Showing posts with label ACC. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ACC. Show all posts
Tuesday, 26 July 2011
Welcome to Big Biba
I see from Amazon that the new edition of Welcome to Big Biba, the book that I produced with Steve Thomas, is scheduled for publication on 24 August. That's one of the good things about Amazon: it tells you things that your publisher doesn't.
Thursday, 16 July 2009
Beyond Biba
Five years back - seems like longer - ACC published a book by me about the Biba shops in west London in the 1960s and '70s. It went very well (still available in paperback), and somehow Biba never quite goes away, even though it's nearly 35 years since the last of the original stores closed.
So, just to round up a couple of bits: Le Figaro in France has a piece on the subject; some friends have written a musical about Biba (tracks available for download); and tomorrow I'm going to the V&A where there's a screening of a documentary titled Beyond Biba, which apparently tells the story of what the founder, Barbara Hulanicki, did after the shop closed.
So, just to round up a couple of bits: Le Figaro in France has a piece on the subject; some friends have written a musical about Biba (tracks available for download); and tomorrow I'm going to the V&A where there's a screening of a documentary titled Beyond Biba, which apparently tells the story of what the founder, Barbara Hulanicki, did after the shop closed.
Friday, 25 July 2008
Portmeirion
Yes, I know I’m getting a bit carried away with making You Tube trailers for my books, but here’s another one:
This one features vintage photos of Portmeirion Village, about which I wrote an essay in a book I edited a couple of years back. The place looks a bit different now (it’s in colour, apart from anything else), but it’s still as magical as ever it was.
I hadn’t been to Portmeirion before I was invited to edit the book (invited by Mark Eastment, then of Antique Collectors Club and now of the V&A, who gets a bit miffed if he doesn’t get a mention). But it only takes an evening there to understand entirely why people fall in love with the village. There really is no other place like it.
Happily, I've been working with Portmeirion again over the last few months, together with my partner, on a new book – Magic Gardens: The Underwater Art of Susan Williams-Ellis.
Susan, of course, was the daughter of Clough Williams-Ellis, the man who built Portmeirion, and in her own right was the founder of Portmeirion Potteries. In that capacity, she helped shape the style of the 1960s and went on to create the Botanic Garden range of tableware.
She also had a lifelong infatuation with the world underwater and spent thirty years painting what she saw. Which is the subject of the forthcoming book.
And no doubt there’ll be a new video along when that one comes out as well.
This one features vintage photos of Portmeirion Village, about which I wrote an essay in a book I edited a couple of years back. The place looks a bit different now (it’s in colour, apart from anything else), but it’s still as magical as ever it was.
I hadn’t been to Portmeirion before I was invited to edit the book (invited by Mark Eastment, then of Antique Collectors Club and now of the V&A, who gets a bit miffed if he doesn’t get a mention). But it only takes an evening there to understand entirely why people fall in love with the village. There really is no other place like it.
Happily, I've been working with Portmeirion again over the last few months, together with my partner, on a new book – Magic Gardens: The Underwater Art of Susan Williams-Ellis.
Susan, of course, was the daughter of Clough Williams-Ellis, the man who built Portmeirion, and in her own right was the founder of Portmeirion Potteries. In that capacity, she helped shape the style of the 1960s and went on to create the Botanic Garden range of tableware.
She also had a lifelong infatuation with the world underwater and spent thirty years painting what she saw. Which is the subject of the forthcoming book.
And no doubt there’ll be a new video along when that one comes out as well.
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