The White Road by Edmund de Waal review – turning clay into luxury

The ceramicist goes on a pilgrimage to visit the three most important sites in the history of porcelain – Jingzedhen, Dresden and Cornwall

Edmund de Waal is a potter, a successful ceramicist who has worked with porcelain for 25 years. The idea behind The White Road is given on page three. “It’s really quite simple, a pilgrimage of sorts, to beginnings, a chance to walk up the mountain where the white earth comes from …I have a plan to go to three places where porcelain was invented, or reinvented, three white hills in China and Germany and England.” Three white hills, each yielding a white object.

It does sound simple, elegant; even, dare one say, spiritual. A white road. But although De Waal sticks to the plan, it’s hard to know what the book is: is it a quest, a biography, a history, a travelogue or a bit of all? Certainly a bit of all.

Continue reading...