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tetegraph.co.uk/pTOperty/mteriorsandshopp/ng
Anatomy books
I have started on a forensic anatomy
course. I have learnt the function
and position of every muscle. I had
a good eye before but now I know
what I am doing. The ecorches are
figures which show the arrangement
of muscles without the skin
to
™
LIFESTYLE
Family photographs
My mum is brain injured so she and
Freddy, who had Tourette's, had a big
connection. She fell off a camel in Africa
at the age of 76. This is a picture of
her with Freddy, one of my daughters,
Daisy, now 17, and roses, because
Freddy wrote a tot about roses
Harvest festival arrangement
My garden is so important
always grow far too many sweet
peas, beans, artichokes, squash,
celery and potatoes. I can't bear
waste so I bake cakes, make jams
and chutneys
'Lady Tottering is really me'
Caroline McGhie interviews Annie
Tempest, the Country Life cartoonist
A
nnie Tempest is an outdoor
creature, more frontier
woman than duchess of the
drawing room. The celebrated
cartoonist of Country Life, wry
observer of the English country
classes, sits i n this outdoor room
every evening with the heat of an
al fresco wood oven o n one side
and the last rays of the setting sun
o n the other. "This is my little bit
of African safari lodge," she says.
Her love of the outdoors dates
from her early childhood in
Zambia, where she was b o m . She
sleeps o n the wooden balcony
outside her bedroom i n her
home i n Stibbard North Norfolk,
when the mood takes her. M u c h
of her waking horn's are spent
spinning magic i n the garden.
There is a water garden, a kitchen
garden, an avenue of rustling
silver Siberian birch, a bonfire
pit. glasshouse of ripening
tomatoes and old stumps covered
i n soaring clematis. Statues and
busts made by her preen and
pose i n comers.
The central eoiuiyard is where
life happens. The house, which
she bought in 2006 after she
separated from her husband, the
composer James McConnel, is a
barn conversion. F r o m one end
rims an extended glass garden
room, a Provencal outdoor dining
room and a guest cottage used by
her constant companion and
agent. Raymond O'Shea O n the
far side are two work studios
linked by this outdoor room.
One studio is dedicated to
Tottering by-Gently. She has just
published two new collections of
her work - Tvttmiiy Li/e, based o n
Lord and Lady Tottering (Dicky
and Daffy) and their family; and
TaiU ofTotteritici Hull, about their
dogs Slobber and Scribble (£25.
Frances Lincoln). This is a world
of frozen sitting rooms, fourposters, champagne swigging
i n the bathtub, labradors which
double as hot water bottles, green
puffer jackets and pearls, set to
a constant background h u m of
bewilderment between the sexes.
Tottering Hall is inspired by
Broughton Hall, the Tudor pile
which her lather inherited i n
Yorkshire when she was 12, full
of hip baths, leaky roofs, snow on
the billiard table and antifreeze
i n the loos. "Lord Tottering is
my father. He doesn't have a
moustache, of course. But he
loves it, as long as he can model
W«R its ftU. b h lis liura. pwtat DU iramifc-.
the champagne. Lady Tottering.
Daffy, is really me. It is all here.
I live it, I buy clothes i n charity
shops. I garden and have a dog."
The only place the original works
are shown is at Raymond O'Shea
Gallery (osheagallery.com) i n St
James Sheet, London.
Dicky and Daffy might think
it awfully r u m , but their lives
have now gone global. They are
conquering comers of America
and Europe. Tableware, postcards,
mugs, cushions, roller blinds,
silk ties, headscarves, braces
and champagne have followed,
and they are about to bring
out Tottering sloe gin. whisky,
prosecco, claret, white wine and
rose (tottering.com). " A n d p i r i piri ho-ho. which the Somalian
gendarmes used to flavour their
soups", says Annie, as if everyone
should already know.
The second studio is where
she makes her new work, h u m a n
figures filled with emotion. Her
son. Freddy. (Bed aged 18 from
] a drug overdose, and the grief
| made her sculpt. "1 f u m e d to
; sculpture instead of therapy," she
| says. Her new work is deep and
5 raw. freighted w i t h feeling. She is
{ restless. " I don't know how I do
! it all. The cartoons, the sculpting,
| the garden, making jams and
chutneys. I want to be Mi's Perfect
I and I can't bear" to sit still."
A photographer is coming.
| The floppy ears of her sprocker
i spaniel, Barney, must be brushed
j until they shine. Now for a very
| important question: does she
| usually sleep w i t h her dog?
| "Yes. He sleeps w i t h me. Of
| course. He's my doggy. But he
| is very good. He always asks for
permission before he gets u p . "
W00DF1RED OVEN
For pizzas, roasts, or stews, the
dome60 c o s t s £ l , 1 0 0 from
jamieoliver.com/wood-fired-oven
VITALITY'
Sculpture by Annie Tempest.
£5,250 (35cm height, 27cm widtl
020 7930 5880; osheagallery.cor