Brother Daniel de Montmollin was one of the first men to join Brother Roger at the beginning of the ecumenical Community of Taize, in France, in the 1940s.

Although he had studied theology, soon after coming to Taize he came in contact with a potter making simple kitchenware in the traditional way in the nearby town of Cluny. He learned the basics of the potter's craft from him, then went on to become an artist-potter working in stoneware, following the lines laid down in Bernard Leach's The Potter's Book. In particular, he has done much research into the role of vegetable ashes and their chemical equivalents in the production of stoneware glazes. He was 90 in 2011, continues to create and is widely recognized as one of the leading masters in traditional stoneware glazes. His most recent exhibitions include one held in 2009 and another held in 2011 at La Compagnie de la Chine et des Indes in Paris.

A Secret Shared is a collection of texts and poems. It was fist published in France in 1990 with the title Le Secret Partage. It went out of print and was republished in 1999 by La Revue de la Ceramique et du Verre  in a revised and enlarged edition, under the title Le Jardin du Potier (the potter's garden). This was replaced in 2009 by a new edition, Pierres Habitees (inhabited stones) to coincide with the Paris exhibition with the same title. The cover of the current edition is shown above. The book is superbly illustrated, including a large number of full-page photos of pots with the extraordinary glazes Brother Daniel has produced as a result of his research.

Part One. Palissy's Secret

Part Two. All for an oil spot!

Part Three. The Gousseau glaze

Part Four. Creation: Victory over Chaos

Each of the four sections ends with a series of simple poems inspired by the seasons: Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter.

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