The Valleys is a beautifully-produced collection of more than a hundred colour photographs selected from several thousand images made during the last five years by Anthony Stokes.

Stokes' pictures reveal a unique and richly-coloured vernacular where the histories of The Valleys' townscapes and landscapes are overlaid with decades of modifications. The book's introduction is written by Iain Sinclair, distinguished writer and poet, brought up in Maesteg, now based in London.

"This collection draws out and explores in a distinct and personal way the idiosyncratic beauty which outsiders sometimes glimpse in the visual tensions of the Valleys' landscape – tension between light and dark, rural and urban, decay and renewal, commonality and individuation... the most thought-provoking collection of photographs of Wales to emerge in recent years"
Planet

Anthony Stokes's mother is from Baglan and Abercanaid and his father was from Bridgend. His childhood was spent in Gloucester, though he has been a regular visitor to Merthyr and Bridgend, particularly in his early years. He has spent most of his working life in London as an exhibitions curator, with a specialist interest in contemporary art. For the last five years he has lived in Ogmore Vale.