'English Style'

     What can I say about this superlative book?  Written by Mary Gilliatt and published by Bodley Head in 1967 it is a truly beautiful thing to behold.  Not only is the photography, by Michael Boys, simply wonderful and often very atmospheric, but the design, by John Bigg, is terrific.  In all a really stylish, well considered production.

     I have coveted this book ever since it appeared on my friend Ben Pentreath's blog, and finally, now, I have my own, my very own copy.  Anyway here is my selection from this lovely book - not an easy task not only due of the sheer quality of the photography alone but because I could happily spend quality time in any one of the homes illustrated.  However there are, obviously, some I prefer to others. In fact Mary Gilliatt's selection is incredibly diverse, disparate even.  (A notable omission, I've just realized, is John Fowler.)  What, however, does hold them together is a common thread of eclecticism - a sort of portmanteau of styles and artefacts that is witty and clever and urbane and for her that is the English Style.  It displays the innate conservatism of English taste and it's rejection of High International Modernism.  Or a least a deeply ambiguous attitude to it. It is also in the last analysis humane.

     For those discerning few who read both this blog and Ben's I hope this isn't too repetitious a post.

The Chelsea home of  Robin & Lucienne Day

The weekend cottage, in Suffolk, of Terence and Caroline Conran

The London home of architect Mr Nicholas Johnston

In the home of architect Mr Roger Dyer

The London flat of Mr & Mrs Peter Hall

The London flat of Mr John Vaughan, critic and photographer

The flat of design consultant Kathleen Darby

In the London flat of Mr Klein Lichtenstein

The Oxfordshire home of Mr David & Lady Pamela Hicks

The London flat of Miss Anne Trahearne

The dining room in the Kensington Palace apartment of HRH Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon

The bedroom of Professor & Mrs Fleming, Zoffany House, London

The London drawing room of Mr Hardy Amies

Bedroom by Jon Bannenberg

Daneway House, Gloucestershire

Stratton Park, Hampshire, designed by Billy McCarty

The London house of Mr David & Lady Pamela Hicks

A London flat designed by Billy McCarty

The Hampstead flat of Mr Leslie Waddington

House and Garden 1968 II David and Pamela Hicks

    Another article for you from the March edition of House and Garden 1968.  Four shillings well spent, I'd say.  This article is about the holiday home of David and Pamela Hicks in the south of France.  It is an incredibly sophisticated work by one of Britain's leading post-War interior designers.  The dining room is amazing, the balance of colour and texture, old and new is exquisite.  Everything so well chosen, I would however mention...no, it's not possible to highlight one or two objects.  Not without naming everything.  It's all good.  I suspect, however, the thought of eating with the Hicks would have terrified most people.  It would me, or rather terrified and excited me in equal amounts.  They seem impossibly grand.  But, although tempted to, I wouldn't have refused.  The added treat with this article is that it is written by Mary Gilliatt.  Enjoy.

Mary Gilliatt: 'A House in the Country' II

   Here is part two of my selection of images from Mary Gilliat's 'A House in the Country' - a slightly different selection from the which my friend Ben Pentreath posted earlier this week.

   I love this photograph.

   I suspect that this cottage, in Suffolk, also belonged to Mary Gilliatt.  The furniture in the dining room including the dresser, and the items on that dresser, are identical to those in the image of her dining room and kitchen I posted at the end of last week.  I wonder what the explanation is?

   Seriously, what's not to like?

   The hall is stunning.

   The home of film director John Schlesinger and his partner Geoffrey Sharpe.  The work of David Hicks.  The outside, a former oasthouse in the Weald is suffering from a thorough going over in Suburban style.  The inside however is more more interesting.  The best room is the dining room.  Stairs in the style of Eliel Saarinen, derived in turn from Voysey.

   A wonderful evocative image, those stairs.

   With the possible exception of the lighting there's nothing I would change.  I even like the Casa Pupo rug.

Mary Gilliatt: 'A House in the Country' I

    Regular readers of this blog will have noticed the sudden spate of posts about interior design.  It is certainly the thing that's inspiring me most at present.  It all started as a teenager and has been a recurring interest since.  I have never practiced as an interior designer although it was an early ambition.  I got seduced by architecture and went into that without the sort of success I would have wanted and so I became a carer.  I simply don't have the temperament to be a designer.  Sometimes this is a cause for regret, but then I remember the amount of stress I used to get, the deep unhappiness that was my passage through the education system and I'm pleased I didn't take things further.  And now, after the caring has (not quite) finished, and only two years off fifty I think it's too late to pick things up again - and in any case I don't have enough confidence.  That I do regret.
Anyway.....Mary Gilliatt.

    Mary Gilliatt is a writer on interior design.  In the 1960s she wrote for 'House and Garden' under the editorship of Robert Harling.  In 1968 she wrote her first book 'English Style', and it was Ben Pentreath's post on that book that sparked my interest. (What would we do without Mr Pentreath?)  'A House in the Country' followed three books later in 1973. The photographer was Brian Morris.  Although not so lavishly produced as 'English Style' - not so much colour photography or 'empty page' - it does acquit itself well.  The photography is good, sometimes quite evocative.  The layout too; the title pages are very good.

   Mary Gilliatt's own house in the country in west Suffolk - a bold, eclectic mix of tradition, Victoriana and Italian Modernism.  Note the same fabric recurring as table cloth, napkin and scatter cushion. An early design from the Designers Guild.

   The home of artist William Scott.

   This, I think, is the country home of Richard Guyatt, the designer (the text only refers to Prof Guyatt).  'Casa Pupo' rug in the entrance hall.  Not sure about that fitted carpet!  The dining room is really attractive - seagrass matting, brick floors.

   The weekend cottage of Terence and Caroline Conran.

   The country home of a retired general and is artist wife.  I find the austerity of both the dining room and sitting room very satisfying.  Shame that these are only black and white images though. (07.07.2020 There is a tiny colour picture of the kitchen in Terance Conran's 'The House Book')

A House in the Country

      The Second Home from Cottages to Castles

Text:  Mary Gilliatt

Photography: Bryan Morris

Hutchinson & Co Ltd

London

1973

ISBN 0 09 111610 4