'The Englishman's Room'

      A return to the literary work of the late Alvilde Lees Milne (1909-1994).  She was the wife of the James Lees Milne, the writer and diarist, and in her own right a writer and talented garden designer. 

     'The Englishman's Room', 1986, was her second book on interiors, following on from 'The English Woman's House' of 1984. In both books she worked with the photographer Derry Moore. Earlier she had collaborated with fellow gardener and writer Rosemary Verey on 'The English Woman's Garden' and The English Gentleman's Garden'. I think you may be able to spot a pattern here. 

     The format remains the same here as in the earlier books with la Lees Milne supplying a short preface and the gentlemen an essay each on their favourite room, some 33 in all. All the usual suspects are there: David Hicks, Christopher Gibbs, John Milnaric, Richard Buckle and Tom Parr: the sort who will also have appeared in World of Interiors around that time. And there are some new faces too; Gervase Jackson Stops, Gavin Stamp, Simon Blow. Most choose a room in their house or flat, but not all.  Sir John Gielgud, for instance, chose his old dressing room at the Haymarket Theatre. (And very nice it is too.) James Lees Milne chose his place of work: the sumptuous Neo-classical library in Landsdown Crescent, Bath, designed in the 1830s by H E Goodridge for William Beckford.  (The Lees Milnes lived in Badminton, and JLM used to commute daily.)

     'As for my books I simply worship them. I am not a bibliophile and have no rare books, apart from a handful which belonged to Mr Beckford and which I like to think may in his day have reposed upon my shelves. One of the things I most regret is having been obliged at certain times of my life to part with volumes.... I simply have to be surrounded by books of reference. After all, they consist of the profoundest thoughts and most beautiful words of the greatest men and women of the world encapsulated within one's reach. They are the most necessary things in life. They are life itself.' 

     I suppose this book could be seen as a snapshot of 1980s tastes, but I would caution against that idea. Some of these rooms were designed decades, if not centuries before; others are not the work of a single-minded designer or amateur creating a self-conscious piece of design but the gentle, culminative effort of decades; places of practical comfort. It's all pretty timeless really. The only real disappointment is David Hick's bedroom - just a little lifeless. Finally a word about Derry Moore's photography; it is superb. 

The English Woman's House

   It's been a long while since I posted my article on the two books 'The Englishman's Garden' & 'The Englishwoman's Garden', edited by Alvilde Lees Milne, (the complex, if not at times downright difficult, wife of James Lees Milne), and Rosemary Verrey the famous gardener. 2014 in fact.  Since then I've kept a look out for other books by Alvilde and - having parted ways with Rosemary Verrey - her new collaborator, the photographer Derry Moore.  I was delighted therefore, sometime before Christmas to come across 'The Englishwoman's House' which was published in 1984, Collins, London.  The format, a good one, remained the same as the previous books:  short pieces by each home owner accompanied by Derry Moore's photographs, introduction by Alvilde and foreword by well known commentator in this case HRH Princess Michael of Kent.

   A mixed bag of interiors they are - most conventional upper-class trad, but none the worse for that I feel.  A lot of them were still 'Sixties' in feel - lots, still, of seagrass squares for instance - though you won't find any Op-art. The sitting room of Laura Ashley is a fine example of that; with its spare use of Victoriana it fits almost neatly into the sort of interior examined by Mary Gilliatt in her magisterial, and 'SomethingoftheChameleon' favourite, 'English Style' of 1967.  Another interior that stood out for me was the Salisbury home of Janet Stone, the widow of the remarkable Reynolds Stone.  Remarkable too in her own right was Janet Stone, as a new book of her photographs shows.  Imagine the sheer joy of a sitting room lined with paintings of Welsh mountains by John Piper. I call that bliss.

 Laura Ashley's Welsh home

Barbara Cartland's home in, I think, Hertfordshire.  'Sixties' taste.

Diana Cage in Cumbria

Love those pale blue walls in the hall

With Janet Stone in Salisbury

Another beautiful shade of blue

Gunby Hall I

     When I started this post it was what I though would be the first cold day of many, but it was not to be, the season has be very mild - there has, so far as I know, been only one frost. I certainly long for cold, crisp days of sharp, thin winter sunshine.

     Apologies for having posted anything for a while I've been busy doing other stuff, mainly redecorating.  It's turned cold here overnight.  The first really cold day of the season, an odd day to recall that summer day trip we made, our goal being the quietly beautiful Gunby Hall on the southern tip of the Lincolnshire Wolds.  Another essay in Lincolnshire brickwork.  Not that it was particularly summery weather.  Still it was wonderful to wander around the house and the simply stunning gardens.
     The house, which I'm sure somebody must have likened to a doll's house, dates from 1700 and was built for Sir William Massingberd.  The wing to the north is a sensitive late Victorian addition.  The original house is a tall and compact design - Pevsner rightly calls the design 'austere and puritanical'.  (Don't let that put you off.) It is a development of that sensible style of Belton, though the scale is smaller and consequently more domestic.  This is not the house of a 18th century grandee or national politician. As at Belton the decoration is concentrated in certain key places in this case the front door.  A little touch of the Baroque.  A touch of Baroque too in the round arched gate to the side of the house.  The textures of old brick, pantile and paving are lovely.
     The interior too is an absolute delight.  The scale is just right.  There is nothing outstanding in décor, architecture or art. There is, however, plenty of panelling painted in soft colours and off-whites, and old furniture.  Old rugs sprawl about the floors.  A comfortable place, with a sort of modesty to it I find utterly beguiling.  And, as regular readers will have realized, that is one of the unintended themes of this blog: the delight in the everyday and the obscure; and certainly Gunby is obscure, and it is perhaps its advantage that it stands far and remote in such a by-passed and overlooked county.
     To the north of the house is a charming 'cour d'offices': stables and other ancillary buildings.  It is later than the house and is a lovely space, almost collegiate in feel.  In fact there is a wonderful sense of calm to the whole complex, that has led some to believe that it was the inspiration for Tennyson's 'haunt of ancient peace'.  It was a favourite of the architectural historian, diarist and National Trust expert James Lees Milne, who left a sum on his will for the restoration of the library.
     My only complaint was the new 'open to roam' policy of the National Trust included the bedrooms. On my previous visits the house was still inhabited, and on my last visit there our party was shown round by the then tenant, and now to be allowed to wander around her bedroom didn't feel right somehow.

Alvilde Lees-Milne & Rosemary Verey

   As readers of the this blog will know I have an interest in the twentieth century diarist, novelist and art historian James Lees Milne.  Reading the Bloch biography I was struck by the formidable character of his wife Alvilde.  Like her husband she was bisexual, indeed not too long after their marriage Alvilde embarked on a tempestuous relationship with Vita Sackville West.  What interested me, and let's be frank gave me a bit hope, was her late flowering career as both an author and garden designer.  In her seventies she collaborated with another renown gardener, Rosemary Verey (1918-2001), (her husband David Verey wrote a number of the Shell County Guides) on producing two books:  'The Englishwoman's Garden' and 'The Englishman's Garden'.  Not only that but she found herself designing a garden for Mick Jagger of all people.  

   Browsing through a well-known internet auction site I came across both books.  Although the quality of the photographs inside as printed is not up to today's standards both books do offer a snapshot of post-war English garden design.  The structure is the same in both books: there is a forward by a well-known gardener, followed by an introductory essay by Alvilde and Rosemary and then a collection of illustrated essays each on a particular garden written by the owner herself/himself.  The idea for the format belonged to the publisher Sebastian Walker and it works very well, giving, amongst other things, a real insight into the long process of creating a good garden.
   The cover of the English woman's garden, which shows part of Rosemary Verey's Cotswold garden was alone worth the cost of the book.  The laburnum walk looks magnificent, and I love the contrast between the hanging clusters yellow flowers hanging there like bunches of grapes and the purple globes of the alliums beneath, which seem quite happy in the partial shade, which I didn't expect. A bit disappointing, though, that all the gardens illustrated show a propensity to nasty concrete paving, but that was the times!

   The men featured tend to be more famous - Beverley Nichols, Sir Frederick Ashton, Nicholas Ridley, for instance - than the women gardeners, though emphasis is rightly placed upon the important role women played in the creation of the English Garden.  As James Lees Milne's biographer points out of the gardeners included in these books half the women were aristocrats and half the men were gay!

   The collaboration between Alvilde and Rosemary was not to last, but Alvilde working with the photographer Derry Moore went on to produce a number of books on both interior design and garden design, such as 'The Englishman's Room' which I have written about before in connection with the architectural historian and campaigner Gavin Stamp.

James Lees Milne

   Firstly let me apologize for not blogging of late.  I was preparing a post on F L Griggs when my father was taken ill and was hospitalised for over a week.  Then came Christmas and the preparations thereof.  Not too mention the continuing upheaval here with re-decorating.  My neat plans were thrown into terrible, and sometime apathetic, confusion.  Normal service will, I hope, be restored shortly.

   I suppose it was reading 'Anti-ugly', but for the last couple of weeks I have been dipping into Michael Bloch's biography of James Less Milne, and the volume of Less Milne's diaries entitled 'Through Wood and Dale; Diaries 1975-1978'.  Lees Milne is a character I find deeply fascinating, not only (and I hope this doesn't sound too prurient) on account of his personal life but his interest in architecture and history, and his self-knowledge.  It was through both books that I returned to church on Christmas morning.  I think I would have liked to have met him.

   After re-reading both 'Excellent Women' and 'Casino Royale' I am re-reading the first part of 'The Lord of the Rings'.  An excellent book for this time of year.