Best Of British: Your First Look At ‘Victory Point’ By Owen D Pomery

One to look for when it’s released on June 20 from Avery Hill, Owen D Pomery‘s Victory Point promises more of his stunning visual storytelling from an architect’s eye, with a story of a modernist seaside town that’s seen better days and what it means for one woman returning to her hometown.

I’ve loved Pomery’s work since first seeing it in Between the Billboards, since collected as Between the Billboards & the Authoring of Architecture. And when last we looked at his work it was his self-published Victory Motel, telling a fleeting, poetic, fractured tale that takes snapshots of the varying residents of the motel, based just outside the town of Victory Point, each story a few pages, each tale of a room.
Victory Point, his latest book, coming out in June from Avery Hill Publishing, promises more of what he does so well, with all the introspection and poetic sensibilities of his previous works but with the addition of colour to really make his artwork shine in the summer sunshine.

Victory Point was once a shining example of Modernist design, an architectural experiment from the 1930s to create the perfect seaside haven. Yet as with so many of these experiments in creating idyllic living, Victory Point is now a mere forgotten oddity sitting on the coast, forgotten for all but those who live there.

But what of those who leave and then return? What do they find on coming home to such a strange place? In Victory Point, through the eyes of returnee Ellen, we’re going to explore just that, what it means to come back to somewhere once left far behind, coming back to her coastal hometown, where she will revisit old, familiar places and people from her past as she takes time to reflect on her life and who she is.

This is a book that promises so much. The art examples here show us just how visually stunning it’s going to be but, having read so much of Pomery’s work, it’s also going to be a book of quiet revelation and meditations on the ideas of self, of self-worth, of purpose, and as such should be a read that’s both complex and fascinating.

 
Victory Point by Owen D Pomery is released from Avery Hill this September. Definitely a Best of British.
Find out more from Owen’s website or Twitter, and check out the Avery Hill website for more of their books. You can get Victory Point and his other Avery Hill books from their webstore and The Victory Motel is available from Pomery’s website. His graphic novel British Ice was published by Top Shelf in 2020 (and I really, really need to get around to telling you about that soon!)
Now, a little trailer for you to enjoy. Welcome to Victory Point…