Over to You: Letters Between a Father & Son

Compelling and intimate, this collection of letters between the celebrated art critic and essayist John Berger and his son Yves, an artist, is a moving look at their musings on art, memory, life, death, and beyond.

Composed of letters written between 2015 and 2016, some of the last written by John Berger, along with images of works by old masters and contemporary art and some of the Bergers’ own drawings and watercolours, Over to You is an informal back-and-forth not unlike the ping-pong games father and son used to play in the barn of their house. It begins when John, who is in a Parisian suburb, sends Yves, who is in Haute-Savoie, an envelope of reproductions of art that have moved him. And so they begin to reveal their thoughts, looking at works by Goya, Watteau, Twombly, Joan Mitchell, Dürer, Caravaggio, Manet, and Euan Uglow, among many others. But the art is just a way to summon shared emotions and memories, as well as deepen their understanding of the world and its mysteries.

This is an exceptional and moving tribute to a relationship between a father and a son, and between two artists, as well as a thought-provoking look at questions we all have about work, time, the universe, life and death.

About the Authors

John Berger (1926–2017) was a storyteller, novelist, essayist, screenwriter, dramatist and critic. One of the most internationally influential writers of the last fifty years, Berger's many books include Ways of Seeing; the fiction trilogy Into Their Labours; Here Is Where We Meet; the Booker Prize-winning novel G.; Hold Everything Dear; the Man Booker-longlisted From A to X; and A Seventh Man.

Yves Berger (b.1976) is an artist and the author of essays and books of poetry. In 2018, his exhibition From the Orchard to the Garden was shown in Madrid. He lives in a small village in the French Alps.

• Dimensions 20 x 16 cm
• Material Clothbound case with FSC certified paper
• Author John Berger & Yves Berger
• ISBN 9781849769662
• Hardback Yes
• Number of illustrations 56
• Publisher Tate Publishing
• No of pages 96