Great Bloomsbury bottoms...

Today I took my mother-in-law to Charleston Farmhouse, home to several members of the Bloomsbury group. It's an amazing place and is a fitting monument to the creative talents of an extraordinary group of people who, went they weren't engaging in sexual menages a trois, transformed everything they touched into something wonderful.

Unfortunately photography wasn't allowed, which is why I've included the link to the official website. However, I did engage in some minor cultural espionage whilst an attendant was busy explaining something to a couple of elderly tourists and managed to take this:


Yes, I know it's just a loo, but this one has had some very famous bottoms on it: Virginia Woolf, E.M.Forster and John Maynard Keynes to name but a few. The bottom theme continues in the garden...


The gardens are almost as spectacular as the house. Even the butterflies are more colourful than normal...


And everywhere you look, there are statues, busts and beautiful ceramics.



The most remarkable thing about Charleston is that even though it's only a five-bedroom Sussex farmhouse, every square inch has been altered by its occupants, right down to the fabric design of the chairs and the bedroom rugs. Each room is a visual feast.

I would strongly urge everyone to visit Charleston, but if you can't make it, the next best thing is a wonderful book by Duncan Bell and Virginia Nicholson.