Lit Chic: Part 2 – Lit Wits

Need an inspirational theme for your next soirée? Take a page from the lit wits, who are leading the way with book-lined parties. It's the hottest thing in entertaining at the moment – or should that be the wittiest thing? If you love books and want to incorporate them into your next dinner party or 'do', begin with some of the beautiful ideas on sites such as pinterest.com/randomhouse/literary-wedding and other bookish sources.

Here are a few of my favourite pix from the Random House Pinterest page, including this (above) - a catalogue of guest seating cards. {Detailed sources from each individual image on this site. NB If I have featured your photos and you would like to be credited here as well as on Random House's Pinterest, please do just let me know,}

The Photo For The Wedding Invitation

I think this image may have originally come from Brides magazine but it's now turning up on a lot of sites. I love this. It could also be a wedding photo.

The Photo of the Dress

Needs no introduction, really. Nor even a foreword.

 The Cake

Seems a shame to slice into it.

The Manicure

Might be going a bit far, but still cute.

And if you're a book lover AND a film lover, you may like to see a new film that's being released next month (it's just been released in the States), called The Words. It stars an impressive cast, including Bradley Cooper, Jeremy Irons and Dennis Quaid, and is being billed as a "layered romantic drama". I suspect it's more than that. It may not be Henry James but I suspect it's a lot more than Fifty Shades of Grey.

The story follows young writer Rory Jansen (Mr Cooper, as brooding as always) who's a struggling writer with aspirations to be the next great literary voice. When he discovers a lost manuscript in a weathered attaché case that he and his wife found in a shop in Paris on their honeymoon, he realizes he possesses an extraordinary book. It's just a shame he didn't write it. After much thought (okay a fleeting moment of guilt), Rory decides to pass the work off as his own. He is soon a literary superstar. However, he soon learns that the words are only the beginning. The trailers look great - here www.thewordsmovie.com

On another note (or page), I was saddened to read on the weekend that writer Bryce Courtenay only has a few months to live. Whatever you think of his books, he is a magnificent writer. Even his off-hand quotes are ridiculously brilliant. I’ll always remember a fantastic line he spouted when he was asked whether he ‘embellished’ the truth.

“Do I exaggerate? You bet I exaggerate! I take a fact, put a top hat on it, a silk shirt and a bow tie and striped trousers and a tail coat and a pair of tap shoes and I do a Fred Astaire with a fact. But I don't ruin the fact. I never ruin the fact. I'm just giving it life.”

Courtenay also said: "Writing a book is never easy. It takes guts, patience and a huge amount of self-discipline to succeed." Courtenay has written 22. Can you imagine how many hours it would have taken, sitting in a room alone, to produce that much work? The man needs an award just for his Hemingwayesque productivity.

Someone else who is staring at his last words is Clive James. Mr James has also announced that he is fighting the Grim Reaper, who wants to make him pay for his excessive and indulgent life of drinking, smoking and eating quality nosh – and lots of it – at top London restaurants.

I have had the extraordinary luck to have met and interviewed James on two occasions. He was the most delightful, convivial, self-deprecating, fiercely witty and fantastically humorous man I've ever met. He didn't just answer your questions with a Kingsley Amis-style sneer and then stare around the room for something better to entertain him. He truly engaged with you, person to person, with spark, warmth, interest and genuine friendliness. He didn't need – or deserve – the horrific publicity that A Current Affair gave him earlier this year.

Did you read the (more pleasing) article about him in The Weekend Australian Magazine recently? I loved the quote by Martin Amis. Amis said that Clive, when asked how he'd like his steak, always replied "Knock off its horns and wipe its arse!" Only Clive James could get away with that.

But he is more than the classic Aussie wit with a dry bite and a sense of humour from left field. He is also a great writer. One of James' critics, the Oxford academic Peter Conrad, now regrets giving him a bad review and says "As an essayist, he is up there with Hazlitt, Wilde, Chesterton and co."

According to The Weekend Australian Magazine, Clive James is fighting for his life. But he has sold his Cambridge house to move closer to his London doctors. When the Australian's journalist, Bryan Appleyard, visited him for the story, the only things left were a single Sidney Nolan painting and piles of books on the floor. "I couldn't bring myself to sell them," confessed James.

Oh Clive, how we shall miss you.


PS Apologies for my absence on this blog. I, too, am holed up in self-imposed isolation writing several books. If I haven't yet emailed you, I am so very sorry, and promise to reply soon. Please wait for me: I shall send a personal reply to each and every one who has kindly written very shortly. I also promise that the itinerary for the The Grand Botanical Tour will be up this week! Can't wait to see you all next May. It will be such a lovely trip! xx

Lit Chic: Library-Themed Hotels, Bars & Other Bits

Have you noticed how the onslaught of iPhones, iPads, Kindles and other electronic readers is causing a huge wave of sentimentality for old-fashioned books? It started with the trend of 'library hotels', whereby high-end boutique hotels began refashioning themselves as 'literary retreats'. Some of the most successful, including The Library in New York, The Pavillion de la Reine in Paris, and The Library in Thailand, became so popular, people booked them especially for their literary loveliness. Others, such as The Nomad in New York introduced grand bars based on dignified gentlemen's libraries, which were just as well received. And yet other bookish entrepreneurs, such as boutique and bar owners, began redesigning their spaces around the themes of reading. Even fashion designers are now starting to produce collections based on wordplay whimsy.

Here are a few of my favourite literary spaces. Oh – I'd love one of the Kate Spade Dictionary clutches, too (below). But I'd probably have to write another book to be able to afford it! {Top image from The Library Bar in Alberquerque}

Pre-Scripted

Have you ever dealt with Carolyn Quartermaine's office in France. Her staff are some of the loveliest people I've ever dealt with. I'd buy fabric from them simply because their manners are so beautiful. Carolyn has been creating sublime, script-enhanced fabrics for years, however she's now returning to her roots as an artist, so perhaps snap up some bolts while you can. These beautiful prints may not be around for many more years. {carolynquartermaine.com}

The Writing on the Wall (Or The Mirror)

I've always loved this image of a period Parisian apartment dressed in B&B Italia Lazy Chairs and a Lens Table, all reflected in a gilt mirror embellished with lines of typewriter-font. A curious juxtaposition of the classic, the modern, the witty and the whimsical. So beautiful. Via the book Design in Black and White. {Image via B&B Italia}

All Booked Up

Tucked away behind a hidden garden off the Place des Vosges, the Pavillion de la Reine hotel is one of the true secrets of Paris. Beloved by VIPs, it's a grand hotel with an intimate feel, but its most endearing trait is its literary-themed rooms. The suites feature quotes from famous authors while the library is full of great titles to take to bed with you. Should you not have anyone else in Paris to share the romance with. {Images via pavillon-de-la-reine.com}

The Reine's sister hotel, The Pavillion des Lettres, is also themed around books, and features rooms that have iPads stocked with international bestsellers and daily newspapers and music. Futhermore, each guest room is devoted to a letter of the alphabet and  writer who corresponds to that letter. Among the authors featured are Baudelaire and Rousseau, whose quotes are handwritten on the walls en Français.

LA Confidential

The Library Bar in LA is fast becoming a haunt for screenwriters I know. It's not surprising, really. It's a surprising – and rather inspiring – space to chill out from the craziness of LA. They've even got the colour of the website exactly right. It's the same shade as the borrowing cards and pockets in front of old library books. Too witty for words. {librarybarla.com}

How Do You Spell That Again?

Kate Spade's creative team has gone all out on the literary theme this year. I love this 'Dictionary' clutch, and the Cha Cha stockings are cute too. {katespade.com}

Stirred, Shaken, And Then Read From Front To Back

The Library Bar at The Lanesborough in London is a true gentleman's retreat, which also happily accepts ladies. Designed in the style of a Regency library with bookcases lined with leather-bound titles and deep leather wing chairs to read them in, the bar's most eye-catching features are the handsome display cabinets full of elegant alcohol bottles. There's a fire in winter, and plenty of ice in summer. The Lanesborough, Hyde Park Corner, London. Hours 11am - 1am.

The Romance Suite, Please

New York’s Library Hotel is a truly decadent hideaway for Dewey lovers. (Pun intended.) The intellectual inspiration for this innovative place comes from the nearby New York Public Library and the architecture is just as stunning. Each room has its own themed libraries (I love the Architecture Suite, okay, and the Romance One too), so you can choose your reading pleasures. And when you’re done seducing your other half with volumes of modern design (as I did – although he fell asleep before we reached the Contents Page), then you can retreat upstairs to the bookshelf-lined lounge and rooftop terrace for a late-night coffee and a chance to write your own bestseller. {libraryhotel.com}

Raising A Toast To Hemingway 

(And All The Other Literary Nomads)

The Nomad Hotel in New York is one of the most beautiful hotels in the world. It could even be my favourite. For my previous post on this glamour puss, click here.  {thenomadhotel.com}

Retreating Into Books

Many of you will have already heard of The White House, Lyn Gardner's gorgeous weekender in Daylesford. We were lucky enough stay there for a night two years ago, in order to shoot it for the book Design In Black and White. It was so lovely, we could have stayed all week. The most beautiful room was the tiny library, which comes with a wall full of Penguin classics, a fireplace full of wood and two comfy leather club chairs to sink into. Literary bliss. Even her branding and website are beautiful. {thewhitehousedaylesford.com.au}

A Page Turner

Former Ralph Lauren executive Ellen O'Neill's Gramercy Park studio apartment in New York. Decorated in graphic shades of ink black and white, its highlight is Ingo Maurer's Zettelz 5 chandelier, a light-as-paper artwork that Ellen has decorated with her own favourite pages and personal pieces. I was going to stay in this apartment for a week earlier this year, but the logistics proved too difficult. Pity. Isn't it pretty? {Image via House Beautiful}

Wall Flower

I've seen Ms Deborah Bowman's wallpaper in many homes now, but it never gets tiring. Well I mean, who could tire of books? Even the name – 'Genuine Fake Books' – is memorable. The latest space to feature it is Stephen Schubel's fisherman's cottage in Sausalito, which was in the July/August issue of House Beautiful. Have you seen this magazine yet? It's a beautiful issue.

Literary Chic

My favourite ad of all time. Can't imagine how the J Crew gang styled this up? But isn't it fabulous?

How Not To Decorate (A Lesson)

I was originally going to call this post 'How To Decorate In A Day'. (Or a week.) But then I realised, with some consternation – and a small sigh of resignation – that I am a rubbish decorator. Truly. I am simply a journalist and an author. I wouldn't know how to position a cushion if you paid me to do a PhD in it.

Furthermore, with all of the turmoil of the past month (refer to post before previous one), including travelling overseas, moving house, band-aiding our family back together, and generally juggling writing, work projects and life, I haven't really had much time to think about colourways and creative spaces. In fact, I was so weary after 'decorating' our library (and I use that word loosely), that I thought about calling it a day on the interior design.

As such, our bedroom is still full of cardboard tea chests and liable to stay that way until we decide to move again. I did contemplate painting it navy, which would 'intimatise' the space (design code for making it sexier), but it's not a priority. So the aesthetic will remain 'tea-chest chic' for the moment. At least we'll have somewhere to sit. Even if we're not getting any.

So this is my warning to you all, dear readers. This is how NOT to decorate. And if you're a professional interior designer or architect, please look away now. Because the following images are liable to offend all of you with any taste. Or decency. Or indeed desire to declutter your lives. I can only apologise.

HOW NOT TO DECORATE: 

FIVE EASY STEPS

STEP ONE: Choose a colour palette and choose it quickly. I plucked out this Parisian green shade, called 'Blade', at Porter's Paints five minutes before closing time last Friday night. It looked pretty. Like Paris' Palais Royal gardens in spring. Or Ladurée's signature green boxes. It even seemed to be the same as the cover of my first bestseller La Vie Parisienne. Surely a good sign? "It'll do," I said nervously to the Porter's Paints girl. "Are you sure?" she said, questioning my judgement (and perhaps my sanity). I looked at the hundreds of other colours and felt slightly faint at the prospect of picking one. "I think so," I replied, and shrugged. That's when I knew I wasn't really a decorator. A decorator would never be this blasé.

That weekend, I slapped two coats on our new library. "What do you think?" I asked RR. "It's very green," he said in his typically understated way. (And yes, I know a great many of you abhor green. That's okay. It's not for everyone, I know.)

Here's where I painted around a big spider. This is called Arachnid Decorating.

STEP TWO: Find fabrics to match. Now 'real' decorators (professionals) don't believe in being too 'matchy-matchy'. Apparently, it's amateurish. Well, in Magazine Land we were taught that if you wanted a stylish cover you never used more than two colours, three at most. I'm going to stick with matchy-matchy, I'm afraid. Real designers, please look away, because I don't know how to decorate any other way. (And yes, I know French ticking is passé. But I love these monogrammed cushions. Perhaps nobody will notice?)

STEP THREE: Find the cheapest furniture this side of a Hard Rubbish Collection. After a month in the US and a new mortgage, we couldn't afford Moooi or Fornasetti (my favourite brands), or any other dazzling piece. So I went looking for a bargain. Fortunately, it's the end of the financial year, so places like Town & Country are having 50%-off sales. I nabbed a beautiful black library for half price. (Tax time. I tell you, it's the best time to decorate!) It was still expensive, but I wanted something to 'anchor' the room, and this handsome piece was begging to be taken home. No, not the Brazilian delivery guy. The library.

STEP FOUR: Pull out the sewing machine. My mother kindly loaned me her new sewing machine a few years ago. I haven't returned it. It's been the most useful thing in our lives since the blender. Last week, desperate to finish decorating, I whipped up some covers for a few ottomans. Slip covers. I tell you. They're the best thing ever. This was made with a remnant of Ralph Lauren pinstripe. (NB Professional decorators, please don't look too closely. There's no piping. And the ends aren't tied off.)

STEP FIVE: If in doubt, fill the room with books. The problem, is, we always forget to hide the trashy reads. We file the Fifty Shades of Grey next to the Graham Greene.

STEP SIX: Create a welcoming bar in the corner, so you can offer guests a drink upon arrival. I pinched this idea from Bunny Williams' guest house. I was in awe of her guest bar: an enormous antique table FILLED with top-shelf spirits that was conveniently placed within a few feet of the front door. "I'd like to emulate that!" I thought. But there were a few problems. I didn't have an antique sideboard. OR the budget for Chateau Lafitte. So we just have water. Or water.

STEP SEVEN: Always have a vase of flowers to scent the room. Dead tulips, such as these (above), are not recommended.

STEP EIGHT: Throw a throw or three around. They offer 'visual warmth'. Unfortunately, they're usually just for show. If guests are cold in our house, they're told to go and put a sweater on.

STEP NINE: Stack the sofa with cushions, so guests can't sit down. This discourages them from lingering too long.

STEP TEN: Clutter away. Clutter like your life depends on it. This is our entrance library before we moved in. (The furniture is the former owner's. I'm not a black leather kinda gal.) 

And this is our entrance library after...

No wonder my mother was horrified.

{Terrible photography. Had to use an old point-and-click as my SLR is dying. I think it's horrified by the interior design too.)

And lastly, a gratuitous shot of our just-washed puppies. Just because...

And one more of my study. Yes, more clutter here, I'm afraid. I need Faux Fuchsia to come and work her magic. But at least it's not green.

A Paean to Painted Libraries

I have a dilemma. It's to do with the trend of colour co-ordinating your library. We've all seen them. The private libraries where the red spines are filed together, the green ones are in another shelf, and the pink ones beyond that. I might even be guilty of it. (Shhh, I didn't say that.)

Even since it appeared, this design trend has caused an uproar among Dewey purists, who believe that books should be categorised according to their subject matter, not the shade of their jackets. My partner's sister is outraged that books are being filed according to colour. She thinks its bibliophilia heresy. (By the way, she and her husband are lawyers and have THE most enormous library. Whenever we visit they always ask me what I'm reading. And whenever I hear this question I always feel like a criminal on trial for reading misdemeanors. Often I feel compelled to invent something. High-brow, literary titles. But I'm a terrible liar and so my literary fibs show. Once, I said "Churchill's biography". To which they immediately replied: "Which one?" Barristers! You can't fool them, can you?)

The thing is, if you're going to file your books according to colour, you'd better remember what the jackets looked like if you want to find anything again. I have a vague idea of what most of mine look like. But it's very easy. Garden books are often jacketed in green or purple covers. Architecture and fashion titles are quite often black. Books about the coast are often blue. And whimsical books are often white (The White Jacket was a big publishing trend five years ago.)

But now I'm changing allegiances. I'm starting to think books should be filed according to subject matter. I mean, Lily Brett may not want to sit next to A.S. Byatt. Lily probably wants to be in the New York section. Where she belongs.

And so I have a solution for all you design perfectionists who feel that libraries should match a room. PAINT YOUR LIBRARIES! It's so simple, I'm surprised Mr Dewey didn't think of it. I'm leaning towards navy blue bookshelves, which would be very sophisticated, but I've seen green and pink ones too. Here. I'll show you. (NB Library purists look away NOW.)

{Top image of a traditional library from a mansion in Maine via Peter Pennoyer Architects and House of Turquoise}

The emerald green library of Tony Duquette's legendary home. LOVE that leopard print carpet! {Via Christopher Sturman for Harper's Bazaar and Habitually Chic}

The whimsical and artistic library of Anne Gridley and Gary Graves, which has been painted in Benjamin Moore's Prairie Green. Located in the countryside, this is one of my all-time favourite libraries. So courageous, and yet so inviting. {Via Country Living}

And another green library, this time by rising designer Ken Fulk. {Via California Home + Design}

One of the most beautiful libraries I've ever seen, this enthralling, pale sea-green space is delicate and yet grand at the same time. It belongs to the Duchess of Alba in Madrid, and was featured in W magazine. {Via W Magazine. Photographed by Simon Watson}

You may not think turquoise bookshelves would work, but this library shows that even pretty tones can look stylish and distinguished, especially when the shelves are filled with much-loved old books. Personally I think the turquoise looks beautiful with the vintage beige covers. It makes the whole room seem very modern, without detracting from the fact that these are old books. {Via Sköna Hem and Apartment Therapy}

A poem in navy blue, this library is part of a trend of darker-toned book rooms, many of which are being painted in rich hues of blue. {Via House Beautiful}

What about a red library? Red is often used in dining rooms to provide a theatrical backdrop, but it's rare to see it in libraries. I'm not sure I'd be brave enough to try it, but it's certainly dramatic. {Via Elle Decor}

Here's another one. I have to say, it's growing on me. It's such a delicious red. {Via The Decorista}

And another one. {Via Yatzer}