This week I had to cancel an interview as the charming shadow spokesman for the arts, Hugo Swire, lost his place in the reshuffle. I have begun to think of Hugo as a friend, but only based on the fact that he has been remarkably assidious in visiting events associated with the heritage and arts, and had a real understanding of my world so I naturally think his move is rather a loss.
I did have the consolation of working on my article on Grimsthorpe Castle in Lincolnshire, one of the finest houses in Britain in my opinion, but strangely too little known. Sir John Vanbrugh is one of my great heroes of all time, witty in letters and discourse, he clearly designed for friends and family often for free, or in return for protection and patronage, but I feel he must have been the best of company, better than Wren, who would have been very brainy but grand, and Hawksmoor, who would have been brainy but crabby. I hope to organise an exhibition on Vanbrugh in 2008, but it will have to have a private view and witty speaker every evening to really create the right atmosphere. Any sponsors out there?
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Art Deco: The striking design style that embraced it allArt Deco, with its exuberant passion for geometry, luxury and shiny chrome, cocooned troubled times in a layer of glitz. A century after the style gained its name, Gavin Plumley surveys one of the 20th century’s most all-encompassing movements.
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What the hedge can tell us about the countryside, with Richard NegusThe hedge is much more than just a barrier between one field and the next. Richard Negus joins the Country Life Podcast to discuss his work, his latest book and how he's being tapped up to switch cricket clubs.
