This site is for anyone wanting to know more about English culture. A snapshot of the artists and writers who came from these shores and those inspired by them – from the Romantic poets to Kate Bush, from the pop art of David Hockney to the pop music of The Smiths. We’ll explore the neo-classical interiors of London’s Brompton Oratory as well as the Bloomsbury Group’s bohemian farmhouse at Charleston.
The England you find in the ‘pages’ of this letter is my England. A homage to the writers and artists who have shaped not only the country where I live, but the imaginary landscape where I also live. Just like a letter, its pages are intimate not exhaustive, often rejecting the popular in favour of the deeply personal. It’s where you might find a post in your mail box about the film maker Derek Jarman’s cottage and garden at Dungeness but no mention of The Beetles. Above all, this is a record of private passions.
So, wherever you live in the world, I invite you to subscribe. Let’s turn up the radio together to listen to Nick Drake’s song ‘Riverman’, then sail away in the pea green boat of Edward Lear’s most famous poem.
‘A Letter from England’ is my love letter to the people and places of an England both real and imagined.