One of a series exploring the lives and work of major artists associated with St Ives, this book looks at the potter Bernard Leach. It provides a critical overview of his art and influences, and places him alongside his contemporaries, both in St Ives and further afield. In the early part of his career Leach spent 12 formative years in Japan, during a period of febrile excitement in the arts, and returned to England in 1920 to set up a studio in St Ives. His influence on the growth of the studio-pottery movement, both in Japan and in the West, has been profound, and his making of ceramics and his teaching of some of the foremost artist-potters of the period gives him a central place in the international history of decorative arts.