January 2021 Books, Stuff, Records.

Objects. Things I’ve Bought and Loved This Month.

These copper sponges are brilliant for washing up; they are gentle so you can use them on non stick pans but they're also good for removing rust.

This guy paints furniture in the most perfect shades. It sells out instantly but I bagged a chest of drawers for Glen Dye.

I collect the beautiful work of Arjan Van Dal and added two pieces to the hall table this month.

I bought four new Annie Atkins prints for our office.

Cindy’s Poppy Tea. Seriously, this stuff is amazing. I knew opium helps with sleep, but this is legal.

Felt Coasters from Labour and Wait.

Each of our cabins and cottages has some of Alex Pole’s incredible heirloom objects in them and I stocked up this month.

I had some of these bespoke City pennants made for Glen Dye and for our pub, too.

A red alarm clock designed by Jasper Morrison for Punkt. It’s great; you really don’t need your phone in your bedroom.

I bought some of these wonderful chairs in various colours for the Showman’s Caravan at Glen Dye.

I stocked up on my favourite pens; the finest writing instrument known to mankind is the Artline 200 Fine 0.4. Yours for £1.62.

Some wonderful frying pans from a French master via the excellent Dyke and Dean.

Culture. Things I’ve consumed and Loved This Month.

The Avalanches’ new album is so damn good it’s up there with a good Prince album. Rough Trade have some elegant editions.

A new EP by James Blake that’s far more interesting than some of his more recent work.

Olafur Arnalds has made his most beautiful album yet. This is the point that Icelandic electronica meets traditional classical music with wonderful results.

My Rembrandt is a wonderful documentary about the master and the passion his work evokes. It’s also about money and greed and competition.

Foundering; The WeWork Story is a podcast from Bloomberg. I am strangely drawn to the story of WeWork and all of the hubris, greed and stupidity that led to its collapse. This is a well-told story of all of that and more.

Snow by John Banville is a thriller by the Booker Prize winning writer and it’s great; dark, evocative, absurd and a real page turner. This is an intelligent detective story that will live with you.

Trio by William Boyd. Boyd is one of our most enduring novelists and this story about the chaos of making a film in Brighton in the 1960s is great.

Rumaan Alam’s Leave the World Behind is about the end of the world as seen through the eyes of two families who end up sharing a house in the American countryside as everything collapses. It’s probably best avoided if lockdown anxiety is getting to you, but I loved it.

Sho Shibuya’s overpainted New York Times front pages are wonderful.