“I have been making pottery all my life and in terms of identity, who I am and what I do, there is something very straightforward about sitting down at a potter’s wheel with a piece of clay and making something out of it. Transforming something is pretty much the alpha and omega of my life.” Edmund de Waal was six years old when he discovered his passion for pottery. It has never left him, but it has not monopolised him: he is now a well-known writer as well as a pre-eminent potter. It has triggered deep research into his colourful yet often painful Jewish family history, fostered a preoccupation with the meaning of exile, and has led him to a philosophy where curiosity, movement and transformation are guiding principles.
A conversation with de Waal is exhilarating, wide-ranging, provocative and never long enough to explore all the ideas and…
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