This is a stunningly presented, beautifully written book produced by the National Library of Wales, with Peter Lord's lucid and authoritative text sharing space with magnificent reproductions of the paintings in Winifred Coombe Tennant's 'Welsh Collection', as well as numerous photographs.Born into a wealthy family, Winifred Margaret Pierce-Serocold spent her childhood and early years travelling the world. In 1895, she met and married Charles Coombe Tennant and went to live in his family home in Neath. It must have been an extraordinary, whirlwind romance (they met in Italy in September and were married three months later; she was just 20 and he was 22 years her senior) and her life was clearly full of other, similarly extraordinary events and relationships. But Peter Lord is an art historian whose focus here is on Winifred's role in the visual culture of Wales and, although her personality and personal life are often touched upon, he remains admirably circumspect about the psychology and private life of this fascinating woman who, following her marriage and move to Wales, developed a 'deep respect for Welsh cultural tradition' and went on to collaborate with Isaac Williams, Curator of Art at the National Museum of Wales, and Grant Murray, first Curator of the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery in Swansea, to give 'Welsh culture a higher public profile and [.] better support system than it had ever before enjoyed'. Her personal contribution to promoting Welsh art and crafts was enormous: she was deeply involved in the annual National Eisteddfod; she advised the Glynn Vivian, in particular, on acquisitions; and she supported numerous young Welsh artists by offering them advice, purchasing and commissioning paintings from them, and drawing the attention of other potential patrons, both private and public, to their work. In later life, she was, for example, one of Kyffin Williams's most important early patrons.

I would have loved a bibliography, which is strangely lacking, since Peter Lord's enthralling insights into the life of Winifred Coombe Tennant and the many Welsh artists and cultural and political figures with whom she was associated whets the appetite to learn more about this important period of Welsh art history.Suzy Ceulan HughesIt is possible to use this review for promotional purposes, but the following acknowledgment should be included: A review from www.gwales.com, with the permission of the Welsh Books Council.Gellir defnyddio'r adolygiad hwn at bwrpas hybu, ond gofynnir i chi gynnwys y gydnabyddiaeth ganlynol: Adolygiad oddi ar www.gwales.com, trwy ganiat'd Cyngor Llyfrau Cymru.