I must confess to having spent much of the past ten days trying to put mysef back together again after having been “blown away” by reading and trying to assess Graham Foster’s book, “Hall of History: Bermuda’s Story in Art”.Probably I’ll never fathom how one man could conceive and execute to such brilliant perfection this excellent work. It is massive, a masterpiece, worth its actual weight in gold, and as priceless as the original work it encapsulates. That is Foster’s great, world-class mural depicting 500 years of human istory in Bermuda, spread over four walls of the of the National Museum at Commissioner’s House in the Dockyard.The mural speaks for itself with its colourful, detailed images of people, places and things. Its just unbelievable. But the book has an added dimension with the insightful captions and essay written by renowned journalist and publisher Rosemary Jones.In a foreword, Dr Edward Harris, MBE, PhD, FSA , who is executive director of the National Museum of Bermuda, states that Graham Foster’s magnum opus, being such an inclusive and vibrant representation of Bermuda’s history, will do much to interest and excite both residents and visitors, school students and educational professionals, about the complex and outstanding heritage of the Island.An introduction to the book has been written by Janice Sorensen who studied at the School of Modern Fine Art in Boston. She describes how she “entered the living waters of Bermuda’s history” through what is to to become known as one of the island’s greatest works of art. She reached that conclusion after stumbling on Graham Foster and observing him working on his unfinished mural at Commissioner’s House.“It was a sudden and unexpected thrill,” Janice writes, adding,”Only a few times has something been so visually captivating that I’ve been rendered ‘out of commission’ while processing its magnificence”. She has a BA in Community Arts Education from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst; and has shown her own works in stained glass, oil and watercolour in major US cities.Personallly, I took a shortcut through the pages of the book, intrigued by the very first one, The Isle of Devils pointing to the Wreck of the Sea Venture and ending with The Last Laugh: The Funny Side of History. In between I gained easy insights and access into the Early Settlement of Bermuda, Slave Life, Harsh Servitude, Emancipation; Daily Life in Bermuda through the centuries; the Economic Good Times; the World War, and End of an Era, all of which are depicted in brilliant detail in the mural.Then we come to Post War Bermuda, The Modern Era highlighting the efforts of Dr. E.F. Gordon (Mazumbo, my word) showing him in action, culminating in the 21-day General Strike in April, 1981 showing BIU workers on the march with their placards shutting down Bermuda in support of blue collar workers.Of course, the book and mural point to the new era that began in November, 1998, showing the jubilant scenes when the Bermuda Progressive Labour Party took over the reins of Government.For all of the brilliant scenes depicting the birds, buildings, insects, flora and fauna, people, tennis, sailing, Cup Match and everything about Bermuda, what I was most interested in was “Who is this man Graham Foster?” I felt comfortable thinking I knew something about Rosemary and the Bermuda-based book publishing Brimstone Media Company she and her husband Paul Shapiro have generated.The smallest pictures in the book are photographs of Rosemary and Graham.He was born in Bermuda in 1970. He has a Bachelor of Fine Art degree from the School of The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston He held his first solo show at the Masterworks Foundation, Bermuda 1995. His paintings and sculpures have also been exhibited at the Bermuda National Gallery, the ACE Gallery, the Bermuda Arts Centre at the Dockyard.I gather from the book that he hails from the North Shore, where he has a shed. Graham is married to Justine. If ever there was a self-effacing man, it must be Graham Foster.I must note that in this year of 2011 when the hit song on the airways and in the byways is John Woolridge’s “Proud to Be Bermudian”, we can exult even more counting amongst us, Graham Foster and Rosemary Jones and each and everyone else associated with this massive world-class master work that took him at least 7,000 hours to produce, starting in August, 2005. It is now, just hot of the press. Aamazing!