Walter David Jones was born on 1 November 1895 at Brockley, Kent, then becoming part of suburban London. Because of his affinity for Welsh culture, he subscribed the name David Jones to his artwork and writings, though occasionally he added Michael as a middle name after becoming a Roman Catholic in 1921. Site and locality meant a great deal to him, and for much of his career his home was in London or its vicinity. "For practically all my life," he wrote, "[I] have lived near where Thames runs softly" (The Dying Gaul, 1978). There were childhood holidays, however, with his grandparents in North Wales; war years in France (December 1915-February 1918) and Ireland (March-December 1918); prolonged stays in Wales connected with his training as a visual artist (1924-1926), at Capel-y-ffin among the Black Mountains on the Monmouth-Breconshire border and in a Benedictine monastery on Caldey Island, Pembrokeshire; a visit to Cairo and Jerusalem...