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Golden Stones
Cowes, Isle of Wight
by GUS JONSSON
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NEW TITLE PUBLISHED 21st OCTOBER 2024
"One day, a beautiful day, a day filled by warmth and sunshine, probably not too long from now, when I am happy and ready to meet my maker, you will find me upon the beach of golden stones…"
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A collection of poetry and prose detailing memories of an idiosyncratic childhood on the Isle of Wight, whilst emotively confronting the peculiarities of ageing, memory, and the mutability of life.
Published 21 October 2024 / ISBN 9781916379138 / 110pp
paperback £10.00 (free p&p) / eBook £6.00
Poetry & Prose
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Paperback available now direct from BRANDiCAT via PayPal.
Please include a mailing address with your order.
Measuring the Moments
by GUS JONSSON
LONGLISTED FOR THE ISLE OF WIGHT BOOK AWARDS 2022
An accomplished and sensitive collection of poetry and prose reflecting Gus Jonsson's unique ability to capture and measure moments.​
“The nearby mainland was hiding
Behind curtains of mist
Fading thin lines of indigo
Against the skyline
Salt and sand stinging my face
Blinding my eyes
I was home at last”​
Published 13 December 2021 / ISBN 9781916379121 / 126pp
paperback £10.00 (free p&p) / eBook £5.00
Poetry & Prose​
Paperback available now direct from BRANDiCAT via PayPal.
Please include a mailing address with your order.​
Vectis Days
Childhood memories from the Isle of Wight
by GUS JONSSON
VOL. 2 OF GUS JONSSON'S TALES ABOUT GROWING UP ON THE ISLAND IN THE 1950s IS AVAILABLE NOW FROM BRANDiCAT
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Memories are never easy. They fade and curl like old photographs in sunlight or trap you in whirlpools of sudden remembrances. The echoes of bitter days and stormy nights, of trials and travails of family and ill health, of loves found and loves lost.
For Gus, childhood on the Isle of Wight had never been easy either. There were days when the sun shone and the sea was a warm and welcoming azure, yet the harrowing spectre of a home life with his mother was forever present.
And so he made the island his home.
With his gang of friends, it was theirs to roam, to explore and enjoy, and a sanctuary where adventure was – often literally – a stone’s throw away.
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Published 26 July 2021 / ISBN 9781916379114 / 144pp
paperback £8.99 (free p&p) / eBook £5.00
Autobiography, Prose & Poetry
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Paperback available now direct from BRANDiCAT via PayPal.
Please include a mailing address with your order.
Vectis Voices
A boy's memories of the Isle of Wight
by GUS JONSSON
VOL. 1 OF GUS JONSSON'S TALES ABOUT GROWING UP ON THE ISLAND IN THE 1950s IS AVAILABLE FROM BRANDiCAT
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At bedtime at his grandmother’s he would steal down to an old wooden trunk at the foot of the bed.
From within he would take several old shoeboxes, each filled with garishly coloured postcards, letters and old curling photographs.
Nurtured by their fading sepia and yellowing envelopes pungent with age, spilling with mystery, a seed of memory would be planted.
His life’s journey into imagination, colour and poetry had begun.
A journey of words and voices.
Voices that he would hear repeatedly throughout the rest of his life...
The Vectis Voices.
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Published 24 March 2020 / ISBN 9781916379107 / 132pp
paperback £8.99 (free p&p) / eBook £5.00 (rrp £6.00)
Autobiography, Prose & Poetry
​
Paperback available now direct from BRANDiCAT via PayPal.
Please include a mailing address with your order.
Gus Jonsson
"Came then the silver shingle upon the sand
Came the tides and salt green sea
The forever music of my island
Held tight within a singing shell"
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Gus Jonsson is one of the Isle of Wight’s most descriptive storytellers. His childhood memories of growing up on the island in the 1950s are recalled in his two enthralling autobiographies, Vectis Voices and Vectis Days.
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Each volume explores family, friendships, loves found and lost, austerity, health, wellbeing and social acceptance within a small community in a post-war, working-class society.
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Gus's memoirs are essential reading for islanders — and for everyone who appreciates great prose and poetry.
“To enable my story to be told, I have chosen to utilise sketches, paintings, old sepia curling family snaps and postcards, all of which exist forever in my mind’s eye. Therefore, the vehicles of prose and poetry of these mid-twentieth century memories are the conduit by which they are written and recorded.”
— Gus Jonsson
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