Jenny Halstead – författare

A year in the life of a garden. From the stillness of winter, unfurling through spring and summer to the contentment of autumn, this imaginative interpretation of a specific space – a twelve-acre garden within an urban university campus – exposes a secret oasis, full of surprises. This book presents the personal vision of the Artist in Residence at the Harris Garden in the University of Reading. Jenny Halstead captures the seasonal changes, portrays the stages of its renovation, and celebrates its enthusiastic workforce, especially the many volunteers. Accompanied by a history of the garden and an account of its restoration, these paintings and sketches memorialise a place in time.

The Roman Town at Silchester, Calleva Atrebatum, was a working archaeological dig – the University of Reading Field School – which took place every summer until 2014. Then, the dig was filled in, for future archaeologists to dig up again in the future. Taking advantage of the last opportunity to record ‘life on the dig’ in 2014, artist Jenny Halstead spent the summer creating and collating material for a beautiful and historically important book. Jenny’s superior draughtsmanship, her eye for colour and her wide variety of techniques have produced evocative, lively images of life “on the dig” to illustrate Michael Fulford’s fascinating account of the archaeological purpose of the project and the process by which it was conducted. From excavating, washing and cleaning the finds to teaching and arranging student entertainment, the final summer of the Town Life Project is captured here in all its richness – a fitting and enduring record of this historic episode in the life of an ancient city.