“The way they lived was unashamedly eccentric”

Transcript: The Bloomsbury Group

This is Owen Connors, audio editor from Spotlight. And I’m joined by Inez Sharp, chief editor with Spotlight. And we’re going to talk today about one of Inez’s favourite subjects, which is the Bloomsbury Group. So, let’s start off, Inez. Imagine you were showing a visitor around Charleston, which is where the Bloomsbury Group was based. What makes this a standoutherausragend, besondersstandout experience?

Inez: Charleston was a country home for Vanessa Bell, the sister of Virginia Woolf, and her husband and a sort of coterieZirkel, Gruppecoterie of artists. And this is a home which they, the artists in this group, they created. There isn’t any, oh, we bought this at a shop. They painted and designed. They painted the floors. They painted the walls. They painted the tables. They made the fabricStofffabrics. It’s, in its own way, a little amateur, perhaps, but it’s beautifully colourful. And it’s like nothing you’ve ever seen before. And it’s been hard to preserve sth.etw. erhaltenpreserve it. But I think that the people who run Charleston have done a great job. So, a very uniqueeinzigartig, besondersunique environment.

That sounds really interesting. I’d love to go there. What special moment or secret can you share with us about the Bloomsbury Group?

Inez: OK, so within the Bloomsbury Group, or sort of on the edge of them, was this organization called the Omega Workshops. They made furniture and they made fabrics in their particular style. And this was made, perhaps one could call it a little bit in a slapdash (ifml.)schludrigslapdash way, not particularly carefully. And one of their customers, this is really, you know, early 20th century, very early 20th century, one of the customers complained and said, you know, the bookshelf I bought, or I can’t remember what it was, really hasn’t held up very well. And the people who ran the Omega Workshops were like, what’s your problem? Repaint it yourself, redesign yourself, make it your own. I read that somewhere in a book about the Bloomsbury Group. I thought it was hilariouswahnsinnig komischhilarious. Not something you could get away with sth.mit etw. durchkommenget away with today, and probably couldn’t quite back then, but it was really funny.

That’s great! What is quintessentiallytypisch, von Grund aufquintessentially English about this experience?

Inez: I think there it’s sort of living eccentricity. These are people who... as I say, always at the heart of this, Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, people who lived their lives by their own rules. I know that, for example, I think Duncan Grant was a pacifist. I’m not sure he serveMilitärdienst leistenserved in the First World War. That’s quite a hard decision to make, I think, in a lot of ways. And it’s just this one sort of example. But the way they lived was unashamedly eccentric and unashamedly themselves. And I think there is something quite English about that.

How can a visitor prepare to visit Charleston? Are there books to read? Is there something to listen to or is there equipment to bring along?

Inez: I mean, I would say I’ve read the biography of Vanessa Bell by Frances Spalding. It came out in 2006. I think it depends on how you want to approach this visit. Do you want to come and just, like, be surprised, or would you like to have some background? I think the interesting thing about this biography and generally any sort of in-depthgründlich, eingehendin-depth look at the Bloomsbury Group, the Omega Workshops and the people involved in this kind of environment is, of course, it was fraught withvollerfraught with complications. There were some very unusual relationships in this sort of menagerie. And people didn’t always get along with each other. And, yeah, and I think Frances Spalding in her biography of Vanessa Bell, Vanessa Bell was a very unusual, strong woman, but she describes her very well. She gives a very great feeling for what drove the people within this group.

And what would you want people to take away from a visit to Charleston?

Inez: I think there was a braveryMutbravery in the way these people lived. I truly believe that. And obviously, I mean, these were people that made no secret about this, is people who had money, most of them, but they were willing to make doauskommenmake do. They weren’t, you know, vastly rich. But these were brave people trying things out, living on their own terms: on one’s own ~nach jmds. eigenen Vorstellungenterms. So, I would hope that people would go away and say, I’m going to take just a little sliceScheibe, Anteilslice of that bravery, of that joie de vivre (frz.)Lebensfreudejoie de vivre with me into my life.

That’s wonderful. Now I really want to find out more about the Bloomsbury Group.

Inez: OK, thank you very much for asking me to report backBericht erstatten, erzählenreport back.

Thank you very much.