In Parenthesis is one of the greatest works to emerge from the First World War.

'The holy book of twentieth-century visionary modernism. Ancient and brand-new, In Parenthesis is this island's book of all books, an incomparable and ever-intensifying masterpiece. It is radical, beautiful, humane and mysterious. It is a book about war that has the power to defeat death. It is a living breathing mythic miracle of a book.' Max Porter

David Jones (1895-1974) was born in Kent. In 1915, then an art student, he went to war with the Royal Welsh Fusiliers, where he fought in the battles of the Somme and Ypres. In 1922 he began a long association with the artist Eric Gill. In Parenthesis, based on Jones's experiences in World War I, was published in 1937, followed in 1952 by The Anathemata and The Sleeping Lord in 1974. David Jones's works are exhibited at the Tate Museum and the National Museum of Wales.