What value does solitude bring to the creative mind? How can withdrawing from the world help us endure in times of crisis?

As an author himself, Guy Stagg has long been fascinated by the role that retreat plays in the lives of writers and artists. Determined to see if seclusion could help his own work, he decided to follow in the footsteps of three seminal figures of the twentieth century: Ludwig Wittgenstein, David Jones and Simone Weil.

Beautifully written and researched, THE WORLD WITHIN sees Stagg trace each of their journeys to isolation, hoping to see what they saw. He shadows Wittgenstein to the monastery outside Vienna where he worked as a gardener’s assistant, and sails to the forbidding holy island off the Welsh coast where Jones immersed himself in his art. He visits the Solesmes Abbey in France that Weil found so transformative, and travels to Norway to stay in Wittgenstein’s famous, rustic lake cabin. With an eye for natural beauty and sharp social observation, Stagg mediates on these landscapes and communities, seeking to understand their power.

Effortlessly weaving together biography, history, travel and criticism, THE WORLD WITHIN illuminates the worth of retreat in this crowded day and age, and the ways in which solitude can help us connect with ourselves. It is an account of creation and crisis, drawing a parallel with Stagg’s own personal experiences, and casting new light on the lives of three of the most important thinkers of our age.