Walk: Into the Crucible – with artist Garry Fabian Miller and writer Fiona Williams
Sunday May 3rd, 10:00 – 13:00, Dunstone Down
How do places feed our creativity? ‘The Crucible’ is an imagined circle around the Dartmoor home of legendary photographer Garry Fabian Miller, where he has walked daily for nearly 40 years. It is the source of the pictures he has made, coming from his experiences in this place. For writer Fiona Williams, the West Country landscape plays a similarly critical role in the genesis and development of her creative practice as seen in her debut novel, The House of Broken Bricks. Join Garry and Fiona for a walk into the heart of the Crucible, along the great ridge of Hameldown. They will share their thoughts on our relationship to place, home, nature and culture, and how this feeds into our imaginative life.
Garry Fabian Miller has lived and worked on Dartmoor for nearly 40 years. His work is held in private and public collections across the world including the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Metropolitan Museum, New York. He is an honorary fellow at the Bodleian Library Oxford, who published his memoir Dark Room. In December he has a new show – Between The Moon and The Hawthorn – opening at the Ashmolean in Oxford. This brings together his work made in the Crucible with Samuel Palmer’s pictures of 1825-30 made in the place he called The Valley of Visions in Shoreham, Kent.
Fiona Williams is a novelist based in Devon. Her first novel, The House of Broken Bricks, set in the Somerset levels, was winner of the 2021 Bridport Prize First Novel Award and shortlisted for the 2025 Diverse Book Awards. She is currently the Ambassador of the Exeter Novel Award and was selected as one of the National Centre for Writing’s ILX 10: Rising Stars of UK Writing 2025/26. Her writing focuses primarily on the relationships between identity, belonging, nature and landscape. Currently she is working a collection of contemporary folktales exploring Britain’s long history of multiculturalism.
TICKETS: £20 BOOK HERE: KEY INFORMATION BELOW
Photos: Garry Fabian Miller by Emma Stoner, Fiona Robertson courtesy the artist, Shadow Moon 2023 by Garry Fabian Miller (Light, water, c-type print from unique dye destruction print).
Meeting Place: Free car park SX 7074 7633, Dunstone Down, this west of Widecombe in the Moor, on the minor road to towards Ponsworthy. Here is a link on google maps Dunstone Down car park – see also the map below. What Three Words: confused.download.cookie Please arrive 15 minutes before the start time and car-share if possible. The car park can take about 15 cars
Time: 10:00 The walk will start promptly at 10am.
Length: 6.5km approximately
Terrain: Open moorland track, some ascents and some rough ground
Dogs: well behaved dogs on leads are permitted.
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