Peter Hay (1951-2003) was a visionary artist. He was a very English painter whose work has a poetic and mystical quality. Eclectic, curious magpie, he found inspiration from everywhere and gathered it into his image-making. He was a fine draughtsman and watercolourist, a brilliantly inventive printmaker. At heart a figurative artist, the work moves into abstraction through striking black and white and a rich use of colour.

After studying Fine Art at Reading University, and two years away in Cornwall, Peter Hay settled in Reading for the rest of his life. He had a strong sense of place; the junction of the rivers Thames and Kennet close to his home was a frequent symbolic theme in his work. He became a central figure in the local art community and was an inspirational teacher. In 1994 he founded Two Rivers Press which gave him the opportunity to pursue through illustration his passion for campaigning, his love of poetry and history.

This book brings together the range of this prolific artist's work for the first time.