Elizabeth Wilhide – författare

'Heart-wrenching . . . intoxicating . . . a very English Anna Karenina' The Times'Vivid, candid, engaging. So honest' Helen Dunmore Suffolk, 1939: Julia Compton has a beautifully well-ordered life. Once a promising musician, she now has a handsome husband who pays the bills, a young son she adores and a housekeeper who takes care of her comfortable home. Then on the eve of war something unexpected happens. She falls in love.The consequences are devastating. Cut off from family and friends, Julia loses everything. Penniless, denied access to her son, completely unequipped to fend for herself, she is cast adrift in wartime London with her bohemian filmmaker lover Dougie. As invasion looms and the bombs rain down her struggle is only beginning.While Dougie seeks truth wherever he can find it, Julia finds herself lost. Before long, ruined and broken, she faces a choice - succumb to her fate, or fight to forge a new identity in the heat of war.

Spring 2010, and when Charlie and Ros inherit Ashenden from their aunt Reggie a decision must be made. The beautiful eighteenth-century house, set in acres of English countryside, is in need of serious repair. Do they try to keep it in the family, or will they have to sell?Moving back in time, in an interwoven narrative spanning two and a half centuries, we witness the house from its beginnings through to the present day. Along the way we meet those who have built the house, lived in it and loved it; those who have worked in it, and those who would subvert it to their own ends, including Mrs Trimble, housekeeper to the rackety, spendthrift Mores; the wealthy Henderson family, in their Victorian heyday; six-year-old Pudge; Walter Beckmann, prisoner in its grounds; and Reggie and Hugo, agents of its postwar revival.Through good times and bad, the better we get to know the house, the more we care about its survival. A novel about people, architecture and living history, Ashenden is an evocative and allusive reflection on England and its past.

Throughout history, patterns have come in countless permutations of motif, colour-way and scale. Yet what all have in common is the regularity of repetition, that insistent rhythm that animates a flat surface with a sense of movement and vitality and gives it depth. Evident in the arrangement of petals on a flower head, the branching growth of stems and vines, the spirals of a seashell – pattern is inherent in the natural world that surrounds us. Powerful and transformative, pattern has an irrepressible joie de vivre. With more than 1,500 illustrations of patterns from all ages and cultures, Pattern Design is a visual feast. This comprehensive compendium is arranged thematically according to type, with chapters on Flora, Fauna, Pictorial, Geometric and Abstract designs. These broad categories are supplemented by in-depth features highlighting the work of key designers from the rich history of pattern-making – such as William Morris, Sonia Delaunay, Charles and Ray Eames, Lucienne Day and Orla Kiely – along with sections detailing the characteristic motifs of key period styles from Baroque to Art Deco.

A revised edition of this popular history of design, updated to reflect innovations since the book’s first publication in 2016. Design: The Whole Story takes a close look at the key developments, movements and practitioners of design around the world, from the beginnings of industrial manufacturing to the present day. Organized chronologically, it locates design within its technological, cultural, economic, aesthetic and theoretical contexts. From the high-minded moralists of the 19th century to the radical thinkers of modernism – and from the emergence of showmen such as Raymond Loewy in the 1930s to today’s superstars such as Philippe Starck – the book provides in-depth coverage of a subject that touches all our lives. Iconic works that mark significant steps forward or that characterize a particular era or approach – such as Marcel Breuer’s Wassily chair of 1925, Eliot Noyes’ corporate identity work for IBM in the 1950s and Matthew Carter’s Verdana typeface, designed to be read on screen – are analysed in detail, while the text sets out the framework of ideas, intent and technology within which differing approaches to design have evolved. From the cars we drive and the products we buy to the graphics that surround us, we are all consumers of design. Design: The Whole Story provides all the information needed to decode the material world.

William Morris – one of the most influential designers of the 19th century and an important figure in the Arts and Crafts movement – revisited in this inspirational interior design guide. Rich natural colours, liquid floral patterns, light airy rooms and simple wooden furniture are all radical principles of the Arts and Crafts movement, and are also the fundamentals of most modern décor. There has never been a better time for introducing Morris designs into the home.Illustrated with a wide range of historical and contemporary decorative schemes, this practical and inspirational guide suggests simple and cost-effective ways of creating an interior décor that aspires to purity, colour and craftsmanship, as defined by William Morris.Chapters provide information on pattern-matching, wall and window treatments, floor coverings, tiles and furnishings, so that a 'Morris style' can be extended to whatever degree of authenticity desired. A comprehensive suppliers' list details where to buy Morris and Co. fabrics and wallpapers, and Arts and Crafts furnishings, while an illustrated glossary containing sixty of the best-known designs allows for easy pattern selection and identification.