Ireland - 2nd time lucky? (Well, almost)

Sunflower in honour of Oscar of course and purchased in Grafton Street!

Saturday: I leave my mother with strict instructions not to fracture another hip. Second time lucky we hope, although the jinxes are still apparent (see enumerated below).

I am greeted in usual enthusiastic fashion at Film Farm by Muriel and Dot (Croad Langshan and Norfolk Grey).

the 759 mile dinner date

Well, the best laid plans etc, etc. I set off from Kent 7am 4th August in high spirits, visited Peter near Bury St Edmunds, looked at his super litho collection, proceeded to Lincolnshire, chez Charles who was almost recovering from having had 3 Polish builders resident for the past 3 weeks renovating his bathroom. Looks great but probably not an experience to be repeated. Sunday we loaded up the car with film equipment and drove across country to Bangor, where we met Jeremy and Pam for an evening meal - great fun (see above). Thence for a walk along the cute dinky pier (see below).

So far so good. But next morning I received a phone call to say that my 89yr old mother had broken her hip. Brief soul searching and decided to abort trip so then had to drive back to Lincolnshire with all Charles' equipment, before then driving up to Scarborough to visit mea mater. And then a short drive to her house to collapse on a much needed bed. All in all a 759 mile journey just to have dinner in Beaumaris. I'm not saying it wasn't fun you understand - just a long detour!

So FBSG may be delayed further due to parental problems. In fact life feels like it is on hold at present. But I will attempt to keep smiling - always look on the bright side etc. (see below)

Oh I do like to be beside ...

the seaside, as I was today, in Hove, visiting my co-editor on the Brangwyn book - Gillian Naylor (see above). A wonderful, wonderful, vibrant, enthusiastic design historian, great intellect, great sense of fun, great style, northern directness - she just inspires me!

The Brangwyn book (Frank Brangwyn 1867-1956) was republished last month with glitches removed. I just wish we could have revamped the index. There was a very limited budget for the first edition, and I insisted on commissioning top class art historians who were also familiar with Brangwyn's work - which took the entire budget so Corinne and I worked for free. Towards the end I mentioned an index - no money left, but you cannot have a book of that calibre without - so I set about doing it myself - gratis of course. Unfortunately, at that stage, I didn't have indexing software, had a week to complete the job and was in Oman at the time with final page layouts for all essays bar one - so there are mistakes. There was no money available for my re-editing of the 2007 publication, I still couldn't afford the requisite software, so the indexing faults remain.

Odd business - publishing - still haven't got my head around it!

music, music, music

Wonderful - Andrea emailed me today to confirm that she has booked the recording venue for Sunday 18 November and she has a full choir ready to stand on a horseshoe. Charles will be there manhandling his sooper-dooper new surround sound microphone with which to perform recording justice. Mike Westbrook will be on hand to give the young ladies a final fillip, and I'll be there as bag-handler extraordinaire. Did I lose my vocation in life, or have I just found it?

So, a sudden burst of adrenalin! Although another delay in my self imposed timetable!

Plus I've got the Dublin filming trip sorted (5-8 August) - living near the Channel I'm used to rather better deals than appear to be available Holyhead to Dublin (no point in going by air because we'd have to pay a second mortgage on the weight of the camera equipment). So it's Kent to Lincolnshire, thence to Anglesey (meeting Jeremy - great guy, long, lanky, drole, dry sense of humour - helped me massively with Bangor collection), across to Dublin where Charles has challenged me to sipping a Guinness (not exactly my tas de the unfortunately so be prepared for a GRITTED TEETH smile), mad dash round the Iveagh related sights and FB's stained glass window, back to Linolnshire etc etc.

See you in Dublin - if not before. If you spot us - we'll treat you a drink!

2 July 2007 Life Class

Listening to Andrew Marr (one of my heroes) whilst doing the housework this morning (Monday = kitchen and breakfast room) - one of his guests was Pat Barker, also from Tees-side and born in 1943 (a good vintage). She was talking about official war artists. That got me thinking (rare policy). So many writers have stated that FB was an official war artist as if it were a badge of honour. But FB wasn't.
a) he was not a propagandist

b) he would not have prostituted his art for filthy lucre, and a cause he did not believe in (or in which he did not believe)

c) he wouldn't have towed the party line, far too individual and stubborn for that!

He did, however, produce over 80 designs for posters during WW1 - but the majority of these were given freely to charitable organisations..

1 July 2007 Frustration, frustration, frustration

Or should it be rabbits, rabbits, rabbits, and a pinch and a punch. Mike thinks the music will be ready by the end of July (a capella, interweaving melodic lines with passages of dense chromatic harmony - sounds wonderful), so time to organise a recording session. All I have to do is liaise with Mike, Andrea and Charles. Poor Andrea has to co-ordinate the diaries of her eleven choir members, book the church where they usually record, and liaise with me. And we are going round in proverbial circles which reminds me why I like working alone, had my fill of committees and reinventing the camel years ago. Artist in the garret syndrome for me - actually a ground floor room with a beautiful unhindered view past my yellow flowering hypericum and yellow clambering roses across poppy filled fields! Bliss.

Sad news yesterday. Ruth Artmonsky rang to say that Brenda Rawnsley had died suddenly of a heart attack. Brenda sounded such a character and we had been hoping to film her. Ruth wrote a wonderful book and curated an exhibition about Brenda's forays into art - The School Prints. A Romantic Project (2006).

27 June 2007 Task Sorted!

So I emailed Gareth, who sent me the name of the only company in the UK which blows Antique Glass - the eponymous English Antique Glass Company and they were perfectly charming and we can film any Monday/Tuesday when they are flattening glass. Brilliant news - only when can we find a Monday/Tuesday when either of us is free?!

And the other good news this week is that Martin Eidelberg, Professor Emeritus, Art History, Rutgers has agreed to be interviewed - he's an expert on Tiffany and has a wonderful impish sense of humour, reminds me of Robin Williams!

The bad news is that Peter Cormack isn't free to be interviewed when Charles is in London next week, and that the William Morris Gallery is absolutely definitely only going to be open 2 afternoons a week and Saturday and Sunday, and the staff will be reduced to practically zilch - this despite worldwide protests. Intellectual vandalism.