In 1979 I had the idea of creating a red poster, just for fun. It was simple; all I had to do was collect anything that was red of a convenient size, (pillar and telephone boxes were out), and arrange them on a photographer's studio floor. For weeks I rummaged through draws, trawled supermarkets, hung around waste bins. Friends used to my sudden and inexplicable passions either gave me things or lent them. Finally photographer Mike Brown let me into his vast studio in Leicester and I started laying mountains of stuff out on the floor. The camera had to be on a special rig above it all and I spent hours saying things like: "Just move that lightbulb one centimetre to the left of the child's shoe". This is the result, and very excitedly we thought of doing a yellow one, a green one- you get the idea. Well, it didn't happen, and the original print got lost. Until a couple of weeks ago when it resurfaced in a designer's plan chest in Gravesend and I'm thinking of doing a print of it. The plan chest went on e-bay, the print came to me. So thankyou Maggie, you're a star. A Red Star of course.
Thankyou Sue! It's a bit difficult to discern at this size, but there's some quite obscure stuff hiding in there. Somewhere is Pissaro's 'Red Roofs' painting, I think.
Very good, but the tomato should have been moved half a millimetre to the right. I did a lot of this "left a bit, right a bit" stuff in studios when working on the Eyewitness Books for DK - with the difference that we were leaving space for as-yet-unwritten text as well. It's a painstaking carry-on and I am all admiration.
I like the little magnet, had one just like it when I was a boy. And is that a bottle of Stephen's ink?
Good to see Uncle Joe's Mint Balls in there. I finally got a copy of your new book on Saturday when Beverly in Quinns's decided it was up to standard! I also finally got a book I had ordered on the third attempt after she had sent the two previous copies back as being damaged.
Good God it is. Thankyou for the alert Stephen, (and for purchasing it!). It's not supposed to be out until this Thursday. I must get a post out quickly.
I love the fact that they're objects rather than pictures - great fun. 'Preposterous Erections' meanwhile reminds me of a time when we went camping en famille, and my stepfather proudly toasted our 'successful erection' of the tent. At which my brother and sister, who were very young, dissolved into fits of giggles...
Blokes (and women I suppose) who turn up in the early hours to put up market stalls are sometimes known as spooks. There's a firm in the Midlands that runs markets and this firm is called Spook Erections. Preposterous indeed.
Some serious under-promotion going on here -the new book has been out for nearly two weeks - a friend at the Folly Fellowship Garden party told me they'd just got their copy the weekend before last and so I rushed to Amazon to find a couple of copies going for £2 new on Amazon Marketplace. How is that possible? Anyway, I bagged one quickly and now I see Peter is doing a talk on the contents of this book at Cheltenham on 9th October. Has anyone told you Peter?
Peter, my apologies for disturbing the ant's nest, the book has been around for a couple of weeks which surprised me as I thought it was'nt out until October. I forgot to say that the photos as ever are superb and made me want to go and see many of the towers for myself. I enjoyed the book very much, good to see taht your old friend 'rumour has it' making an appearance.
Phil: I remember Spook Erections having a depot on the old station yard at Moreton-in-Marsh. And very cleverly their trademark was a pregnant ghost with a halo above its head.
Re Spook Erection (singular, it turns out), the company still exists, though it seems to be based in Penrith now, running markets mostly in the northwest and Scotland. They still use the pregnant ghost trademark.
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I am a designer, writer and photographer who spends all his time looking at England, particularly buildings and the countryside. But I have a leaning towards the slightly odd and neglected, the unsung elements that make England such an interesting place to live in. I am the author and photographer of over 25 books, in particular Unmitigated England (Adelphi 2006), More from Unmitigated England (Adelphi 2007), Cross Country (Wiley 2011), The Cigarette Papers (Frances Lincoln 2012), Preposterous Erections (Frances Lincoln 2012) and English Allsorts (Adelphi 2015)
"Open this book with reverence. It is a hymn to England". Clive Aslet
Preposterous Erections
"Enchanting...delightful". The Bookseller "Cheekily named" We Love This Book
The Cigarette Papers
"Unexpectedly pleasing and engrossing...beautifully illustrated". The Bookseller
Cross Country
"Until the happy advent of Peter Ashley's Cross Country it has, ironically, been foreigners who have been best at celebrating Englishness". Christina Hardyment / The Independent
More from Unmitigated England
"Give this book to someone you know- if not everyone you know." Simon Heffer, Country Life. "When it comes to spotting the small but telling details of Englishness, Peter Ashley has no equal." Michael Prodger, Sunday Telegraph
26 comments:
That's brilliant! From Oxo to Old Spice to Little Red Riding Hood to Daniel Lambert...
Thankyou Sue! It's a bit difficult to discern at this size, but there's some quite obscure stuff hiding in there. Somewhere is Pissaro's 'Red Roofs' painting, I think.
Very good, but the tomato should have been moved half a millimetre to the right. I did a lot of this "left a bit, right a bit" stuff in studios when working on the Eyewitness Books for DK - with the difference that we were leaving space for as-yet-unwritten text as well. It's a painstaking carry-on and I am all admiration.
I like the little magnet, had one just like it when I was a boy. And is that a bottle of Stephen's ink?
It has a touch of this about it:
http://www.secretagencyblog.blogspot.de/2012/07/leaves-of-grass.html
Indeed Sue. But that really does need patience. We were ready to to the pub after three hours.
Good to see Uncle Joe's Mint Balls in there. I finally got a copy of your new book on Saturday when Beverly in Quinns's decided it was up to standard! I also finally got a book I had ordered on the third attempt after she had sent the two previous copies back as being damaged.
Stephen: Which book was that then? Don't tell me, ahem, my book on towers is already out?
Good God it is. Thankyou for the alert Stephen, (and for purchasing it!). It's not supposed to be out until this Thursday. I must get a post out quickly.
I love the fact that they're objects rather than pictures - great fun. 'Preposterous Erections' meanwhile reminds me of a time when we went camping en famille, and my stepfather proudly toasted our 'successful erection' of the tent. At which my brother and sister, who were very young, dissolved into fits of giggles...
Blokes (and women I suppose) who turn up in the early hours to put up market stalls are sometimes known as spooks. There's a firm in the Midlands that runs markets and this firm is called Spook Erections. Preposterous indeed.
Some serious under-promotion going on here -the new book has been out for nearly two weeks - a friend at the Folly Fellowship Garden party told me they'd just got their copy the weekend before last and so I rushed to Amazon to find a couple of copies going for £2 new on Amazon Marketplace. How is that possible? Anyway, I bagged one quickly and now I see Peter is doing a talk on the contents of this book at Cheltenham on 9th October. Has anyone told you Peter?
It appears I do have to have a word with my publisher. Thankyou, PE post coming up.
Peter, my apologies for disturbing the ant's nest, the book has been around for a couple of weeks which surprised me as I thought it was'nt out until October. I forgot to say that the photos as ever are superb and made me want to go and see many of the towers for myself. I enjoyed the book very much, good to see taht your old friend 'rumour has it' making an appearance.
Phil: I remember Spook Erections having a depot on the old station yard at Moreton-in-Marsh. And very cleverly their trademark was a pregnant ghost with a halo above its head.
Stephen: Thankyou very much. I think I've enjoyed putting this one together as much as any.
Re Spook Erection (singular, it turns out), the company still exists, though it seems to be based in Penrith now, running markets mostly in the northwest and Scotland. They still use the pregnant ghost trademark.
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