The life and work of a now often overlooked artist who lived near Stroud is being celebrated in a new book being launched this week.

William Simmonds is best known for his carvings of wild creatures, inspired by his rural surroundings and cut from local woodland, but he was also an accomplished puppeteer who achieved national fame with his hand-carved marionettes, plays, and music.

He lived in Oakridge between 1919 and died in 1968, was friends with artists like John Singer Sargent and EH Shepard, writers like DH Lawrence, WH Davies and John Masefield, the Barnsley brothers, Violet Gordon-Wodehouse, Ernest Gimson and many others.

It was Simmonds’ focus on sculpting and carving from natural materials, coupled with his focus on the practical – yet also fanciful – craft of puppeteering, and the degree of skill and imagination he brought to both, that brought him within the Arts and Crafts movement, founded by William Morris and John Ruskin.

He exemplified their belief that artists should be craftspeople, working by hand, creating beautiful objects for everyday use.

Simmonds’ work is in both local museums and the national collections - and is now being celebrated in William Simmonds: The Silent Heart of the Arts and Crafts Movement by Jessica Douglas-Home, who trained as an artist but has also worked as a set-designer and journalist.

The Yellow-Lighted Bookshops are celebrating the launch of the book at the Arts and Crafts designed village hall in Sapperton with author Jessica Douglas-Home on Sunday, September 9 at 4.30pm.

Earlier that afternoon, artist Anne Kelly will be presenting her new book Textile Folk Art.

Tickets for the both talks and book-signings are available from their shops in Nailsworth and Tetbury, or online: ww.ticketsource.co.uk/yellowlightedbookshop

Hereward Corbett, owner of the Yellow-Lighted Bookshops, said: “We believe in bringing distinctive, relevant – and hopefully challenging – events to the towns and villages we serve.

“We introduce authors and subjects that we are passionate about to audiences who generally miss out.

“William Simmonds was an important – and largely forgotten figure. It’s our job to celebrate him in a place he knew and loved, and bring him to the attention of the crafts people and artists of today.”