Somerville Press is a book publisher based near Bantry , West Cork , Ireland. Our publishing programme incorporates both fiction and non-fiction, mainly of Irish interest. We also distribute various titles for other publishers.
Bricks and Flowers by Katherine Everett was originally published in 1949 and received excellent reviews. This extraordinary memoir tells of the author’s difficult upbringing in Cahernane House near Killarney where her mother brought her up on the Peerage and Anglo-Catholic theology. She was eventually rescued by an aunt and brought to England, where she studied art. Her subsequent career largely involved gardening and building, mainly in England, but also in San Martino near Florence and in a large house outside Dublin during the Civil War. Her book also contains fascinating descriptions of some of her many friends and acquaintances, including Oscar Wilde, George Moore, Augustus John and Rodin.
‘A fascinating book.’ A.A. Milne, The Sunday Times
‘Warmly recommended.’ The Spectator
‘These are enchanting memoirs.’ The Sphere
'idiosyncratic and highly readable memoir' The Oldie
"Hers is the wittiest and most self definingly eccentric account of Anglo-Irish talent, taste and sheer resistance to extinction I’ve read. It brings a vanished world alive."
Caroline Jackson, Country Life
"This timeless memoir is packed with anecdotes, and sparkles with vitality" Lavinia Greacen Books Ireland
The author Katherine Everett was born in 1872 in Cahernane House just outside Killarney in County Kerry, one of five children of Henry and Catherine Herbert. She subsequently moved to England and attended the Slade School of Art and married a fellow student, Herbert Everett. She was somewhat nomadic, living variously in British Columbia, Italy, Ireland (where she got involved in the Civil War) and various parts of England, but eventually found her métier as a house-builder and garden designer. Her much acclaimed memoir, Bricks and Flowers, was published in 1949, and she later published a book of short stories called Walk with Me. She died in 1954.
We are based in Dromore, Bantry, Co. Cork, Ireland. We can be contacted by telephone on 00353 (0) 28 32873 or 00353 (0) 87 233 1970, and by email at somervillepress@gmail.com
Our books are distributed in the UK by Central Books, 50 Freshwater Rd, London RM8 1RX, and in the US by Casemate, 1950 Lawrence Road, Haverton PA 19083.
Somerville Press also incorporates RUSSELL BOOK REPRESENTATION, a publishers' sales agency covering the whole of Ireland. The publishers we represent include Hurst Publishers (www.hurstpublishers.com), W.W. Norton & Company Ltd. (www.wwnorton co.uk) and Reaktion Books Ltd. (www.reaktionbooks.co.uk).