Sven Berlin, sculptor, painter and writer, was a flamboyant figure in the post-war St Ives art scene. He wrote the first – and still arguably the truest – life of the self-taught primitive painter Alfred Wallis and the notorious roman à clef, The Dark Monarch, which had to be withdrawn in the face of legal action. These, along with his autobiographical Coat of Many Colours, were his finest books. His letter writing was as pugnacious as his persona. His letters to John Sansom deal with the business of publishing and editing, specifically Redcliffe’s new edition of his seminal work on Alfred Wallis and the birth pangs of the autobiography. Their correspondence also touched on the history of The Dark Monarch and the proposals for its reissue. John Sansom contributes an introduction and annotations to the letters. Among the additional material is Sven’s angry article in Horizon magazine about Alfred Wallis’s last days.