Alfred Wallis, a semi-literate Cornish rag-and-bone man, began to paint at the age of seventy after his wife's death, for company as he put it. Seventeen years later, in 1942, he died in a workhouse near Penzance. By then his achievements had been recognised by a mere handful of London painters and writers involved in the St lves artistic scene, and but for their patronage next to none of his pictures would have survived. Wallis's work is exceptional. Completely self-taught his canvasses portray the simple life of the then small fishing-village of St Ives; the sea, the sky, boats, lighthouses - these were the fundamentals of his uncomplicated life. His style reflects this simplicity, a style which was regarded as child-like in its day, but has since been reassessed by art critics and the value of its naive charms reappraised. This book is a tribute to Wallis's work. It includes 37 full colour plates reproducing his most vital images, with informative captions.