So who… is best friend with Min Hogg, legendary founder of WOI was getting down with Tallulah Bankhead age 15 (in between Eton College term times) was a stalwart companion of Diana Cooper née Manners had reclusive star Greta Garbo … Continue reading
It finally arrived, you know… SPRING. So late that nature made up for itself in Ireland bursting forth all at once. It’s been most distracting, I keep on encouraging the children to roll in the grass, you know, get down … Continue reading
In 1988 Harewood House had a bit of a tidy up in the back of the carpenter’s workshop, and there, amongst the broken chairs and tools they found a sleeping beauty: 20 rolls of exquisite hand painted Chinese wallpaper, hung … Continue reading
Alexander McQueen Swans, they are rather elegant aren’t they? beautiful in fact, as every girl whose read the Ugly Duckling knows. The stuff of fairy tales and ancient myths. Swans are devoted, mating for life. One of Venus’s symbols … Continue reading
My brother came to visit the house and said, ‘Take your time renovating,’” recalls John. “I had already renovated.” Derian’s 1789 ship captain’s house in Cape Cod John Derian is very particular, very precise and very creative. The unerring path … Continue reading
You take it all for granted if you grow up in a happy home, that is until you come back to visit having made your own life. Then each trip is cherished and enjoyed, we were ‘home’ recently and my … Continue reading
Je reste avec vous. (I stay with you) These are the words on Jean Cocteau’s grave stone. He makes a confident statement in death. A contradiction? a truth? a creative legacy? a philosophical statement? a denial? an assertion? definitely … Continue reading
The thing about collecting is you have those pulse racing moment… I found THIS, as happened when I stumbled upon: Printed in 1934 by Parsons and Sons ‘Colour and Varnish makers since 1802‘ it offers ‘the notable colours of the … Continue reading
When Lord Marchmain asks for a bed downstairs, he requests ‘the Chinese drawing-room; and Wilcox the “Queen’s Bed” ‘. His final days are spent in a Chinoiserie chimera – to aid his vision of a heavenly kingdom beyond? And so … Continue reading
I am most distracted looking through piles of ‘tear outs’ from old files for the new ‘country house’. Spring has not not sprung in the Emerald isle and it’s that kind of week. What it has brought home to me … Continue reading
