Labours of Love

Engaging talk at Charleston Farmhouse as part of the Charleston Festival bringing together two authors who had edited the letters of their artist.

Rebecca John began by talking about the letters of Ida John, wife of Augustus John, which she had edited with Michael Holroyd who has written a biography of Augustus. Ida met Augustus when both were studying at the Slade and the letters cover her time there and the years of her marriage. Rebecca read a particularly poignant one which Ida had written to Augustus’s mistress Doriella about how to managed their situation.

John Spencer has embarked on editing the letters of Stanley Spencer and was talking here about volume one which take us to the end of the First World War. The book is delightful with lots of illustrations including sketches from the letters. John talked about his memories of living in the house Stanley was born in and how his mother and aunt where initially not allowed to write about the family. He told us how difficult Stanleys’ handwriting is to read particularly a 20,000 word letter written on a role of wallpaper in pencil.

Again the chair was perfect for the event, Jane Ridley, who has written about her great grand father, Lutyens. Both speakers talked about how a letter has a voice which a biography doesn’t and how they get annoyed when quotes from letters are used as sound bites and they this was why they had both chosen to edit the letters. They felt letters are a person’s present and record a moment without hindsight of how their life will develop.  

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