With or Without Angels: A profound exploration of the creative process

'The thought in my head does not yet have shape or form, only direction, one picture leading into another.'

An ageing artist, faced with his own mortality, embarks on one final artwork. As he battles to complete the project, working with an enigmatic young photographer, he finds his past and present blurring. Through the act of creation and the memories it excavates, the artist comes to a realisation about what matters most, and what he will leave behind when he is gone.

This hybrid and innovative short novel responds through fiction to 'The New World', the final artwork by the late artist Alan Smith – which is in turn a response to an eighteenth-century fresco, Giandomenico Tiepolo’ s 'Il Mondo Nuovo'.

With sparkling, dreamlike prose, Bruton weaves a story around these artworks, arriving at both a profound exploration of the creative process and a timeless love story told in a new way.

Douglas Bruton was born in Edinburgh and spent most of his working life as an English and guidance teacher. His short novel Blue Postcards, published by Fairlight Books in 2021, was longlisted for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction. His previous novel Mrs. Winchester's Gun Club was published in 2019, and his children's book The Chess Piece Magician was published in 2009. His short fiction has appeared in various journals and anthologies including Northwords Now, New Writing Scotland, Aesthetica and The Irish Literary Review and has won awards such as the Neil Gunn Prize.