'A rare duet, in which father and son rediscover a whole world through the redeeming power of art.' Declan KiberdIn The Wellspring acclaimed novelist and dramatist Barney Norris conducts a conversation with father, the pianist and composer David Owen Norris 'quite possibly the most interesting pianist in the world' (Toronto Globe and Mail) and 'a famous thinker/philosopher of the keyboard' (Seattle Times). Norris senior is also a television and radio broadcaster who has worked with a huge range of musicians, conductors and composers in the concert hall and the studio.Divided into three parts 'Listening', 'Playing' and 'Writing' The Wellspring is the first book to explore Norris's fifty-year career and discover how his background (non-metropolitan, C of E, literary) influenced his choices and his music. The book becomes a study of the relationship between his Englishness and his work, of his inheritance and how it is projected forward into new compositions and new performance. In the process the reader encounters a fascinating world of concerts, prizes, collaborations, and inspirations, in which Norris, always open to the different, has lived. This variety includes Norris's devotion to Parry and Elgar, his musical discoveries made playing the square piano of the nineteenth century, and the opportunities resulting from the pressurized world of competitions.In addition to exploring the career of this renowned musician, the father-son conversation also reveals Barney Norris's experience of working in English theatre over the last ten years and of his practice as a novelist with a growing reputation. Their combined experience, in two fields, in two different generations, provides a thought-provoking discussion of how a place and a culture inform artistic work, and how England and Englishness have evolved during the past half century.Informative, entertaining, at times provocative, The Wellspring will become a classic investigation of creativity, of Englishness, and of the changing world.

Barney Norris was born in Chichester in 1987 and grew up in Sussex, London and Salisbury. A graduate of the universities of Oxford and Royal Holloway, his plays are At First Sight and Missing and his poetry, stories and other writings have been published in various magazines. He is the co-artistic director of the theatre company Up In Arms (www.upinarms.org.uk), works as Max Stafford-Clark's assistant at Out of Joint, and has previously worked and trained under Bernard O'Donoghue, Andrew Motion, Jo Shapcott, Thelma Holt, Peter Gill and David Hare, and at Salisbury Playhouse, Oxford Playhouse, the Royal Court and the Bush. He is the author of two acclaimed novels: Five Rivers Met on a Wooded Plain (2016) and Turning for Home (2018).