Polar bears and Arctic explorers, the lore of the loup-garou, the mischief of the Mari Lwyd, fighter-jets in desert skies: William McClure Brown's mind travelled many paths to celebrate story-making and the power of the unexpected in vivid imagery. Born to Scottish parents in Canada in 1953, as a teenager he knew painters in the Toronto scene and began to evolve his own creative language. From 1977 he was based in London and south-west England before settling in Wales in 1990. While he exhibited internationally he was admired most in his close community of fellow artists.

He found inspiration in Devon, northern France, Galicia, North Africa, the South Wales valleys and the Inuit communities of Hudson Bay. He collaborated with painters and poets, learned Welsh, made public art, held residencies in schools, and created images for Gorky's Zygotic Mynci. William Brown died in 2008, age 54. This is the first book to explore the full range of his startling, audacious work.