Words and Pictures
insight | books
Words and Pictures Noteworthy publications, chosen by Catriona Gray
Labyrinths: The Art of the Maze
Alidad: The Timeless Home
ed. Franco Maria Ricci, text by Giovanni Mariotti (Rizzoli, £50)
Sarah Stewart-Smith (Rizzoli, £37.50)
‘The starting point of the fable of the labyrinth is the fearsome incandescent phantom of female sexuality.’ This portentous pronouncement is typical of the convolutions, entanglements and elaborate prose by Giovanni Mariotti in the central section of this wonderfully illustrated book. But perhaps such puzzlement is apposite here, since the subject is the complex, mysterious world of mazes and labyrinths and their secret centres, their promise of loss and exploration, of danger and triumph, which have fascinated mankind for thousands of years, ever since the great Cretan fable of Theseus and the minotaur. This replete and beautiful book is in effect an illuminated triptych – three panels, all on the same subject and basic content, but each in a different style and throwing a different light on the elusive subject. The panels are more satisfying than the central text – at one end Franco Maria Ricci’s autobiographical revelations about his passion for mazes and his plans for a labyrinthine cultural park outside Milan, and at the other a dictionary by Luisa Biondetti which explains everything you ever wanted to know, and perhaps even more, about the myriad mythological figures who revolved around the legend of the labyrinth. Polly Devlin
Like Madonna and Boris, the interior decorator Alidad is everywhere recognised by his first name alone. He is also always spoken of as being Persian, a description that perhaps alludes to the romantic world of caliphs and kiosks that his decorative schemes evoke. Alidad seduces both the eye and the brain with his complex layered rooms, where dense strata of colour and texture are built up on reassuringly solid foundations of practicality and technology, and The Timeless Home is rich in examples of both. The book brings together the best of Alidad’s work over the last 25 years, and, like his jewel-box rooms, it too is a casket of ?jewellery/gems. Open it and admire the treasures in front of you; look more closely and marvel at the intricacy of the work, the sophistication of the details, the beauty of each separate element, the way it all works together. Note the flow and movement of space and the mastery of proportion and scale. Anyone who has any interest in the art of the interior will take pleasure in this satisfying work. For more on Alidad’s interiors, turn to the ‘Attention to Detail’ feature in this issue. Caroline Clifton-Mogg
The Building of England: How the History of England has Shaped our Buildings Simon Thurley (William Collins, £30) There have been plenty of histories of England’s buildings, but this one is unique. Simon Thurley, head of English Heritage, does away with the old traditional dating divisions between different monarchs or royal houses. There may have been massive changes in dynasties in, say, 1485 and 1603 – but the architecture didn’t change much. Instead, he dates our buildings, starting with the Romans, by changing shifts in English fortunes and fashions. In a revolutionary analysis, he sees our building style develop not so much in a methodical fashion, but in a constant flip-flop between plain and ornate: decorated Saxon buildings followed by plain Norman ones, followed by the exuberant twelfth century; then plain early Gothic, elaborate later Gothic, and so on, right up until the plainness of minimalist modern classicism. His choice of buildings, too, is eclectic, avoiding the usual emphasis on country houses and concentrating on urban buildings, where most crucial advances took place. For his characters, he also moves beyond the usual realm – of architects – and into patrons, engineers and manufacturers, particularly when it comes to industrial, military and naval buildings. Ideal for the amateur buildings buff, the undergraduate – and the professor. Harry Mount
Farrow & Ball: Decorating with Colour Ros Byam Shaw (Ryland Peters & Small, ?£30/£35)
Colour Deconstructed Tricia Guild (Quadrille, £30) Decorating With Colour is Ros Byam Shaw’s second book for Farrow & Ball, but while Living With Colour limited its case studies to British shores, this volume picks out perfectly painted interiors across Europe, from a converted factory in Paris to an Italian palazzo. Any underlying danger of the book’s reading like a Farrow & Ball catalogue is quelled by the engaging text that animates the elegant photographs of each interior, listing the provenance of interesting pieces and weaving in anecdotes from the owners, while providing an informative and sophisticated guide to working with paint. The author’s passion for Farrow & Ball is best shown in the final interior, when she looks at her own house, where ‘Saxon Green’ imbues a heritage feel in the hall, ‘Cook’s Blue’ adds a dash of cerulean to kitchen cabinets, and ‘London Stone’ sets a neutral, contemplative tone in the library. By contrast, Tricia Guild’s Colour Deconstructed is almost entirely visually driven. It reads like a scrapbook of the designer’s inspiration; each section, divided by colour, shows the myriad influences that inform an interior, and how entire schemes can develop from something as simple as the muted tones of a quail’s feather. Although colour is the subject of both of these books, their approaches fall at opposite ends of the spectrum. CG e n o v e m b e r 2 0 1 3 h o u s e & g a r d e n 000
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13/08/2013 10:49
insight | books
Words and Pictures continued... An English Room
Derry Moore (Prestel, £29.99)
What makes an interior English? In this new book, well-known figures ponder the answer to this question while photographer Derry Moore captures them in their favourite spaces. The locations are diverse – actor Benedict Cumberbatch picks the wood-panelled library of The Garrick Club in London as his favourite place to read a script, while writer Jeanette Winterson chooses the AngloFranco setting of the Shakespeare and Company bookshop in Paris. Below are four of the book’s subjects pictured in interiors that they have shaped themselves, which not only display their tastes and individual styles, but also reflect the diversity of what constitutes an English room. CG
Jasper Conran At home, New Wardour Castle, Dorset
Cressida Bell At home, London
When I first walked into this house nearly four years ago, my overwhelming impression was one of light. It may sound strange, but I had the sensation of being in a Greek temple. At one time soon after the Second World War, the house had served as a girls’ school – one famous for the naughtiness of its pupils. Prior to this, it had belonged to the Arundell family, for whom it had been designed by James Paine in 1770. When I bought the house the walls were of a nondescript white, and I painted them what I would describe as a definite white. I realised that any colours would be superfluous and that the play of light and shadow would create all the drama that was needed. With regard to furnishing the house, I have kept objects – pictures, furniture, sculpture – to a minimum, again letting the drama of light and shadow work its magic.
My kitchen is all about colour and is inspired by the interior decoration of the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul. It is incredibly cosy in the winter, yet cool if it is blazing hot outside. I love to entertain, which is a good excuse to collect pottery. My current favourites are the gilded Bavarian tea sets on the top shelf of the dresser. They date from the Forties and each one has a different design. On the wall behind is a copy of my poster designed to help people learn to cook by using an easy flowchart. I don’t exactly need it, but it goes with the kitchen clock and gives me ideas when I can’t think what to make for dinner.
The Duchess of Northumberland At home, Alnwick Castle, Northumberland I wanted to build a tree house because I believe that everyone loves them. One might wonder why I chose this as my favourite place, rather than somewhere in Alnwick Castle itself. The castle is incredibly grand and full of beautiful things, but it is somewhere that is essentially complete and can pretty well be left to look after itself. I built the tree house in this location because it was the only place that had a cluster of mature trees that could provide the perfect canopy for the building. When I started this project, I had no precise idea what I wanted. However, I knew that I most definitely did not want the end result to look like a new building. Rather, I wanted it to look as if it had evolved over a period of years; that it had been gradually added to, and with a variety and ‘patchwork’ of woods. I wanted it to feel ‘magical’. To achieve this, every part of the building, inside and out, had to be carefully designed.
Paul Smith At his studio, London When I was asked to select my most important room, I decided to choose my studio at work, because although I have a lovely room at home full of books, robots, postcards and toys, I spend more time in my studio. It’s a room full of lots of things, all of which are sources of inspiration. Anyone who knows me or my work knows one of my popular sayings is, ‘You can find inspiration in anything, and if you can’t, please look again.’ I am very privileged to get things sent to me all the time. It’s really interesting that people as young as six years old up to people of 90 years of age send things to me, and it’s not in a demanding way, it’s about just wanting to communicate with me – so this is just a room full of lovely things m
000 h o u s e & g a r d e n n o v e m b e r 2 0 1 3
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13/08/2013 10:43
Words and Pictures Noteworthy publications, chosen by Catriona Gray
Labyrinths: The Art of the Maze
Alidad: The Timeless Home
ed. Franco Maria Ricci, text by Giovanni Mariotti (Rizzoli, £50)
Sarah Stewart-Smith (Rizzoli, £37.50)
‘The starting point of the fable of the labyrinth is the fearsome incandescent phantom of female sexuality.’ This portentous pronouncement is typical of the convolutions, entanglements and elaborate prose by Giovanni Mariotti in the central section of this wonderfully illustrated book. But perhaps such puzzlement is apposite here, since the subject is the complex, mysterious world of mazes and labyrinths and their secret centres, their promise of loss and exploration, of danger and triumph, which have fascinated mankind for thousands of years, ever since the great Cretan fable of Theseus and the minotaur. This replete and beautiful book is in effect an illuminated triptych – three panels, all on the same subject and basic content, but each in a different style and throwing a different light on the elusive subject. The panels are more satisfying than the central text – at one end Franco Maria Ricci’s autobiographical revelations about his passion for mazes and his plans for a labyrinthine cultural park outside Milan, and at the other a dictionary by Luisa Biondetti which explains everything you ever wanted to know, and perhaps even more, about the myriad mythological figures who revolved around the legend of the labyrinth. Polly Devlin
Like Madonna and Boris, the interior decorator Alidad is everywhere recognised by his first name alone. He is also always spoken of as being Persian, a description that perhaps alludes to the romantic world of caliphs and kiosks that his decorative schemes evoke. Alidad seduces both the eye and the brain with his complex layered rooms, where dense strata of colour and texture are built up on reassuringly solid foundations of practicality and technology, and The Timeless Home is rich in examples of both. The book brings together the best of Alidad’s work over the last 25 years, and, like his jewel-box rooms, it too is a casket of ?jewellery/gems. Open it and admire the treasures in front of you; look more closely and marvel at the intricacy of the work, the sophistication of the details, the beauty of each separate element, the way it all works together. Note the flow and movement of space and the mastery of proportion and scale. Anyone who has any interest in the art of the interior will take pleasure in this satisfying work. For more on Alidad’s interiors, turn to the ‘Attention to Detail’ feature in this issue. Caroline Clifton-Mogg
The Building of England: How the History of England has Shaped our Buildings Simon Thurley (William Collins, £30) There have been plenty of histories of England’s buildings, but this one is unique. Simon Thurley, head of English Heritage, does away with the old traditional dating divisions between different monarchs or royal houses. There may have been massive changes in dynasties in, say, 1485 and 1603 – but the architecture didn’t change much. Instead, he dates our buildings, starting with the Romans, by changing shifts in English fortunes and fashions. In a revolutionary analysis, he sees our building style develop not so much in a methodical fashion, but in a constant flip-flop between plain and ornate: decorated Saxon buildings followed by plain Norman ones, followed by the exuberant twelfth century; then plain early Gothic, elaborate later Gothic, and so on, right up until the plainness of minimalist modern classicism. His choice of buildings, too, is eclectic, avoiding the usual emphasis on country houses and concentrating on urban buildings, where most crucial advances took place. For his characters, he also moves beyond the usual realm – of architects – and into patrons, engineers and manufacturers, particularly when it comes to industrial, military and naval buildings. Ideal for the amateur buildings buff, the undergraduate – and the professor. Harry Mount
Farrow & Ball: Decorating with Colour Ros Byam Shaw (Ryland Peters & Small, ?£30/£35)
Colour Deconstructed Tricia Guild (Quadrille, £30) Decorating With Colour is Ros Byam Shaw’s second book for Farrow & Ball, but while Living With Colour limited its case studies to British shores, this volume picks out perfectly painted interiors across Europe, from a converted factory in Paris to an Italian palazzo. Any underlying danger of the book’s reading like a Farrow & Ball catalogue is quelled by the engaging text that animates the elegant photographs of each interior, listing the provenance of interesting pieces and weaving in anecdotes from the owners, while providing an informative and sophisticated guide to working with paint. The author’s passion for Farrow & Ball is best shown in the final interior, when she looks at her own house, where ‘Saxon Green’ imbues a heritage feel in the hall, ‘Cook’s Blue’ adds a dash of cerulean to kitchen cabinets, and ‘London Stone’ sets a neutral, contemplative tone in the library. By contrast, Tricia Guild’s Colour Deconstructed is almost entirely visually driven. It reads like a scrapbook of the designer’s inspiration; each section, divided by colour, shows the myriad influences that inform an interior, and how entire schemes can develop from something as simple as the muted tones of a quail’s feather. Although colour is the subject of both of these books, their approaches fall at opposite ends of the spectrum. CG e n o v e m b e r 2 0 1 3 h o u s e & g a r d e n 000
11-13InsightBooks.indd 3
13/08/2013 10:49
insight | books
Words and Pictures continued... An English Room
Derry Moore (Prestel, £29.99)
What makes an interior English? In this new book, well-known figures ponder the answer to this question while photographer Derry Moore captures them in their favourite spaces. The locations are diverse – actor Benedict Cumberbatch picks the wood-panelled library of The Garrick Club in London as his favourite place to read a script, while writer Jeanette Winterson chooses the AngloFranco setting of the Shakespeare and Company bookshop in Paris. Below are four of the book’s subjects pictured in interiors that they have shaped themselves, which not only display their tastes and individual styles, but also reflect the diversity of what constitutes an English room. CG
Jasper Conran At home, New Wardour Castle, Dorset
Cressida Bell At home, London
When I first walked into this house nearly four years ago, my overwhelming impression was one of light. It may sound strange, but I had the sensation of being in a Greek temple. At one time soon after the Second World War, the house had served as a girls’ school – one famous for the naughtiness of its pupils. Prior to this, it had belonged to the Arundell family, for whom it had been designed by James Paine in 1770. When I bought the house the walls were of a nondescript white, and I painted them what I would describe as a definite white. I realised that any colours would be superfluous and that the play of light and shadow would create all the drama that was needed. With regard to furnishing the house, I have kept objects – pictures, furniture, sculpture – to a minimum, again letting the drama of light and shadow work its magic.
My kitchen is all about colour and is inspired by the interior decoration of the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul. It is incredibly cosy in the winter, yet cool if it is blazing hot outside. I love to entertain, which is a good excuse to collect pottery. My current favourites are the gilded Bavarian tea sets on the top shelf of the dresser. They date from the Forties and each one has a different design. On the wall behind is a copy of my poster designed to help people learn to cook by using an easy flowchart. I don’t exactly need it, but it goes with the kitchen clock and gives me ideas when I can’t think what to make for dinner.
The Duchess of Northumberland At home, Alnwick Castle, Northumberland I wanted to build a tree house because I believe that everyone loves them. One might wonder why I chose this as my favourite place, rather than somewhere in Alnwick Castle itself. The castle is incredibly grand and full of beautiful things, but it is somewhere that is essentially complete and can pretty well be left to look after itself. I built the tree house in this location because it was the only place that had a cluster of mature trees that could provide the perfect canopy for the building. When I started this project, I had no precise idea what I wanted. However, I knew that I most definitely did not want the end result to look like a new building. Rather, I wanted it to look as if it had evolved over a period of years; that it had been gradually added to, and with a variety and ‘patchwork’ of woods. I wanted it to feel ‘magical’. To achieve this, every part of the building, inside and out, had to be carefully designed.
Paul Smith At his studio, London When I was asked to select my most important room, I decided to choose my studio at work, because although I have a lovely room at home full of books, robots, postcards and toys, I spend more time in my studio. It’s a room full of lots of things, all of which are sources of inspiration. Anyone who knows me or my work knows one of my popular sayings is, ‘You can find inspiration in anything, and if you can’t, please look again.’ I am very privileged to get things sent to me all the time. It’s really interesting that people as young as six years old up to people of 90 years of age send things to me, and it’s not in a demanding way, it’s about just wanting to communicate with me – so this is just a room full of lovely things m
000 h o u s e & g a r d e n n o v e m b e r 2 0 1 3
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13/08/2013 10:43
