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HOMEDRAW ABROAD!
 21/8/2012 Homedraw has gone to France. Here I am at the Chateau de la Chapelle D'Angillon. The village was named after Gillon of Seuly who fortified it. and it became at one point the capital city of the Principality of Boisbelle. Louis XIV - the Roi Soleil - stayed here. But besides being a very beautiful building it also houses the Museum of Alain-Fournier, author of 'Le Grand Meaulnes'. I was lucky enough enough to be given a private viewing of the museum by the Comte Jean d'Ogny himself and we discussed the influence of Thomas Hardy on Alain-Fournier. I say discussed though his English was much better than my French but he was a charming man. Visit his website http://www.chateau-angillon.com. I did offer to draw his chateau... |
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STOP ME AND BUY ONE 13/4/2012
 Homedraw is off on its travels today. Destination... The Laugharne Festival. If you see the van then please - Stop Me and Buy One - I'm bringing a small quantity of Dylan Thomas prints with me. Just the thing for a memento of your visit. Buy earlier rather than later - not just in case I sell out but before I join in the festivities too wholeheartedly. See you there. |
A HOME For HOLMES
14/03/2012 Looking around for allies in the Save Chatterton's Cottage project I decided to contact The Literary Houses Group. The gentleman running it, Mr. Henry Cobbold, replied very positively, advising The Chatterton Society to get in touch with the Heritage Lottery fund. As he said, the Society should consider putting together a rescue plan using a Heritage Lottery Fund grant... 'You never know, the City of Bristol may consider being a partner in such a bid.' I immediately got in touch with The Chatterton Society and also The Bristol Evening Post with his advice. Meanwhile, just a couple of days later, I received this email: Henry Cobbold has forwarded your letter as I am involved in a campaign to
save Conan Doyle’s house 'Undershaw', in Surrey, is a Grade II Listed
Building commissioned to his own designs by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in
1897. It is a great example of
late Victorian architecture and was built as a place for the
rest and recouperation for his wife. Here he wrote ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’ and ‘The Return of
Sherlock Holmes’ and entertained many notable people, including Bram
Stoker, the author of ‘Dracula’, J M Barrie, the creator of ‘Peter Pan’,
and the young Virginia Woolf. After Conan Doyle sold it thirty years later, it became an hotel,
until bought by 'developers' in 2004. The house has
been empty ever since and is being allowed to deteriorate subject to
planning permission to develop the site into a terrace of three houses.
This permission has been granted by the local authority by a 7-1 vote,
apparently in the belief that the house has no actual or potential
cultural significance, and on appeal we must convince them otherwise.
What we are hoping for is something on the lines
of a Conan Doyle Museum & Centre for British and Irish Crime
Writing, with a library, conference facilities and perhaps a writer in
residence. This has gained widespread support or help from
the British Association for Victorian Studies, the Journal of
Neo-Victorian Studies, the North American Victorian Studies Association,
the London 19th Century Seminar, the European Architectural Heritage
Network, the Australasian Victorian Studies Association, the Victorian
Interdisciplinary Studies Association of the Western US, the Belgian
Association of Anglicists in Higher Education, the Society of
Architectural Historians, the Nineteenth Century Studies Association,
the European Society for the Study of English, the Société des
Anglicistes de l'Enseignement Supérieur and the Asociación española de
estudios anglo-americanos, as well as a growing number of literary
societies. We
have also been gathering the support of individual scholars and
academics for this – ‘Academics for Undershaw’ – the list so far is
attached – and I can only suggest that the Chatterton Society goes down a similar route.
I would of course be happy to sign any petition.
Yours sincerely,
David Charles Rose ___________________________________________________ D.C. Rose M.A. (Oxon), Dip.Arts Admin (NUI-Dublin)
Editor, THE OSCHOLARS and VISIONS; General editor, www.oscholars.com &
Editorial Advisory Board, Irish Studies Review and Literary London
Paris correspondent, Nineteenth Century Art Worldwide
Convenor, Magdalen en France Co-ordinator 'Academics for Undershaw'
Past President, Société Oscar Wilde en France
1 rue Gutenberg, Paris XV   Go to the Undershaw Preservation Trust and learn the whole story and what you can do to help. |
Save Chatterton's House 7/03/2012
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