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The Restless Wave: Sandstone acquires Helen Bellany memoir

Sandstone Press has just acquired world rights from Jenny Brown Associates of a personal memoir by Helen Bellany of her life with the artist John Bellany. Candid and revealing, the story ranges from Helen’s early life in the highlands of Scotland to their whirlwind romance after meeting at art school in Edinburgh, to John’s siege of the Royal Scottish Academy shows, their marriage and life in London, Edinburgh and Italy, their loss to one another, their second marriage and life together to the end. It covers the many great paintings and how they were made, the many portraits of such as Sean Connery, Billy Connelly, and Peter Maxwell Davis, the many, many portraits of Helen herself and the couple’s deep and lasting friendship with David Bowie.

Helen Bellany

The Restless Wave will be published as a beautifully designed jacketed hardback in April 2018.

Sandstone Press Managing Director Robert Davidson says: ‘The Restless Wave is a moving and affecting love story that had me enthralled from start to finish. It is also though, a commentary on how great art is made and the price it exacts. Add to this the appearance in its pages of some of the most significant characters of the past sixty years and we have one of the most important books likely to be published in 2018. I can’t wait to put it before the reading public.’

Jenny Brown of Jenny Brown Associates says: ‘Helen Bellany’s memoir is the one of the most life-affirming, inspiring and moving portraits of a marriage I have ever read. It recounts the adventures and heartbreak of life as the wife of one of the UK's leading painters. Helen Percy and John Bellany fell in love, shared a vision, raised a family – but demons tore them apart, only to bring them back together. It’s a spellbinding account too of the nature of creativity – and a vivid evocation of place.’

TITLE: The Restless Wave
SUB-TITLE: My two lives with John Bellany
AUTHOR: Helen Bellany
ISBN: 978-1-912240-02-9

Helen Bellany

Helen Bellany