Sunday 23 August 2015

A Bohemian Group


Over the course of recent Monday evenings , I have been captivated by the BBC drama series “Life in Squares”. 

This drama based on the Bohemian Bloomsbury Group, (and along with the recent BBC series of Poldark, starring the delicious Aidan McCann as Ross Poldark and based in stunning Cornwall), is another reason why I have not yet given up on my TV viewing.




(Aidan McCann as BBC2s Ross Poldark)

The clips of the gardens at Charleston inspired me – gorgeously decadent with cottage garden Hollyhocks set against a backdrop of Arts and Crafts mosaics and sculptures. I feel frustrated when I think of all the times I have spent in Sussex and yet have never made time to visit either Charleston or Monks House, (Virginia Woolf’s house in Rodmell). 


The Bloomsbury Group at Charleston included the flamboyant artists Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant.




I was entranced by Vanessa Bell’s costumes.


A promotional photo for the series reminded me of a photograph of my own somewhat Bohemian and dare I say it - eccentric family, 




whose lives have been interwoven over the years with politics, acting, music, crafts, painting and gardening, intellectual conversation (allegedly) and who on occasion gathered together at a pleasant country house in Sussex – although unlike the free-loving Bloomsbury Group, any hint of dissipation was of course kept strictly shrouded, hidden behind a cloak of secrecy with a front of gentility and prudish decorum presented to any curious on-looker!


xxx