Thoughts in a House

Description:

The silence of the house. The cold silence of the day.

A beautiful new book from acclaimed writer Julia Blackburn and artist Tessa Newcomb.

Julia Blackburn and Tessa Newcomb live near each other in rural Suffolk. Around fifteen years ago, they conceived a book which would include Tessa’s drawings of objects and animals in Julia’s home and garden, accompanied by a short sentence or two from Julia. Distracted by other projects, the book was quietly abandoned. In 2021, finding themselves solitary and in lockdown as the world spun with the confusion of the Coronavirus pandemic, Julia and Tessa revived the book. Tessa painted delicate watercolours inspired by Julia’s objects – a little still life from a window ledge, a bookcase, a table, transforming it into something beyond its own simple self. Julia responded with new words. The result is Thoughts in a House, a quiet gaze, an introspective meditation of small things.

“This spare and haunting book is all about associations: links between a writer and an artist who have known each other for a long time; accumulated bonds between people, animals and objects. They are the stuff of life, endowing a particular house and garden with a sense of home.” - Ian Collins, writer and curator, author of John Craxton: A Life of Gifts

Julia Blackburn is the author of a family memoir, The Three of Us (winner of the 2009 J. R. Ackerley Prize), ten works of non-fiction, two novels (both shortlisted for the Orange Prize), and three collections of poetry. Her most recent book is Dreaming the Karoo (2022). She has also written a number of plays and stories for BBC radio. Julia lives in Suffolk and sometimes in Northern Italy.

Tessa Newcomb was born on the Norfolk-Suffolk border. She has worked as a painter all her life, exhibiting in many galleries and with regular solo shows at Crane Kalman Gallery in London since 2010. Her books include The Adorable Plot, Paris and Where I Belong. Tessa lives in Suffolk.