Emma and her two sisters had wanted something to remember their mother by. Their father, traumatised by the death of his wife, held tightly onto her things. Sarah, the eldest of the sisters managed to secrete away a book of recipes that their mother had amassed. The collection of newspaper cuttings, cake recipes handwritten by neighbours and immaculately typewritten directions for baking bread covered forty years. Sarah, understanding and wanting to salve the pain that her twin sisters were feeling, meticulously reproduced the book for each of them. She copied the script on the cover with gold paint and distressed every colour copied page but Emma felt peculiarly numb about the book. It was merely a copy and had never been touched by her mother’s hand. Nine years after her mother’s death Emma’s attitude has changed, the book is now a beautiful demonstration of her elder sister’s love for her and her twin.
21 Aug 2011
Chris was at the pub with friends one night when a mate pulled out a crisp that was his doppelgänger. At the end of the night Chris carefully wrapped the crisp and took it home. Two years later he was packing up for a move to New York and rediscovered it, still safely wrapped. He wrapped it up again and took it with him. He was in the States for six years, he’s now back in London – with his crisp. He has had it for twelve years. To the friends from that night at the pub he is now known as Crisp.
14 Aug 2011
Emma’s grandmother’s house was built in the 30s, an era of sculleries and larders when there was a place for everything. A cupboard was dedicated to gardening tools. The back garden was small but productive, divided between flowers and vegetables with blackcurrant bushes and almond trees. Aged five Emma’s love of gardening was seeded helping her granny out with digging and deadheading. Emma went on to take a Royal Horticultural Society course and now volunteers weekly at Great Dixter, a beautiful garden planted with wild flowers in East Sussex. This continually extends the learning that began with her granny. In 2009, at aged 99, Emma’s grandmother died. Emma has inherited her tools, including this pruning saw, which, though past it’s best, blunted from years of use, Emma still uses.
07 Aug 2011
Anthony’s grandad travelled the world serving in the army. He retired in the 70s giving him time to satisfy his undimmed wanderlust. Anthony was ten when they first set off revisiting the countries his grandad had served in. Over six years they travelled to China and Hong Kong, Tunisia, Turkey, Greece, Russia and Italy. They shared a curiosity for the world but a conspiratorial silliness too. The window of a hotel in Rome provided a good height for dropping grapes on passersby. Their last trip was a flight on Concorde. At sixteen, just a couple of years shy of legal drinking age, they shared a glass of champagne, steadying it as they craned to see the North Sea below. When his grandad died his granny gave him all the photographs of their trips carefully stuck into a sugar paper book, their beaming faces on a commemorative plate from China and his grandad’s passport with stamps from every place they’d visited.
31 Jul 2011
Neil found this strange and creepy homemade ‘thing’ in a Viennese street market. He has no idea of it’s origin or what it represents, though he thinks that there might be a clue in it’s fetching laced corset.
24 Jul 2011
Nat’s family lived in China in the late 60s during the cultural revolution. As part of Mao’s efforts to cement communism and ensure that capitalism didn’t gain any traction, hundreds of new printing houses were built producing millions of his ‘little red book’. In this way his speeches were disseminated to almost all the population. The book, along with Mao’s bust were unofficial requirements of anyone living in China. Aged 2 Nat would declare to the statue ‘Wo ai ni Mao Ju Shi’ – I love you Chairman Mao. This was the cue for Nat’s mum’s decision to return to the UK. When the family were released from their compound arrest (the authorities believed Nat’s dad was a spy), they fled to England. Mao came with them, in the form of the statue. He lives with Nat to this day, on the kitchen window sill. He is as much a part of her life now as he ever was, perhaps more so, since he fell off her desk and she spent a week painstakingly gluing him back together.
16 Jul 2011
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