Window Haunting

One of my favourite things to do is to scurry and lurk, scurry and lurk past people's windows. I walk fast down a chosen street and then, invariably the glimpse of an interior induces me to dawdle as I peek into the lives of the inhabitants.

It's partly the reason why I love the autumn so much, as for months my prying will have been hindered by the fact that I was in plain view. The onset of early darkness aids my hobby as I am covered by its velvet complicity.

Virginia Woolf writes wonderfully about windows in Street Haunting;

"high among the bare trees are hung oblong frames of reddish-yellow light - windows; there are points of brilliance burning steadily like low stars - lamps; this empty ground, which holds the country in it and its peace."

But , Woolf reminds us that we must be careful not to dig 'deeper than the eye approves' and I remember this when I am walking past people's houses, watching them sit down to supper or slumped in front of the TV or admiring their bookshelves. A glimpse is all I need to imagine their lives. As I was walking home the other evening I approached my own house and glimpsed how it might look from a fellow street haunters perspective. So I took a photo - which is above. I wonder what Woolf would have made of it?

Bloomsbury letters to go on sale

Letters of the Bloomsbury Group. Photo: Gorringes Auctioneers

A collection of letters between members of the Bloomsbury Group and Helen Anrep are to be auctioned on 3rd September. Helen Anrep, Roger Fry's partner from the 1920s until Fry's death in 1934, became a close friend of the Bloomsbury Group members despite not being an artist or an intellectual herself. She was extemely interested in the arts and the letters contain a broad range of topics from gardening to family issues.

The letters are estimated to fetch between £50,000 - £80,000. I am off to buy a lottery ticket.

The sale of a literary landmark

Godrevy Island, Cornwall

The beach that is said to have been featured in Virginia Woolf's seminal novel To the Lighthouse has been sold for £80,000. Upper Towans beach in Cornwall is located opposite Godrevy Island upon which sits the inspiring lighthouse.

Happily the new owner will not alter the beach in any way and it will remain accessible for all to enjoy.

Read more about the sale.

Beyond Bloomsbury Private View

Roger Fry in the Omega Studio

Last Wednesday I attended the Private View for Beyond Bloomsbury: Designs of the Omega Workshops 1913-19 at the Courtauld Gallery.

The exhibition is extremely well curated and provides a rare chance to see sketches of the designs from the workshops. A positive Bloomsbury treasure trove - the rooms are crammed with drawings, paintings, ceramics and rugs. The exhibition highlights just how varied and dynamic the creative output from the workshops was in such a short time.

It is fascinating to see the sketch and the finished piece side by side. The rug for Lady Ian Hamilton, designed by Vanessa Bell, is placed next to the preliminary design offering a unique chance to draw comparisons. This is also true of the painted silk with peacocks by Roger Fry; the Peacock Stole - the silk is brighter and less concentrated whereas the sketch is actually more dynamic.

The wonderful, messy structure of White the furnishing fabric designed by Vanessa Bell, is not to be missed and a true gem within the exhibition is the Omega signboard, designed and painted by Duncan Grant. A glossy mess of colour and intense design, the signboard articulates the liberation through abstract design that defined the work of the designers.

The exhibition paves the way for further exploration of the designs of the Bloomsbury Group and their influence over modern creative practitioners.

The following, characteristically pertinent, quote from Virginia Woolf is as meaningful today as it was during the uncertain early 20th century: "[Omega is] a beacon of civilisation in the midst of chaos" - for us in the midst of global recession we need 'beacons of civilisation' in our lives, so go to the Courtauld Gallery for a reminder that civilisation was and still is, in operation.

'Recession busting nostalgia'

Nostalgia for propaganda, A war poster by Frank Newbould

In the last post I mentioned that Bloomsbury publishers are reprinting a series of nostalgic reads to be collectively known as 'The Bloomsbury Group'. This brought to my mind the following extract from E.M. Forster's Howards End

'England was alive, throbbing through all her estuaries, crying for joy through the mouths of all her gulls, and the north wind, with contrary motion, blew stronger against her rising seas. What did it mean? For what end are her fair complexities, her changes of soil, her sinuous coast? Does she belong to those who have moulded her and made her feared by other lands, or to those who have added nothing to her power, but have somehow seen her, seen the whole Island at once, lying as a jewel in a silver sea, sailing as a ship of souls, with all the brave world’s fleet accompanying her towards eternity?'

Forster’s vision of England ‘lying as a jewel in a silver sea’ is inherited from Shakespeare’s Richard The Second. In a long speech, John of Gaunt presents an exalted vision of England, ‘This happy breed of men, this little world, This precious stone set in the silver sea, Which serves it in the office of a wall.’ In using the image of ‘This precious stone,’ Forster is demonstrating the importance of cultural inheritance; he is emphasizing continuity by re-using established cultural sources.

Cultural inheritance is important in any art form. It seems that publishers are looking back to literature from a bygone age to reprint - it will be interesting to know how the sales for 'The Bloomsbury Group' will compare with some contemporary authors on their list. Writers already look back to other authors, Ian McEwan looked to Virginia Woolf's Mrs Dalloway as inspiration for his novel Saturday as he charted one day in London. In fact he went further, into the realms of Matthew Arnold and the belief in the transformative power of culture.

In a time of such economic uncertainty and change this extract from Howards End is extremely poignant as Forster questions who 'owns' England. Those who 'moulded her and made her feared by other lands' or those who are part of the rich and diverse cultural make up of Britain who are not the politicians or bankers who 'added to her power'?

Nostalgia has its place but society changes and that is what makes it exciting, as McEwan achieved in Saturday, readers and writers should look back only in order to move forward and explore current issues. With this in mind, I will be reading 'The Bloomsbury Group' as well as contemporary fiction which may expose the grittier aspects of the way we live now. As much as I may want to, I can't bury my head.

Bloomsbury inspires Burberry

My favourite fashion house Burberry has unveiled its new advertising campaign featuring the Harry Potter star, Emma Watson. The new collection has been inspired by Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury Group. Emma is pictured above modelling the Woolf Bag which is a 'must have' for all Bloomsbury lovers. An ideal bag for carrying around plenty of reading material, it will set you back a hefty £1,095.

Read more about the new collection

Browse Burberry

Much Ado Books - for true Bloomsbury lovers

Much Ado Books is a lovely independent bookshop in Alfriston, East Sussex, run by a very friendly and helpful couple from America. They sell both new and second hand books and have a great collection of books by and about the Bloomsbury Group.

I found several first edition Iris Murdoch's in there (I bought them all!) and they currently have a first edition copy of Virginia Woolf's Between the Acts; all reasonably priced. The decor is comforting, bookish, homeliness and the shelves have been decorated with patterns inspired by the work of the Bloomsbury artists, Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell.

Alfriston is a quaint Sussex village nestled in the South Downs and is packed full of tea shops and little independent boutiques. It also boasts the first property acquired by the National Trust, Clergy House, which is a beautiful house with a cottage garden and Medieval Hall.

Alfriston, Clergy House. Image courtesy of the National Trust.

Mrs Dalloway, London and June

The month of June always brings Woolf's Mrs Dalloway to mind.

"[...] the triumph and the jingle and the strange high singing of some aeroplane overhead was what she loved; life; London; this moment of June."

Clarissa Dalloway drops into the stream of life as she steps out into ‘the triumph and the jingle’ of London. She is getting ready for a party to be given in the evening with the hope of an appearance from the Prime Minister. As she walks through the streets of London on her way to buy flowers we watch the character respond passionately to her surroundings, ‘I love walking in London.’ The description of London’s streets associates the major characters with the places in which they currently live or in which they walk resulting in a cinema-like quality to the novel. The chaos of life is explored through Woolf’s ability to produce a cross-section of one day in London.

London is incredibly vivid and Woolf captures a reality that incorporates us all in the streets. The main characters work side by side whilst other people, such as Sir William Bradshaw, interweave and create the visible links. As Clarissa buys her flowers, Septimus is just outside on the pavement unable to pass, these faint overlaps create a lucid and flowing cross-section of London life.

This is a stunning piece of literature that has been imaginatively written and successfully executed. We skip along through the short time span whilst characters precipitate moods in which we explore early twentieth century society and ourselves. The reader is left wanting to drop a part of themselves in the continuous stream of life in order to experience the ‘lark’ and ‘plunge’ that is Clarissa’s fine June day in London.

You can buy a poster of the original Mrs Dalloway dust jacket, designed by Vanessa Bell, at the V&A Shop - which is where I took the above image from.