All Things Considered

Eric Ravilious’ High Street
Posted by Simon Lewin

Can you help identify the restaurant below?

Seventy years ago Country Life Books published High Street, a children's book of shops, featuring twenty-four exquisite lithographs by the English artist Eric Ravilious (1903-1942). The book wasn't a limited edition, but the destruction of the lithographic plates during the Blitz meant that only 2000 copies were ever printed. Subsequently High Street has become one of the most highly-prized artist's books of its time.

In "The Story of High Street" Mainstone Press have tried to locate the whereabouts of Eric Ravilious' 24 businesses and shop fronts in their wonderful limited edition book that reproduces the original lithographs and text of High Street, along with essays, preparatory sketches and drawings.

One of the locations that proved elusive was the 'Restaurant and Grill Room'. Does anyone recognise this room with it's distinctive five or six sided skylight?

J. M. Richards, the author of High Street tells us that ... "All the pictures are of real shops, though they are not in fact all in the same street. Most of them are in London, but except for those of a very specialised kind - such as the shop that sells fire-engines and the one that sells diving suits - you could find shops like these in almost any big enough town".

So where was this London restaurant? The first person who can help successfully identify the location will receive a copy of the 'The Story of High Street', worth £160.00. Please contact us if you can help.

Posted by Simon Lewin on July 30th, 2009

Edward Bawden
Posted by Simon Lewin

For no particular reason, here's one of Edward Bawden's wonderful illustrations for Fortnum & Mason. 

There are still some copies available of  "Entertaining À La Carte" (published by Mainstone Press) which brings together the advertising material that Bawden illustrated for the firm in the years before and after World War II. 

To find out more about the book and to order online visit our website.

Posted by Simon Lewin on July 26th, 2009

Port Eliot Festival
Posted by Simon Lewin

Our friends from Caught By The River are currently packing their bags in preparation for a trip to the Port Eliot Festival in Cornwall where they're hosting a series of readings, gigs and DJ sets with performances from Will Hodgkinson, Kathryn Williams, British Sea Power, Chris Watson, King Creosote, The Heavenly Jukebox and many more.

The festival runs from the 24th-26th July and full details can be found on the Port Eliot Festival website.

Posted by Simon Lewin on July 23rd, 2009

Say Goodbye to the Cuckoo
Posted by Simon Lewin

We spent Saturday night at the Southbank Centre enjoying an event organised by the team behind the Caught By The River website and book.

Several extracts were read from book, some accompanied by sound recordist Chris Watson.

Lots of thought provoking content, particularly the last piece - a reading by Michael McCarthy of his book 'Say Goodbye to the Cuckoo'. CBTR's Robin Turner summed up the event...

"As Michael read extracts from his book, slowly a picture unfolded of the UK at an environmental tipping point – one where migratory birds have stopped visiting our shore, where they no longer use them as breeding grounds.

You start to think about what the signifiers of the seasons are – birdsong, flowers budding, fruit and veg reaching maturity… and then you realize that these days, from the vantage point of behind a computer screen in a concrete and glass city centre, you don’t really have any idea of what’s going on past the end of the road anyway. I be surprised if any of us are really sure when spring smudged into summer or what’s seasonal to this country anymore – the supermarkets spreading out a bounty plundered from the four corners of the Earth (do we really need to source asparagus from Kenya? Shouldn’t we just eat it when it’s available here?). I walked away from McCarthy’s talk with a vision of a country suffering from a homogeny of seasons, where Britain’s local distinctiveness has been replaced by shelves stacked with foreign bodies and silences on our village greens and hedgerows. And that really scared me."

I must order a copy of the book. The cover is illustrated by Joe McLaren who we're hoping to work with at St. Jude's in the future.

Posted by Simon Lewin on July 16th, 2009

Cover versions
Posted by Simon Lewin

Thanks (again) to Paul Hammond for putting us onto this...

Graphic designer Littlepixel has 'reimagined' a series of classic record sleeves as if they were vintage Pelican books.

Posted by Simon Lewin on July 5th, 2009

Caught By The River – Live
Posted by Simon Lewin

News in from Caught By The River about a live event they have put together for Saturday 11th July 2009 at The Purcell Room, Southbank Centre, London...

"Featuring Laura Barton and Gavin Pretor-Pinney reading their pieces from 'Words On Water' with live sound accompaniment from the great Chris Watson -  a really exciting prospect. We are also showing a short film of the late Roger Deakin in his house and garden. This was made by Mike Dibb as a pitch for a BBC documentary slot. With real short sightedness that slot was never commissioned and this wonderful fifteen minutes of history have sat on Mike’s shelf until their existence came to our attention and we tracked Mike down. We are also honoured to be joined by the authors of two of our current favourite books: Michael McCarthy reads from ‘Say Goodbye to the Cuckoo’  and Andrew Brown reads from ‘Fishing in Utopia’ which has just come out in paperback.  We’ve also got Will Hodgkinson reading from his forthcoming book ‘The Ballad of Britain’ and live music, in the foyer of the QEH, from The Memory Band and friends, who will be performing the soundtrack to The Wicker Man."

For full details and to purchase tickets visit the Southbank Centre website.

Posted by Simon Lewin on July 2nd, 2009

Caught By The River
Posted by Simon Lewin

It's been a real pleasure swapping mails and finally meeting the team behind Caught By The River. I was a relative newcomer to fishing - introduced by my father-in-law who fly-fished for England (not quite an Olympic sport yet...). I was running a record label at the time and I'll confess there were times when I felt it best to keep my new found passion quiet - the music/fishing connections I knew of weren't exactly the ones I felt an affinity with (Roger Daltry, Jethro Tull etc.). A bit of a guilty pleasure.

But then I remember sitting in a boat on Sutherland's Loch Hope, trying to catch sea trout. Chatting with the ghillie I asked if he'd has any interesting clients recently - and as it happened he'd had the owner of a much more established dance label (who we admired) fishing with him the week before.

As my success rate on river & loch improved I couldn't help but 'out' myself to those we worked with. That was a few years ago and I've been fishing ever since. This isn't the place to convince you of the many pleasures of fishing - it you get it, you get it.

But the last few months have been enriched by the content of Caught By The River which we've mentioned a few times here. I can't remember exactly how I stumbled across it originally but it's a site that triggers a daily visit. I've described it to friends as a fishing blog that's not really about fishing (a rather cowardly attempt, I know).

Continues below...

Created by the team Heavenly Records, the site is (as The Times puts it) "...a joy, a treasure trove of stories, obsessions, anecdotes and enthusiasm" and covers angling, music, literature and much more. And it's the enthusiasm that flows through the site that has spilled over into the world of 'proper' publishing, resulting in the recent launch of a collection of "words on water", published by Cassell Illustrated.

This isn't a book review - I'll be starting to read my copy anytime now - but it's beautifully produced and illustrated. A proper review will follow.

The Times have been featuring a number of extracts and their website includes some podcasts recorded by former Cabaret Voltaire member (and now acclaimed sound recordist) Chris Watson. Visit The Times website to listen to these and find our more about the book and the team behind it.

Posted by Simon Lewin on June 8th, 2009

Janette Ray Books
Posted by Simon Lewin

We had a brief stop in York the other day and were introduced to Janette Ray, a book dealer specialising in architecture, design, gardens and fine art. It's wonderful walking into a shop where you feel the selection of books on offer is almost custom-made for you. A parking meter deadline limited the time we could spend browsing but we did manage to select a few books - including a copy of "On Trust For The Nation" by Clough Williams-Ellis, illustrated throughout by Barbara Jones. You can view Janette's stock at www.janetteray.co.uk

Posted by Simon Lewin on May 1st, 2009

Wild Places
Posted by Simon Lewin

Caught some bits of Radio 4's 'Traveller's Tree' on Monday (still available on iPlayer).

One of the guests included Robert Macfarlane. I'd been meaning to get a copy of his Wild Places book (now purchased).

They discussed a couple of wilderness destinations that are on our list. One isn't an obvious destination - Essex - but I've become increasingly intrigued/inspired (in part by Caught By The River and Underworld) by this part of the world - especially the Dengie.

We're also keen to make it to Knoydart someday soon - it's part of the mainland but only really accessible by water (or a very long walk in).

The snap shot below is from a beach we visited on Skye a couple of years ago. What was going to be a quick stroll turned into a couple of hours beach combing and rock pooling. In the distance are the Cuillins - where you'll find the Fairy Pools also discussed in Traveller's Tree.

Posted by Simon Lewin on April 22nd, 2009

Faber & Faber
Posted by Angie Lewin

Spotted via Creative Review, it's great to see three of the artists we exhibit at St. Jude's (Mark Hearld, Peter Lawrence and Paul Catherall) featuring in this new series of hardback editions of twentieth-century poetry, marking Faber & Faber's 80th anniversary.

The covers featured below are illustrated by Mark Hearld (top left), Paul Catherall (top right), Peter Lawrence (bottom left) and Clare Curtis (bottom right). You can find out more via the Creative Review blog.

Posted by Angie Lewin on April 17th, 2009