Inspiration From A Writer's Library

Writer's libraries are always scarily messy affairs.

At the moment, my study is overcrowded with piles of research for new book projects, plans for our forthcoming US Garden Tour in May, tax receipts to reconcile, a huddle of watercolours to be used for the page designs for the New York book, an overwhelmingly – I mean frighteningly high – pile of archives, notes and interviews for the Picnic at Hanging Rock book (almost as high as the rock itself!), a smaller pile of ribbons and other passementerie for a new Paris book, a medium pile of bits and pieces for the new magazine, and an almost hidden cluster of clippings and ideas for a new company I'm working on. (Which is a pile that keeps getting pushed to one side, so I may have to remove it from the others altogether.)

And in between all these terrorising, intimidating piles, are books. Piles and piles of books.

I tell you, this study is not a safe place to be.  

(NB I'm not showing you as I'm quietly ashamed of the chaos. It's organised chaos, but nonetheless, there is an element of alarm at the sight of it all)

But what I wanted to write about was the curiosity we have for other people's studies, libraries and private spaces.

An ex-boyfriend once told me that when he started dating a girl, he would look in her bathroom cupboard for clues, but I think you'd find out a lot more about someone by looking in their library.
Books are revealing things. I'm sometimes ashamed when high-brow literary friends come over because we don't have many high-brow literary titles. (Have you ever done the bookshelf shuffle when you've had guests? It's such panic, isn't it?) First editions are another sign that someone has a fine mind. (We have a first edition that's worth $10,000+, but it's the only one I have and I've hidden it so well I can't find it. That says volumes about us.)

Anyway, this post was inspired by another writer, the brilliant Australian-New Zealand author Diane Dorrans Saeks who's now based in San Francisco. 

A former staff writer for Vogue Living and Vogue Australia, Diane has written more than two dozen coffee-table books on design, architecture and style (above).

Her blog www.thestylesaloniste.com [link] is always fascinating: a curious compendium of travel, design, ideas, books and style. It's like walking into a bookshop and finding the owner is one of the most interesting people you've ever met, full of sage advice about people to read and places to go.

She's rather well-known but she's also endearingly humble. (Anyone who goes to Luang Prabang is not pretentious.)

This week, she did a post on her library. It was astonishing. I wish I knew her better so I could email her. Do have a peek: book lovers will go ga-ga.

It gave me dozens of ideas for new and vintage books to buy. It also made me think: Why isn't there a blog that shows pix of people's private libraries? It would offer such wonderful inspiration for new book buys, don't you think?

And so here, in something of a confessional, are some images of our book 'piles' around the place. I hope it offers you all some bookish inspiration for 2014. We all need to buy more books – new ones, old ones, vintage and classic ones, bestsellers and small sellers, high-brow and low. Thank you Diane for showing me the beauty of books again.

INSPIRATION FROM A WRITER'S LIBRARY

TOP OF THE PILE

This is one of the best books. Ever. If you love gardens and particularly French gardens and their design, buy this new tome on Le Notre, the talent behind Versailles. It's surprisingly inexpensive. How they put it all together, with the garden plans, illustrations and text, for this price, I'll never know. It's an extraordinarily beautiful volume of work.

Le Notre: In Perspective

(Published to coincide with the current exhibition at Versailles.)

CLOSE TO THE TOP OF THE PILE

Audrey: The 60s

This was a Christmas gift, along with Le Notre. (I was so lucky. I received lots of beautiful books from family.) This is one of the most beautiful books about Ms Hepburn that's ever been published. And the 1960s fashion is sublime. (Especially on her.)

A FEW SUGGESTIONS FOR FRANCOPHILES

The Sun King's Garden, by Ian Thompson

Life in The French Country Home by Mark Girouard

and Côte d'Azur: Inventing The French Riviera by Mary Blume

FAVOURITE DESIGN / ARCHITECTURE TITLES

Robert Polidori's huge, three-volume Versailles, 

which shows the behind-the-scenes restoration of the palace in beautiful detail.

Danish fashion designer Marlene Birger's Life & Work

And some of Tricia Guild and Christian Liaigre's titles...

TRAVEL & FASHION RECS

Manolo Blahnik's Drawings

Bare Blass: Bill Blass

and The Golden Age of Travel by Alexis Gregory

GREAT HOLIDAY READS

Anything by Lily Brett or Justine Picardie

A SURPRISING DELIGHT OF A READ

The Garden in Art

Just superb.

GLORIOUS GARDENALIA

Anything by Adam Nicolson (Vita Sackville-West's grandson)

or David Hicks' My Kind of Garden

MORE GORGEOUS GARDENALIA

Bunny Williams' An Affair With A House

Heritage Gardens: The World's Great Gardens Saved by Restoration

Sara Midda's In and Out of the Garden

Garden Mania (a gem for those who love garden plans)

GREAT BEACH READS

Vintage Swimwear

Capri Style

AND BOOKS THAT ARE GOOD FOR DISPLAY

Anything by Images Publishing (my old company), particularly the New Classicist series.

And of course my new publisher, MUP, which produces beautiful books. 

Although in the end, it doesn't matter what you read, as long as you keep reading...

2014: The Year of Two Unusual Hues

Have you noticed? Colour is making a bold comeback, pushing aside the long-lasting trend for beiges, greys, greiges and all those other Frenchy shades. One colour in particular is proving strong. It's the colour that author Alice Walker made famous, the colour Roman Catholic bishops are rather fond of, the colour of new-summer salvias and the admirably hardy stalwart of many Australian gardens, the Veilchenblau rose, and the colour long associated with not only piety and royalty but also growing older gracefully... (Just ask the Queen.)

Yes, it's that greatly misunderstand colour, purple.

Pantone, those people who bravely predict the colours that we'll be wearing, decorating with, or indulging in during the forthcoming year, have courageously put their heads up above the colour parapet and said "hallelujah for purple hues". They've named one purple, in particular, Radiant Orchid, as being Colour of the Year 2014, forecasting that it will be up there as a pre-eminent hue for the next 12 months. 

(Much of Prada, Chanel and Dior's Spring 2014 fashion collections featured a preponderance of pinks and purples on the runways.)

However, alongside all this purple prose,  there's another colour that's creeping up in popularity; a colour that leading paint company Benjamin Moore predicts will have a far-reaching influence this year: sky blue. (Although Benjamin Moore has given it the more 'colourful' name of 'Breath of Fresh Air'.)

And so here, to celebrate the return of two rarely-used hues in fashion and decorating, is a small post on the splendour of powder blue and bold mauve. Er, sorry, Radiant Orchid. Hooray for the colour under-dogs, I say.

One of the most beautiful places to visit in London, the former stately home of Kenwood in Hampstead. Go along just to see Robert Adam's library and this room, above, which is the most ravishing shade. It's one of London's hidden gems – and it's free. How we love a free museum...

www.english-heritage.org.uk/daysout/properties/kenwood

A frock by one of New York's most under-rated fashion designers, Ralph Rucci, whose resort collections are always elegant. No wonder the Upper East Side socialites adore him.

www.chadoralphrucci.com

If you can't afford a Ralph Rucci off the rack, and you're nimble with a Singer, try the Vogue patterns. Mr Rucci normally does one or two designs for Vogue patterns a year. 

This Ralph Rucci wrap dress pattern, above, makes the perfect gardening smock, 

particularly in cotton duck, which is a great utilitarian fabric.

One of the most expensive paints you can purchase if you're an artist is Cobalt Violet. 

(As I discovered when I went to purchase a tube last week, and was told it was $45. I thought she said $5 and carefully counted out some coins on the counter.) 

Use it sparingly, if at all. In fact, at that price you'd probably just want to put it to one side and ponder its beauty while you used the cheaper paints...

Miranda Kerr's home, as photographed recently for cult international website The Coveteur. 

It's a paean to pinks and purples.

(Thanks for showing my book Miranda; I was very touched to see it. But I would have put your amazing shoe collection first in the photo shoot. Covet is the right word.)

http://www.thecoveteur.com/miranda-kerr

The Lilac Walk in New York's Central Park. 

Truly stunning.

(April / May is the best time to see it.)

Have you read the fabulous story behind this painting? Some of you may have already read it, but if not, the link is here. (My sister-in-law just sent me the link this week: I hadn't read about it either.)

It's a truly extraordinary tale of a lavish Parisian apartment that was shut up and forgotten about for 70 years.

http://parisapartment.wordpress.com/2010/10/07/urban-archaeology-sleeping-beautys-paris-apartment-discovered/

If you really want to immerse yourself in Radiant Orchid, you could stay here: the Junior Suite of the Raphael Hotel in Paris.

www.raphael-hotel.com

Clearly, the Roman Catholic bishops recognise a fashion trend before the rest of us.

A few of us are getting ready for another Garden Tour in May this year, this time to the spring gardens of New York, the Hamptons, Connecticut and Savannah/Charleston. It's only a small tour – we filled the 15-seat bus through word-of-mouth – and it looks like being a lovely group. We learned a lot from the last tour and are endeavouring to make it better and more beautiful than England.

The one thing I'm worried about, however, is the dress code. The women on the May 2013 Garden Tour had THE most beautiful scarves – which were almost as beautiful as their wedding rings. (I was telling a friend this week about the 'tour rings'. "Honestly. Some of them were like the Hope Diamond.)

So I've pulled out my best scarves in preparation. 

New York in spring.

Just beautiful.

(Photographed this year. Seems a long way from the blizzards hitting the city at present.)

Have you seen the new app called Waterlogue? 

It's fantastic. It distills your ordinary, everyday iPhone photos into surprisingly beautiful watercolour-style works of art. 

www.waterlogueapp.com

Poliform's new collection for 2014.

Mauve: How One Many Invented a Colour That Changed The World, by Simon Garfield

A fantastic book, which aesthetes and colour enthusiasts will love, about the history and significance of the colour mauve.

The sophisticated interior of the David Collins-designed Artesian bar in London. 

The late David Collins loved the colour blue, but this project moved towards a prettier palette of white and wisteria. So beautiful, it was named The World's Best Bar for 2013.

www.artesian-bar.co.uk

Our home, where purple seems to have made a sneaky appearance in an upstairs bedroom...

Another view of the same bedroom, where a vintage blue-and-mauve Hermès scarf bought in Paris became the decorating cue for the room.

And our newly painted powder-blue library / living room. 

The walls are done in Porter's Paint's 'Nebular', which is a pretty plumbago-blue shade, almost the colour of summer hydrangeas.

The pale blue linen slipcover for the ottoman is from Scarlett Jones' fabric store in Melbourne. They have lovely Belgium linen that looks like antique French linen.

The always gorgeous Boatshed at Balmoral in Sydney. 

Every week the flowers here are spectacular – and always seem to perfectly match the aqua and pale-blue interior.

A famous image of some of the designs of couturier Charles James; the subject of a major Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute exhibition this year.

Charles James: Beyond Fashion. 

From May 8 until August 10, 2014

www.metmuseum.org

Speaking of sky blue, this is a perfect photo to illustrate the hue.

I had a few quick days away in the Whitsunday Islands before Christmas, to decompress after an intense and sometimes exhausting year. The view over the islands and the Great Barrier Reef surely has to be one of the most memorable in the world. I always go quiet when the plane flies over the bays and inlets of this incredibly beautiful part of Australia.

More sea-blue inspiration from the Whitsundays...

New York's coolly glamorous new hotel, The Marlton, which has lots of blue in the design palette.

The Greenwich Village location is superb too.

marltonhotel.com

It's 33 degrees Celcius here in Melbourne today. (92 Fahrenheit)

Off to make a G&T.