The writer John Cowper Powys had a certain affinity with the landscape and people of Wales. His decision to spend the latter half of his life there was to fulfil a longing to return to the land of his ancestry. The landscape, mythology and history fed his creativity as well as suited his philosophy of elementalism, contemplation and solitude. 

In response to a letter from a friend, asking if he would ever return to England, he alludes to this connection to Wales and describes pursuing something just outside his grasp, likening it to a mirage.

Powys spent the last nine years of his life in the slate quarrying town of Blaenau Ffestiniog. My encounter with the mountains surrounding this town was fleeting, but left a lasting imprint.  The weight of the blackened landscape, heavy with slate and history, veiled with a dream-like mist somewhere between reality and unreality.