The Aardvark Blog

Bright clear morning, and exciting events to come
14/01/2017

A nice bright morning here in Brampton Bryan, after a number of cold and windy days. Here down in the river valley we only had a smattering of snow which did not last, but customers yesterday were telling me that in the hills around Ludlow, the tops were still white. As I was writing to an American customer yesterday who has ordered some books pending their moving here for six months, we have become so unused to bad winter weather here, that it has a completely paralysing effect.

I myself have been similarly inactive, having spent the week at home with a chest cold ( something that the doctor assured me in our 4 minute interaction was all too common this year). In my absence lots of work has been done both in the shop and on our forward events programme for the year.

So for example I can confirm that our big ceramics exhibition ( curated by Shannon Donovan) we will be including work by both Phil Rogers and Ken Eastman ( two of the most important potters to have worked in Britain in the last generation. This group show will be something truly special containing work in clay from sculptures such as Royal Academician  Stephen Cox and potters such as Andrew Crouch and Tony Hall. I cannot wait to see the work all together.

Then we finally got confirmation on this year's Arcadia at Aardvark event. This will comprise of a talk by world renowned musicologist and writer Roger Nichols on French Music, and a talk and recital by Hugh Webb ( Principal Harpist at the Philharmonia Orchestra )  on the Harp. Tom Bowes and Eleanor Alberga who run the Arcadia festival have been working on putting this event together for some months, and I am so excited that it has now been finalised.

Then we have also been talking to the English Civil War Society who tell us that we are set for an even bigger Living History Village for this year's event. The Village is really at the heart of the event, and is for many visitors the thing that they remember most.  If you are planning to come a distance for this year's event and wish to stay there is lots of high quality accommodation in or close to the village. Let us know if you want more details, and look at our events page for the full list of 2017 events.