landscape.An Indigo Summer is an absorbing meditation on art, rural life and roots, grief, creativity and the artistic process.

‘There is a certain feeling – standing between rows of richly dyed blue cloth – that you are within an enclave of protection, that within this ocean you can feel calm; a separation from the outside world.’One summer, a mother and daughter are reunited in the small village of Betws Gwerful Goch in North Wales following the death of a father and grandfather. Ellie returned from studying at university, while Jeanette had been studying the art of indigo dyeing in Japan. In this lyrical memoir, Ellie Evelyn Orrell transports readers to their hillside garden, reflecting on a summer spent learning to work with indigo, and witnessing the power of creativity in moments of mourning and recovery. In it, she weaves together stories of resettling in a once-familiar landscape; the healing powers of art; the historical, mythological and present day properties of indigo; and the presence of this indelible colour within the Welsh landscape.An Indigo Summer is an absorbing meditation on art, rural life and roots, grief, creativity and the artistic process.