Bunny Williams and the Trade Secrets

It was Hunter wellingtons at fifty paces yesterday at Connecticut's annual Trade Secrets fair, one of America's most beautiful garden and antique fairs. As the sun danced upon the topiary bay trees and the smell of well-composted soil and old Connecticut money mingled in the May air, well-heeled (or well-wellingtoned) gardeners vied for the best bargains at what has become one of the Green Thumbed and Design Set's most loved social outings.

And what an outing it was. It was such a beautiful sight that at one stage I thought I'd fallen into a Ralph Lauren shoot. In fact, if Ralph hasn't decided to do a new homewares collection called 'A Connecticut Garden' he perhaps should. It would sell like posies of pink peonies at a Manhattan flower market. There were splendid white marquees, antique urns overflowing with ivy and specially planted spring bulbs, extraordinarily gorgeous farm buildings and chic little stalls full of rare plants, vintage bird houses, quaint old garden tools, refurbished orchard ladders, enormous wicker baskets, beautiful old French linens and cute straw garden basket. There were also hats. So many straw hats. I haven't seen this many beautiful hats since Ascot! Everyone, it seemed, was donning either a natty little hat or a natty little French-style straw bag. Beige J Crew-style pants and a pretty shirt were mandatory too. I tell you, these were seriously stylish gardeners. There were no dirty fingernails and soil-stained gardening smocks on this lot.

I didn't see Ms Martha Stewart – by the time we arrived at 10am, 2 hours after the fair had opened, all the serious shoppers (including Ms Martha) had come and gone, taking their plant-stuffed SUVs with them – but I did glimpse the fair's lovely co-founder Bunny Williams (above) and a few other celebrities. As I was told, the people watching was as wonderful as the plant sales. Here are a few photos snatched through the day. Apologies they're not better quality – I was too enamoured with the whole, glamorous, gorgeousness of the event to concentrate on capturing it on camera.

Tomorrow, I'll post another treat: photos of Bunny Williams' famous house and garden, which we're seeing today. And to all those who have posted lovely comments, thank you! I was so touched to read them. I'm going to reply tonight (we've spent the last week in transit) so I do hope you'll bear with me. It's always so lovely to hear from people, whether by comments or email, so once again, my sincere thanks. It's so lovely to know that The Library has such beautiful readers!

Above: Lion Rock Farm, the site of the Trade Secrets Fair. Have you ever seen a more splendid farm?

The 'barn' at Lion Rock Farm. Imagine having drinks with friends in this space?

Truly Beautiful Book Covers...

Sandy Cull is one of my favourite book designers. I first noticed this Melbourne-based freelancer when she designed Carla Coulson's gorgeous book Italian Joy, which was, literally and aesthetically, a book of sheer joy. Since then, I've started noticing that some of my favourite book covers are Sandy Cull ones. I thought I'd share a few of them with you here, along with some other beautiful covers I've noticed recently. (Yes, the top image does seem to be a real cover. Witty, isn't it?)

While we're chatting about books, designs and covers, I would like to wish everyone who has a book up for an award in either the Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIAs, also known as the ‘Academy Awards’ for books), or the Annual Book Design Awards, all the very best of luck. Winners in both competitions are being announced this week as part of the Sydney Writer's Festival. The ABIAs are being announced at a gala dinner at the Ivy Room in Sydney on Friday May 18, and the Book Design Awards at the Powerhouse Museum on Thursday May 17. My little book Paris: A Guide To The City's Creative Heart, is nominated for 'Illustrated Book of the Year 2012' in both competitions, which is a very great honour indeed. I'm very touched to be considered, but all the congratulations must go to the hard-working editors at Plum and the designer Michelle Mackintosh. My photos were only a very small part of the overall design.

So here, in tribute to the talented book designers out there, including Michelle Mackintosh and Sandy Cull, are some of the prettiest book covers floating around in the market at the moment. If, as they say, you can tell a book by its cover, then these look like being beautiful reads, indeed.

The Return Of The Hat...

Downton Abbey started it, don't you think? The hats on that show were so gorgeous they could have inspired their own spin off series. I don't know about you but I would have trampled over Mr Bates for some of the ones that Lady Sybil wore. (And I adored Mr Bates.) Even the Countess of Grantham made a hat look hot.

Then again, perhaps it's the elegant poise of the outfits at the world's most famous spring racing carnivals – Ascot, the Melbourne Cup, the Kentucky Derby – that has prompted people to dig out their old panamas, dust off their floppy straw numbers or recycle their racing garb? I don't quite know. Whatever it is that has inspired The Hat Comeback, one thing is for certain: hats are back. Suddenly, everyone seems to be lusting after a bit of brim.

I've always adored hats. Women look beautiful in hats. They carry themselves differently too. Backs are straighter. Voices are more ladylike. It's very difficult to act badly in a good hat.

I can't wear hats very well, although I should try as I have a forehead the size of New Mexico that could do with some discreet coverage. But lots of women look wonderful in headwear. And so I thought I'd do an an Homage to the Hat. Classic, sophisticated, flirtatious and fabulous, there is nothing quite like a classic chapeau.

Coco Chanel wore a hat almost every day of her adult life. Even when she was working in her atelier. None of her models or seamstresses ever saw her without one. For Chanel, a hat was part of her professional uniform. She would no more remove it in public than she would her knickers. {Via Douglas Kirkland}

Ms Isabella Blow. No one did a hat quite like Isabella. Her death was such a tragedy. I'm sure all the hats of the world wept that day. {Image by Miguel Reveriego}

There's never really been anything as beautiful as the hats of the Edwardian era. (Nor the gowns, for that matter.){Images from Downton Abbey}

The Hat Off. 

Hat Ado About Nothing...

The hat meets Africa. Greta Scacchi in White Mischief.

More hats in Africa. This time, it's Meryl donning a fancy number while playing Ms Isak Dinesen in Out of Africa. Still a classic film, even after all these years.

More of Meryl's hats from Out of Africa.

Lancome's compact, to celebrate the Golden Hat Foundation.

The classic cloche, modernised for 2012. Carey Mulligan in The Great Gatsby. NB This is Baz's eagerly anticipated version, which is currently in production. {Via Grazia}

Miss Audrey, showing how it's done in a Cecil Beaton-designed costume from My Fair Lady, possibly the beautiful hat-enhanced movie of all time. 

Here's some more Audrey-in-Cecil  loveliness...

[Images of My Fair Lady from My Fair Lady and the great blog classiccinemaimages.com. Image at very top also from Classic Cinema Images.}

How NOT to wear a hat. (Unless you're captaining a real ship.)

See Paris? This is how it's done. This is Audrey knitting. In a hat. Beautiful.

Milliner Darcy Creech's house on Nantucket Island, which I shot for a book on beach houses. Darcy is the name behind Peter Beaton hats, which grace the heads of Hilary Clinton and Martha Stewart, among others. Her house is beautiful, and rather like a top hat itself: tall and simple, with striking lines.

A cake made in the shape of a vintage Louis Vuitton hat box, created by a baker in Melbourne for the Louis Vuitton 120th Anniversary. So fabulous.

Best Illustrated Book in Australia Nominees, Part 2

I wanted to attach these lovely covers to my last post, but Blogger was being mischievous this morning, so I gave up. Hopefully it will behave now. These are the five nominations for the Australian Book Industry's (ABIA) Best Illustrated Book in Australia award, as per the last post. These are all beautiful books, so I do hope you'll pick them up next time you're in a bookstore.

I'm so, so thrilled to be included in this prestigious bunch of authors. I don't mind if I don't win. It's just lovely to be considered.

Lastly, a thousand apologies for not being active on the blog of late. It's been an intense few weeks for us. We bought a tiny investment property last week – a little Georgian house – so I've been running around doing the paperwork. (We ummed and ahhed for ages over a little terrace house in South Yarra. But the house was so tiny it wasn't worth the eye-poppingly high price. And RR and I would have had to share a workspace together – and you KNOW how damaging that can be for marriages!) I've also had to finish writing the Picnic book, and get ready to go to New York late next week. For a moment, I thought I might also have to fly to LA and Paris (today) for a week of work, but the idea of flying around the world four times in one month was making me ill. So I stubbornly stayed home. I know! How can a girl turn down Paris? Must be crazy...

But I promise to reply to your beautiful notes soon – and can't wait to catch up on everyone's blogs next week. It will be a lovely respite from sitting in Sydney airport thinking about 18 hours to NY in an economy seat...

Best Illustrated Book in Australia Nominees

I'm often told by my lovely publishers that I'm not as enthusiastic about self-publicity as I should be. This is because I've always thought that authors should not have to speak for books. If books are beautiful enough, they should speak for themselves. Authors are really the behind-the-scenes people; the wizards pulling the curtains for the Land of Oz that is literature.

In saying that, it's easy to understand that people like to get to know the names behind the titles. I confess to following the blog of Justine Picardie, who seems to be as much of a lovely person as she is a great writer. And if Hemingway were alive and he had time to pen one, between fishing in Key West, punching out bestsellers and bedding beautiful women, I'd been following him too! I've also been slightly awed when I've had the good fortune to meet writers such as Jan Morris, Frederick Forsyth, Jeffrey Archer, AA Gill, Herbert Ypma, and Bill Bryson. (I interviewed the latter in his South Kensington flat: when I arrived at the open front door he was derriere-up, cleaning the bath. I've always liked an multi-tasking author!) Another writer friend told me she was similarly open-mouthed when she met J.D. Salinger. (Her mother neglected to tell her she'd been having a weekly luncheon with his wife for 20 years.) For the most part, authors adore meeting other authors – especially if The Other Author is stupendously famous and rolling in royalty cheques. (That's when we ask what their secret is.) Authors also adore seeing good books achieve success, even when those books belong to publishing houses that may be their competitors. The publishing world is not a hockey game. It is actually rather civilised. Why is why I've always liked it. (And hated those who play dirty within it.)

The Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) are the Oscars of publishing in Australia. It's where
a panel of long-time booksellers and publishers judge and nominate their favourite books each year. I always take a peek at what's nominated, because it's always intriguing to see which books are pricking up people's ears. It's also intriguing to see which books are in the Best Illustrated Book category, as these books are often the most beautifully designed.

This year, it was a huge surprise to receive an email from my former publisher, Mary Small of Pan Macmillan/Plum letting me know that my book Paris: A Guide to the City's Creative Heart has been nominated. It's the first big industry award I've ever been nominated for, after 6 years and 18 books, so I was both touched and thrilled to hear the news. In fact, just as when my friend met J.D. Salinger, I was quite speechless with shock! The winners are announced at the Sydney Writer's Festival next week, when we're in New York. But I don't mind if I don't win. It's just lovely to be considered...

Here are some of the other nominees – and a link to the full PDF here. And here are some of the pages from Paris: A Guide to the City's Creative Heart. Oh – and if, like me, you love illustrated coffee-table books, then I'd like to let you know that I'm working on a gorgeous New York book this month, and then a beautiful new Paris book in June. Will give more details here in coming weeks.

Best of luck to all those nominated for the ABIA Awards! I'm really thrilled for all those authors.