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Wilding Graft
Novel.
304 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1948
About the author
Jack Clemo
22 books2 followersReginald John Clemo (Jack Clemo) was a poet and writer, strongly associated both with his native Cornwall and his Christian belief. His work is visionary and inspired by the Cornish landscape.
He had no formal schooling after age 13, became deaf around age 20, and blind in 1955, about 19 years later. His early work was published in the local press; he first received recognition in connection with the Festival of Britain.
The massive china clay mines and works around which he grew up feature strongly in his work.
He had no formal schooling after age 13, became deaf around age 20, and blind in 1955, about 19 years later. His early work was published in the local press; he first received recognition in connection with the Festival of Britain.
The massive china clay mines and works around which he grew up feature strongly in his work.
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October 3, 2025
"It had been a tense, thundery noon when Irma appeared, the sky black and ominous over the clay-dumps."
Wilding Graft explores the nexus where Calvinistic Methodism, china clay, and sexual desire meet – somewhere between Goonamarris and Egypt.
I had assumed “Wilding Graft” was a place – barren, stony, thorny, and storm-swept – but in fact it comes from a Browning poem and refers to “the great Gardener” grafting excellence onto wild human stock, a rather savage metaphor that would have appealed to Clemo’s stark Christian outlook.
I remember the Cornish alps – the glistening white sky-tips of clay waste – all levelled, along with the black coal tips of Wales, after the Aberfan disaster. Together with the pits and granite cottages, they are very much a part of Clemo’s bleak granite landscape and his bleak wilding alter ego, Garth:
When fifteen-year-old Irma appears, Garth knows what God has in mind. Four years of dark turmoil ensue. Other women and atheists try to thwart the divine plan, but happily in vain. It’s a kind of dour, Cornish, Calvinistic romance.
And I rather liked it. Living and writing in the clay country and barely ever leaving his own small cottage, Clemo had a powerful sense of place. Self taught and largely unschooled, blind and increasingly deaf, he wrote in his own determined way, wasn’t afraid of a bit of melodrama, knew about suffering, and knew what he wanted.
Wilding Graft explores the nexus where Calvinistic Methodism, china clay, and sexual desire meet – somewhere between Goonamarris and Egypt.
I had assumed “Wilding Graft” was a place – barren, stony, thorny, and storm-swept – but in fact it comes from a Browning poem and refers to “the great Gardener” grafting excellence onto wild human stock, a rather savage metaphor that would have appealed to Clemo’s stark Christian outlook.
I remember the Cornish alps – the glistening white sky-tips of clay waste – all levelled, along with the black coal tips of Wales, after the Aberfan disaster. Together with the pits and granite cottages, they are very much a part of Clemo’s bleak granite landscape and his bleak wilding alter ego, Garth:
"Few houses in the district were drearier than Garth’s when storms swept across the plateau, howling up the narrow gorge from the northern flat wastes of Goss Moor."
When fifteen-year-old Irma appears, Garth knows what God has in mind. Four years of dark turmoil ensue. Other women and atheists try to thwart the divine plan, but happily in vain. It’s a kind of dour, Cornish, Calvinistic romance.
And I rather liked it. Living and writing in the clay country and barely ever leaving his own small cottage, Clemo had a powerful sense of place. Self taught and largely unschooled, blind and increasingly deaf, he wrote in his own determined way, wasn’t afraid of a bit of melodrama, knew about suffering, and knew what he wanted.
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