Victoria Finlay

Ooh. Lovely cover for the new edition of . Like the colours of ice cream. Capitán Swing

I love this crazy Welcome to Wrexham story - the almost Cinderella narrative of the humble football club that comes to the attention of a prince (two actually) and becomes beloved by the world. But most astonishing for me is that are apparently British. As a kid growing up in England I was always told they were cowboy food. That they were the taste of the Wild West.

The perfect end to a couple of days of cycling and churches and camping. Venus over Grittleton church, after an excellent meal at the local pub. And no I’m not in a tent tonight. At 4 degrees with a wind factor last night was pretty bitter: tonight I am so grateful for a real bed. And a shower. And actually a bathroom that isn’t locked!

Oh my Lord. The rain…

How to make even a Covid test seem luxurious… bathe it in lights (and have a cocktail waiting on the other side!) Back in briefly for research and catching up with people and frankly just for the joy of being in this marvellous troubled place after three years. This bar is in the old prison on .

This week gets better and better. After opening my box of new paperbacks on Monday, today I’ve received the new editions of and , all three to be published tomorrow. All absolutely gorgeous. Profile Books Sceptre Books.

I’ve just seen my first copy of the paperback version of which is out on Thursday…. Sent by the fab team at Profile Books… I love how it looks as if a piece of multicoloured cloth is escaping from the cover! The text is obviously the same as the hardback except - I couldn’t resist - we’ve managed to squeeze in an anecdote about rude Gaelic waulking songs that I learned when doing the preparatory conversation for an interview on BBC Radio 4 last year…

Delighted by this extract from my book on Literary Hub. Includes some of the mysterious stories of flax and linen (and why IS it flax thread said to have been in the labyrinth?) and also some of the marvellous archaic words. Rippling. Retting. Clew. https://lit hub.com/on-the-ancient-mysteries-of-linen/ Pegasus Books Profile Books

On the Ancient Mysteries of Linen For a few weeks when I was twelve my class had a magical Latin teacher, Mr. Thomas. In our first ever Latin class he started by telling us three things: He’d been present at one of the discoveries …

That was fun. I really enjoyed my conversation with Paula McCloskey at the Derby Books Festival on Wednesday. (Also apparently recorded and available through the festival). It was at the old Silk Mill which I'd read about (from an account by a man William Hutton who from about six to about 13 had apprenticed there (from 1730-1737), with all the cruelties that involved. He was too short to reach the machines to tie up the broken silk strands, so for the first year he wore pattens, raised shoes. He was glad to grow and be rid of them. He once lost his woollen cap (that wool cap law) and the overseer took him to get a new one. A plain one or one with a tassel? Which child would not have chosen the tassel, he wondered. It's now the Museum of Making, and really worth a visit. Derby Book Festival Derby Museums

Almost twelfth night but I’ve loved Christmas decorations this year in particular and I’ll be sad to see them go. But I’m also excited for the new year and all the lights of different kinds it’ll bring.

Wow. A truly wonderful review of my new book, Fabric, by Bel Mooney in the Daily Mail yesterday… I couldn’t be more delighted. And it appeared on my birthday too. Feeling incredibly lucky.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/books/article-10218599/New-book-reveals-low-cost-clothes-mean-high-price-humanity-planet.html

And so, after six years, my Fabric book is here and it really is beautiful. I’ll tell you later about the characters on the cover because it’s a good story, but for now I’m just gazing at those colours and those books in the autumn sunshine. Two years ago I had a dream it would be turquoise books I’d be lifting out of the box and when the first design was magenta I thought that can’t work… so the brilliant Profile Books designer changed it to this (and made it ten times more lovely than in my dream) and I am so delighted with it. And just look at the endpapers! A Gee’s Bend quilt that looks like an abstract of a library. Published in the UK etc next week, November 11, available from all good independent bookshops… and in the US next May or June.

That wonderful moment when the uncorrected bound proof of your own arrives in the post. And it looks beautiful! Suddenly the book I have worked on for more than five years seems real. Pub day is November 11. https://victoriafinlay.com/books/fabric/

Since January I've had the fun of taking a FaceTime lesson once a week with my step-granddaughter. It was metaphors one week, writing a journal for a Roald Dahl character another. This week it was about abstract and figurative art (for Brownies), so we took a school "trip" to Tate St Ives and visited Gallery Two (1920-1940) https://www.tate.org.uk/visit/tate-st-ives/display/modern-art-and-st-ives/paris-london-and-st-ives-1920-1940. In which the paintings scroll down six at a time. In each batch we decided which painting we’d bring home, which we didn't necessarily want, but we wanted to know more about, and which we really didn’t like at all - which one if somebody said "well, you get to take this one home" you'd want to whisper "no thank you, really". And we treated those categories each the same in the attention we gave them. Then we chose the overall winner. It’s a game I made up years ago on going to an art gallery, and which I still play (or will, when we are back to such wonders as gallery visits)… it was really fun… Anyway I feel strangely revived even by a virtual visit to Tate, and it was enlightening seeing things through the eyes of an eight-year-old. This was her top favourite (Roland Penrose, Le Grand Jour 1938; you can see the change in the metaphorical weather) and I'd never have noticed that the red jacket also doubles as a scary mask – if you catch it unawares.

I arrived at Lourdes on Saturday night, Halloween, after walking for about six weeks from Puy en Velay towards Santiago and changing my journey a week ago when I saw the Pyrenees and realised things in Spain were closing and having had a new, wonderful idea... I was just in time for a mass that night (I cried.... in part at the masks and the lockdown in France and our tiny number in a church for 3,000 and also the unexpected neat wonderful circularity of my journey) and then the last three masses on Sunday, yesterday, for All Saints.

I sat for a while the first night at the grotto where the 14-year old Saint Bernadette is said to have seen a lady in white who said she was the immaculate conception... I wondered on Halloween if I might see ghosts. But then I realised that after some 700km of walking (and limping... actually mostly limping) on the fringes of towns and villages, the ghost, after all, was me.

I wonder what the northern climate equivalent is of banana leaves. Any ideas? Mushroom paper? Whatever it is, let's use it.

Supermarkets in Asia are Now Using Banana Leaves Instead of Plastic Packaging Supermarkets in Vietnam have adopted an initiative from Thailand that makes use of banana leaves instead of plastic as a packaging alternative. Rimping supermarket in Chiangmai, Thailand earned praise on Facebook for coming up with the eco-friendly packaging after a local firm featured it on their p...

I've been in lockdown trying to finish my next book - it's a joy, but it's hard too. When I've finished (God willing, for publication next year) I'll put a celebration post up here and let you all know!!! But tonight I'm venturing out to Bel Mooney's wonderful Autumn Leaves event in aid of Read Around Bath, which is one of the local charities whose cause I feel passionate about - weekly reading sessions/book chats at the night shelter, where there's a much-used bookshelf; reading groups at care homes; creating friendships around books for people in particular need of both. If anyone's around in Bath tonight I think it'll be quite an event. Bel will be there and Anthony Head and other well-known names; but also I think it'll just be special. 7 for 7.30pm St Michael's in Bath. http://www.readaroundbath.org.uk/news/

News and events – Read Around Bath

I interviewed Michael Morpurgo a couple of weeks ago and he encouraged me to read Jonathan Bryant's book Eye Can Write. Then three days later we visited the lovely vicarage family who live at Christchurch in Swindon, where my husband's father was vicar 50 years ago, and they knew the family and they also by coincidence recommended us to read it. So on Friday, snow-bound, flu-bound, bed-bound, I did. It made me cry; it made me sign a petition; it made me give a donation. It really is a wonderful book. Jonathan is 12, he has cerebral palsy and for 10 years he lived in silence. Then he learned to spell by looking at letters on a special board,and what a world he lives in. And what horror that he and the others at his special school all had to sit in front of nursery rhymes, right into teenage-hood, that they weren't taught to read. I really recommend it to anyone. https://guardianbookshop.com/eye-can-write.html

Amazing story (by my step-daughter-in-law Christina Larson at AP) about the ultramarine paint found in the teeth of a woman in 1100 who might have been a scribe. I imagine she might have looked like this (with of course a white dog at her feet). 1100 is actually pretty early for ultramarine in Europe anyway. I've seen a few examples from that time but not many. https://www.apnews.com/d9c3aaa164d4462f822ced71e56dc9ae?fbclid=IwAR3dMYzM0y0tqIJRodzmahm2SjY2iDRnSlnMqjfFmF4g-vrbEcND8ZxaAF0

It's still exciting after all these years to come accidentally across a display including my own books... and here they are in an exuberant new colour display at the Museum of Fine Arts bookshop in Boston ready for its new Matisse show opening to the public this weekend... its open til 10 on Wednesdays... how good is that!

I fell in love with Josef Frank's colourful designswhen I saw a poster in my little Airbnb in Vienna last year - and delighted to find there was the first UK retrospective on this spring at the Fashion and Textiles Museum in Bermondsey. It's on until May and it's inspiring. They've set up a little room which makes me want to decorate my study... and they let you sit on the specially Frank-upholstered chairs! Don't miss it.

British author, adventurer to take WMU audience on a journey | WMU News | Western Michigan University

If anyone happens to be in Kalamazoo next week, do come along! I'm thrilled to be there; apparently they created a class on colour after reading my book so it'll be brilliant to meet some of the students. http://www.wmich.edu/news/2017/03/38802

wmich.edu KALAMAZOO, Mich.—British author and world traveler Victoria Finlay will take a local audience on an unusual journey to faraway places when she speaks later this month as part of the University Center for the Humanities spring series at Western Michigan University.

What arts editors have to do nowadays

THIS is what Culture Editors have to do nowadays! I most love the bit where he tries to compose himself and do some journalistic style reporting of the smog situation while his brain is like jelly... https://victoriafinlay.com/2017/01/27/what-arts-editors-have-to-do-nowadays/

victoriafinlay.com Whenever some of you have heard me mention my “Hong Kong Editor”, who still occasionally sends me round Europe to cover plays and operas for The South China Morning Post you might perha…

When I was 49 I thought big birthdays didn't matter. When I was 49 and a half I knew they did...

https://victoriafinlay.com/2016/07/13/when-i-turned-49-i-thought-big-birthdays-didnt-matter-by-49-and-a-half-i-knew-they-did/

12th May

It's mass observation day today http://www.massobs.org.uk/write-for-us/12th-may - everyone in the UK is asked to write details of their lives today, to be stored anonymously in the National Archive. My day so far: a writing workshop at the Bath Library, lunch in the walled garden beside our office which extended into a business meeting in sunshine; finishing off a report about working with Buddhists to protect Snow Leopards ready to put a funding proposal in; reading about the secret history of linen, and tonight dinner with a hermit, with whom I'm working to write a booklet about a sacred landscape. Do get your friends and children and grandparents and anyone to do it....

massobs.org.uk The Mass Observation Archive specialises in material about everyday life in Britain. It contains papers generated by the original Mass Observation social research organisation (1937 to early 1950s), and newer material collected continuously since 1981. The Archive is a charitable trust in the care o...

Brilliant photo essay by my friend Eric Hilaire in The Guardian yesterday - of how much Hong Kong, Macau and China have changed, and the cost of rapid development (very satisfying slidy things to move pictures from the past to now). http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/may/10/china-pearl-river-delta-then-and-now-photographs

Eulogy for my father

When I was 8 my father was diagnosed with cancer. One summer night he said something to me that I've never forgotten. Here is his eulogy, from his funeral three months ago. http://victoriafinlay.com/2016/03/18/a-eulogy-for-my-father/ …

victoriafinlay.com

#TheTapestry forerunner of #TheDress

forerunner of - if only they'd had twitter in 1820. http://victoriafinlay.com/2015/02/27/thetapestry-forerunner-of-thedress/ …

victoriafinlay.com The furore around whether this dress, aka is blue and black or white and gold (I say it’s white and gold. Obviously!) and the delicious vox pop videos the BBC and others are making of whe...

In Leon, on the Camino de Santiago, I stumbled across the eccentric Sierra Pambley museum which was a house furnished in 1848 by a man for his intended bride, Victorina. But she turned him down, he closed the shutters, locked up the whole floor and today it is perfectly intact, as a fashionable European home with arsenic green wallpaper and everything. And look how the colours clashed!

Yesterday I had new shoes to wear on the camino de Santiago (the old ones hurt), I had a book published, and I rode the last 5km of the day on horseback, (rescued by a wonderful young French couple on honeymoon doing the camino on horses, who saw me hobbling.) Such a happy day. Oh and I went to find shelter from the sun in an empty church. A Dutch pilgrim came in and started to rummage in her bag... Pulled out a piece of paper and started to sing Ave Maria. Beautifully. She had had thyroid cancer and is walking the camino to give thanks for her life and her returning voice.

I thought I wouldn't like the Niki de Saint Phalle show at the Grand Palais in Paris. But thank goodness I have a rule to follow up personal recommendations regardless of whatI think I will and won't actually enjoy. And it's astonishing. The colours are bold; her early paintings (made with paint and broken ceramic and inspired by Po***ck) were almost like aboriginal paintings from a distance, as if they were mapping her inner landscape. Also there was also so much sexism from the male TV reporters in the 60s and 70s: no wonder she created a series made by shooting a rifle at hitting pockets of coloured paint so they exploded all over the canvases.

I don't think I have raved enough about the Making Colour show at the National Gallery. It ends this weekend but if you can possibly go see it, do go see it. Each room is dedicated to a colour. It's lush. It's a marvellous way of seeing different things in paintings. And even though I've written a couple of books on the subject, I still learned loads.

I had a dream that I'd missed the Tate Matisse Cutouts show. And then I found out it doesn't close until September 7. Huge relief. http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/henri-matisse-cut-outs

The Brilliant History of Color in Art (Pre-Order)

The Getty posted this while I was on holiday. Cool!

The galleys for our fall 2014 book, "The Brilliant History of Color in Art" are something to behold! From the Lascaux Caves to the royal rise of purple, from the vivid blue of Vermeer to the dangerous beauty of lead white, acclaimed author Victoria Finlay offers an irresistible tour through the great stories behind our favorite colors. For more information, please visit our site: http://bit.ly/1u3QklT

shop.getty.edu DescriptionDetailsVictoria FinlayAvailable November 2014. Orders placed now will backorder. Your credit card will not be charged until the book ships.T...

Great sunset tonight over Ago Bay, near Toba in Japan where Mikimoto invented cultured pearls. And oh look, a pearl chandelier...

I love this book from the 18th century. I love the handwriting and the neat squares and the hand painted colours that haven't seen sunlight in 270 years so are as bright as they would have been. And I particularly love that orange colour number 33. It rocks. http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2014/05/color-book/

I've seen the cover for my Getty book (about colour, or rather about color, and out in November)! And it's fabulous. Reds and yellows and oranges and more reds.... it's a nerve-wracking business, the cover...

Stories of the Stranger

Several boxes of copies of our new lovely book Stories of the Stranger have just arrived at work. And I know I'm biased because it includes one of my short stories... but it looks terrific. But here's the strange thing. The publisher is excited that Amazon has included it in a 99p promotion (started today). Can't quite work that one out but apparently if you get it cheap and like it, then other people are happy to pay full price later. Or something like that. Anyway. Limited edition, get your kindle poundsaver download now... http://www.amazon.co.uk/Stories-Stranger-Martin-Comp-Palmer/dp/1909657441

amazon.co.uk Stories of the Stranger

Ben Day, dot-maker, was a real person

So. Benday (of Roy Lichtenstein dots fame) was a real person... son of a penny press New York newspaper man who figured there must be some way of doing colour printing on the cheap. http://victoriafinlay.com/2014/03/04/benday/

victoriafinlay.com When I was researching for my next book (A Brilliant History of Color in Art, to be published by the Getty in November) I looked into the Benday dots that Roy Lichtenstein made famous. And I learne...