Wednesday May 6 2020
During a time when catching up on reading is a viable option for many of us, find out how Britten and Pears’ unique and beautiful bookplate came to be made. Britten and Pears were incorrigible bibliophiles. Like many booklovers, they were eager to declare ownership of their collection, to have a personalised Ex Libris. And […]
Thursday October 17 2019
This month’s book display features the work of two men whose extraordinarily expressive art represented stories taken from Renaissance verse and Antiquity in contrasting but striking ways. Just right for the month that promises a weird Halloween. But for the intervention of time, the demands of other projects and the encroachment of ill health Britten […]
Saturday October 5 2019
This month’s books show us two artists at work in the field of book illustration. Edward Lear is now probably best known to us as master of the Limerick and the inventor or a great deal of nonsense rhyme (The Owl and the Pussycat, The Jumblies, The Pobble who has no Toes). He was a […]
Tuesday August 20 2019
“What is the use of a book”, thought Alice, “without pictures or conversations?” Britten and Pears must, from time to time, have agreed whole-heartedly with Alice. Their collection is filled with books that are illustrated or, indeed, focussed on the subject of Art or Art History. Pictures fulfil a vital role in books and never […]
Monday July 22 2019
‘I’m now reading Emma to sooth [sic] myself,’ Britten confided to Pears in June 1944, emphasising that Jane Austen’s trademark humour and mastery of narrative offered some relief, albeit temporary, from the horrors of war. In 1946 Britten and Pears turned to Austen as potential source material for a new opera, the unrealised Letters to […]
Monday June 17 2019
Every month we highlight the gems from Britten and Pears’ book collection in their Library. Britten-Pears Foundation Librarian Nicholas Clark talks about the latest display for June. Below the thunders of the upper deep; Far, far beneath in the abysmal sea, His ancient, dreamless, uninvaded sleep The Kraken sleepeth… Alfred Tennyson, The Kraken Tennyson’s brooding […]
Monday May 20 2019
Every month we highlight the gems from Britten and Pears’ book collection in their Library. Britten-Pears Foundation Librarian Nicholas Clark talks about the latest selection that celebrates the month of May. Now the bright morning star, day’s harbinger, Comes dancing from the East, and leads with her The flow’ry May, who from her green lap […]
Monday April 15 2019
Every month we highlight the gems from Britten and Pears’ book collection in their Library. Britten-Pears Foundation Librarian Nicholas Clark talks about the latest selection that celebrates April and the arrival of spring. ‘Whan that Aprille with his shoures sote…’ – General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales Although Geoffrey Chaucer is one of the few poets […]
Monday March 18 2019
God Appears & God is Light To those poor Souls who dwell in Night; But does a Human Form Display To those who Dwell in Realms of day. – William Blake, Auguries of Innocence Britten and Pears maintained a lifelong interest in the work of the poet, artist, printer, pamphleteer and prophet William Blake (1757-1827). […]
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06 March 2021