{"schema_version":"bf_book_companion_v1","release_id":"20261010T034321Z-reviewed-full-unique-works","book":{"amazon_purchase_url":"https://www.amazon.com/dp/1805331566?tag=bookfrontie00-20","asin":"1805331566","authors":["Ithell Colquhoun"],"book_id":"9781805331568","canonical_url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/the-crying-of-the-wind-9781805331568","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781805331568.jpg?v=822531ecd331ed1a","description":"A classic travelogue exploring the meeting point of Ireland's landscape and legends, by Britain's foremost female surrealist painter “Colquhoun has a very beguiling pen. . . To Irish landscapes she brings a painter's eye, writing particularly beautifully about skies, twilights, river valleys, sea-frayed coasts and the intensive atmosphere of remote places” — Tatler Into the world of 1950s Ireland—a lushly green, windswept landscape studded with holy wells and the decaying country houses of a vanished ruling class—arrives Ithell Colquhoun. An occultist and a surrealist painter, Colquhoun's travels around the island are guided by her artist's eye and her feeling for the world beyond our own, as well as her spikily humorous view of the people she meets. We encounter faeries and pagan rituals, ruined churches and Celtic splendour, rowdy bohemians and Anglo-Irish landowners fallen on hard times, as the author carouses through Dublin and tramps the hills of Connemara in this classic travelogue. Through her unique perceptions we discover a land that is fiercely alive and compelling. It is a place where the wind cries, the stones tell old tales and the mountains watch over the roads and those who travel on them. By intuiting the eerie magic of Ireland, Colquhoun casts her own spell. She offers up a land of myth and legend, stripped of its modern signs, at the same time offering herself to the reader in this portrait of the artist as a young woman. Richly visual and full of sly wit, this is an account of Ireland as only Colquhoun could see it, a land where myth and magic meet wind and rain, and the song of the secret kingdom is heard on city streets.","forthcoming":false,"isbn13":"9781805331568","publication_date":"20250805","publisher":"Pushkin Press","slug":"the-crying-of-the-wind","subtitle":"Ireland","title":"The Crying of the Wind"},"discovery":{"categories":{"all":[{"bisac_code":"TRV009100","confidence_band":"high","label":"Ireland Travel","score":0.7801,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"TRV026090","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Literary Travel","score":0.7383,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"TRV009070","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Great Britain Travel","score":0.7113,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"hint":[{"bisac_code":"TRV009100","confidence_band":"high","label":"Ireland Travel","score":0.7801,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"TRV026090","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Literary Travel","score":0.7383,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"TRV009070","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Great Britain Travel","score":0.7113,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"publisher":[{"bisac_code":"BIO001000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Artists' Lives","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"SOC011000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Folklore & Mythology","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"TRV009100","confidence_band":"high","label":"Ireland Travel","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"}]},"genres":[{"label":"Ireland Travel","score":0.7801,"slug":"ireland-travel"},{"label":"Literary Travel","score":0.7383,"slug":"literary-travel"},{"label":"Great Britain Travel","score":0.7113,"slug":"great-britain-travel"}],"reader_fit":["Readers drawn to richly visual literary travel writing about Ireland","Good for readers interested in Irish landscape, folklore, and myth"],"related_lists":[],"series":null,"similar_books":[{"authors":["Lady Jane Francesca Agnes Wilde"],"book_id":"9781649740229","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781649740229.jpg?v=1cf0a1d6c93b387c","score":0.7233,"title":"Ancient Legends of Ireland","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781649740229"},{"authors":["Peter Neville"],"book_id":"9781623717988","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781623717988.jpg?v=8487fd5284d8c343","score":0.7104,"title":"A Traveller's History of Ireland","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781623717988"},{"authors":["Christopher Winn"],"book_id":"9781250088574","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781250088574.jpg?v=2d4a3b1f8e64f29b","score":0.6999,"title":"I Never Knew That About Ireland","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781250088574"}],"topics":[{"evidence_refs":["keyword:art history"],"label":"History","score":0.4536,"slug":"history"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:travel gifts"],"label":"Travel","score":0.0878,"slug":"travel"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:biography"],"label":"Biography","score":0.0744,"slug":"biography"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:biographies"],"label":"Biographies","score":0.0616,"slug":"biographies"}],"what_you_get":["Themes: Irish landscapes, Myth and folklore.","Themes: History, Travel, Biography.","Reading lane: Ireland Travel and Literary Travel."]},"llm_signals":{"confidence":0.94,"pacing":"unknown","reader_fit":["Readers drawn to richly visual literary travel writing about Ireland","Readers interested in Irish landscape, folklore, and myth"],"themes":["Irish landscapes","Myth and folklore"],"tropes":[]},"source_presence":{"amazon":true,"book_detail":true,"goodreads":true,"llm_signals":true,"similarity_seed":true},"stats":{"amazon_ratings_count":28,"goodreads_ratings_count":70,"goodreads_reviews_count":15,"quality_score":0.8756}}