Megan Wilson has two beautiful blogs, if you follow either-you know this. my book covers here ancient industries here
Megan has just unveiled her web design of the Nancy Mitford estate site. here Megan has designed covers for five of Mitford's novels for Random House coming out in early fall 2010. The covers are exquisite portraits of the author, one special cover is of Nancy as a debutante photographed by Cecil Beaton. When I saw this cover in 2001-Random House used the photograph in to published two of her titles- The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate, I had to have it, though I already owned another edition of Love in a Cold Climate. I plan to get all the others when fall arrives.
I got a chance to touch base with Megan about here work-
"The estate, that is, Charlotte Mosley and Debo, were a delight to work with; it was a dream project. Debo had a party last week in the French Salon at Claridges to launch Wigs on the Green which had been out of print for 75 years so I went and was able to meet Debo and Charlotte. The room was filled with Tennants, Guinnesses and Mosleys, and many Bright Young Things."
"In the summer I'll be staying at The Swan, in Swinbrook, where Wigs on the Green is set. It is now owned by the Devonshire family. Swinbrook is the most beautiful Cotswold village, and several of the sisters are buried in the grave yard, including Nancy. Her grave stone, along with her Smythson diaries and writing paper, features her symbol, a mole, taken from the Freeman-Mitford family crest." "Debo has just written her own memoir, so that is something to look forward to."
Nancy Mitford's books- Madame Pompadour, The Sun King are two of my favourite biography's-suggested must reads while waiting for Megan's book covers this fall.
Megan shared her summer reads with me back in the summer-here The Swan's Inn, Swinbrook here visit Random House site here .
. the Mitford sisters are forever popping up on some of my favourite blogs. I love it! just a day ago Lucindaville posted the William Acton portraits of the SIX MITFORD sisters. Can you match the 6 to their portraits? Read more about the MITFORDS at Lucinda- and help sort through the portraits- I promised to show Diana's Acton portrait in full for Lucinda this weekend. Another post from Megan Wilson's My Book Covers features five gorgeous portraits of Nancy Mitford on the covers of Mitford's own novels.
Diana the Huntress
William Acton
cover of Diana Mitford Mosley's autobiography A LIFE IN CONTRASTS from Amazon Japan
"She is too fond of books and it has addled her brain."Louisa May Alcott
BOOKS, I loved them as a child-neglectfully coloring in the pages-practicing writing(scribble)- playing school(this may have been my problem-I wanted to play school Not -Go to School.)
I received books as gifts when growing up- My first special book was the Louisa May Alcott book Little Women. Whether it is for this reason or many others- It is still (helplessly, humbly, and very unsophisticatedly)- one of my favorites.
I admit it might sound prettier to say so If I had a house full of girls to read and reread it too, But No- I never had a child. Just A lovely niece that upon our second night of reading LW aloud to her- She took a shot to the heart with these simple words, "Meg is bo-wing (boring.)" Crushed as I was, I didn't cry, only sighed and left her to her bubble bath.
I just purchased a new copy of LITTLE W to add to a collection of them. It is a Penguin Classic with cover design by Julie Docet(click). I admit the cover grabbed me- I think it might even appeal to me niece now- Birthday present? HUMMM? She might not like the story but could never deny the cover.
Julie Docet's cover
Here is the list ofQUESTIONS(in royal purple) posed to fellow bloggers and friends, along withThis is what I had to say:
What books are on your Summer Reading List? Is there one book you honestly don't expect to get to? Why?
my picks
art
Hexenlust und Sundenfall (Witches Lust and the Fall of Man): Die Seltsamen Phantasien des Hans Baldung Grien ( the Stange Fanstasies of Hans Baldung Grien) by Bodo Brinkman/HBG(1484-1545) drawings and etchings depicting the behaviour of witches
more will certainly pop up here
biographies/memoir/autobiography:
FAVORITE GENRE? this is mine.
Maeve Brennan Homesick at the New Yorker Angela Bourke
Caresse Crosby Anne Conover& Tears Before Bedtime and Weep No More Barbara Skelton ( these 2 I added at the suggestion of fellow blogger An Aesthete's Lament-to my already -Undoable list)
AshcombeThe Story of a Fifty Year Lease Cecil Beaton
The Loveliest Woman in America Bibi Gaston
Beverly Nichols: A Life Bryan Connon & along with this Rhapsody in Green The Garden Wit and Wisdom of Beverley Nichols edited by Roy C. Dicks
Built of Books How Reading Defined the Life of Oscar Wilde Thomas Wright
Brian Howard Portrait of a Failure Marie-Jaqueline Lancaster
My Darling Heriott Jane Brown-THIS IS A BOOK I WILL BE GIVING AWAY- bio of Lady Luxborough
The Little Girls , The Hotel , & A World of Love( read this but will read it again Elizabeth Bowen( one of my favorite writers of the moment)
I want to start re-reading E.F.Bensen's Mapp & Lucia Books
The Elegance of the HedgeHog Muriel Barbary- reading Now
The Time Traveler's Wife Audrey Niffenegger - reading Now
Yes, Yes- too heavy on the BIOS etc. However they will likely go down easy- I devour them. The Oscar Wilde Book I will read to get the gist of his bookcases- but from some reviews the author's conclusion about how Wilde's reading habits shaped his sexual preferences- I may beg off- I don't hardly see how books could do such a thing to OW, But that's another story.
L M Alcott
What is your security blanket book?
Can you guess? With no apologies- Little Women (see my remarks above) I will add, Everytime I have read this book, except for the few times as a child and teen- I was in crisis. Reading LW always reinforced what matters to me and I hope always will. A deceptively simple tale with a deep well of family, loyalty, duty, faith and leaving and returning home.
Elizabeth Bowen photographed by Slim Aarons
Latest Obsession Author, Designer, Photographer?
This question has three answers-I have obsessions in all three areas- You would know. As for an Author- would I be too obvious- to say Elizabeth Bowen(click to read more). I have read a number of her books along with Afterthought and the tome Bowen's Court- tracing EB's ancestors and their lives at Bowen's Court in Ireland beginning in 1649. Her attachment to Bowen's Court meanders throughout the book, making it a favorite.
from Wikipedia:
"Elizabeth Bowen was greatly interested in ‘life with the lid on’ and what happened when the lid came off. Her work deals with innocence and betrayal and the secrets that lie beneath the veneer of respectability."
"It is a wary business, walking about a strange house you are to know well. Only cats and dogs with their more expressive bodies enact the tension we share with them at such times. The you inside you gathers up defensively: something is stealing upon you every moment; you will never be quite the same again. These new unsmiling lights, reflections and objects are to become your memories, riveted to you closer than friends or lovers, going with you, even, into the grave: worse, they may become dear and fasten like so many leeches on your heart." Elizabeth Bowen
Seven Winters: Memories of a Dublin Childhood (1942)
English Novelists (1942)
Anthony Trollope: A New Judgement (1946)
Why Do I Write: An Exchange of Views between Elizabeth Bowen, Graham Greene and V.S. Pritchett (1948)
Collected Impressions (1950)
The Shelbourne (1951)
A Time in Rome (1960)
Afterthought: Pieces About Writing (1962)
Pictures and Conversations (1975)
The Mulberry Tree (1999).
Have you read any of the Books on My List ? Stop me- if You have-& didn't like it (break the news gently) but do Tell me the Truth.
or
Does something Look promising? Tell Me What is on Your Book List? Your favorite Genre? Security Blanket Book? Your latest Obsession? I will wait to hear from you- and then choose Someone to Receive YOUR PICK from The BOOK LIST posted on the 16th- YOUR PICK!
