Rethinking Puppy Love

The same week Dog House, Carol Prisant's charming tale of "One Love, Ten Dogs, and a Forty-Two-Year Marriage" landed on my reading table, the article "What pets can teach us about marriage" arrived in my inbox courtesy of Mr. EEE. Clearly forces greater than I - forces that maybe had overheard me telling friends that I needed to get home to my little furry guys, and, oh yeah, my husband - were at work.

As the article pointed out, I am indeed more likely to forgive Gus in a heartbeat when he breaks heirloom porcelain boxes or Stubby when he shreds the velvet sofa, than a human - or, more specifically, the one I've pledged to honor in sickness and in health until death. This illuminating insight reminded me of how it's all too easy to take our most beloved for granted.

Ms. Prisant's book which examines love and loss with humor, tenderness and a disarming candor reinforced this a thousand fold. While Jack Russells, lurchers, and greyhounds come, go, and stay, Dog House is the story of how she and her husband Millard pursued their life together full of dogs (naturally), restoring old houses, nurturing rose bushes, and ultimately how they faced her husband's cancer to which he succumbed in 2000. Prisant bravely lets us in to her grief and gradual healing, an inspiring reminder of how resilient the human spirit is.

The author and her two dogs

If "'Tis better to have loved and lost Than never to have loved at all" as Tennyson wrote, than it is also better to appreciate and delight in love's presence as much as one will lament its absence. Prisant's Dog House glows with warmth, laughter and sweetness - which is exactly how every home - dog, cat, or bird - should be.

Top photo: Mona Williams with her terrier, captured by Cecil Beaton

Of Little Princesses and Lord Fauntleroys

It's La Blyberg's annual book week where you're sure to find thoughtful and off-the-beaten track recommendations.

I was tickled to be asked to contribute and found myself channeling my inner-six-year-old... Click here to tune in.

"What's wrong with this picture?"

...scrawled my Uncle Mame on this photo of Maryalice Huggins whose book on the stupendous Aesop's Fable mirror behind her was charmingly profiled in the New York Times here.

It took me a minute...

Photo by Erik Jacobs for The New York Times

Erratum: A case of mistaken identity

"Charles Townley proudly displays his famous collection of ancient statuary in his gallery in this painting by Johann Zoffany. He is seated on a bergere while reading at a pembroke table."

From my first book, Classic English Design and Antiques

It is true that Townley, a voracious 18th century collector of antiquities, is sitting on a bergere, but, thanks to Barry of the Blue Remembered Hills who recently visited Townley's ancestral home, we know that Townley is in fact the gentleman in the foreground, with his faithful dog Kam at his feet, NOT the one at the pembroke table.

I love this picture as it communicates the mania verging on obsession the English had for all things Classical in the eighteenth century. As Barry notes here, Townley's collection was exceptional and was purchased by the British Museum in the early nineteenth century to form the foundation of its Graeco-Roman holdings.

March Madness Sale at Potterton Books NY

What: the creme de la creme of design books but for less: 25% percent off new titles and 10% or more off rare and out-of-print titles

Where: Potterton Books New York in the lobby of the D&D Building, 979 3rd Avenue between East 58th and 59th - but you can call too! 212.644.2292

When: Starting Monday, March 16 through the 20th, 9:30am to 5:30pm

Why: Because a beautiful book can take you to far-away places for a lot less than a plane ticket. Because it's important to support local bookstores. Because it's on sale! Because you've always wanted a copy of Vogue's Book of Houses, Gardens, & People*, or Empress Bianca, the (alleged!) expose on Lily Safra, whose first printing was pulped because of its scandalous content.

The dynamic duo Beth Daugherty, Potterton NY's managing director, and Melissa Dixson in their lair

My guru of trims Beth Martell cooling her heels while enjoying Carleton Varney's latest on our recent fringe and raffia reconnaissance mission

*SOLD as of 3/18

Homage to Heywood Hill

While an impoverished graduate student in London, I was given two luxuries by my most beneficent uncle: a charge card to Fortnum and Mason and an account at the Mayfair bookshop Heywood Hill.

I became instantly addicted to popping in and browsing through the stacks upon stacks of books. And if the ghosts of some of my favorite writers who were past patrons (including Osbert Sitwell and Nancy Mitford who actually worked here) weren't enough to enchant me, the extremely well-read and engaging staff made this no passing affair.

Here are HH managing director Jeffrey Kerr's current recommendations - all of which look like must-reads to me! I urge you all to visit next time you are in London and, in general, to support your local bookstores which are going through tough times.

DAVENPORT-HINES, R Ettie: the Intimate Life and Dauntless Spirit of Lady Desborough (£20)
The extraordinary life of Ettie, Lady Desborough, aristocratic beauty, society hostess, member of the Souls, courtier, heiress, and mother, whose life spanned the reigns of five monarchs from Queen Victoria to George VI. Although from an early age her life seemed shadowed by death (her mother, father and brother all died before she was ten)

FELLOWES, JULIAN Past Imperfect (£17.99)
On his death bed the enormously wealthy Damian Baker asks a former friend to search amongst the offspring of their University clique for his heir. The quest affords the central character the opportunity to look back at the group’s youthful expectations and find out whether they have come to terms with the reality of the lives they now have. Hugely entertaining - Brideshead for the twenty-first century. [Editor's note: Julian wrote the screenplays for Gosford Park and Vanity Fair.]


KRESTER, MICHEL DE The Lost Dog (£16.99)
Tom Loxley loses his dog whilst working on his book on Henry James out in the bush. His search takes him not only through the bush but through his memory, calling back his childhood in India and his early life in Australia. Yet his trip to the past is balanced by the sharp reality of his mother’s failing health and the mystery of Nelly. A beautifully crafted modern novel from Australia.


MLINARIC, DAVID & CECIL, MIRABEL Mlinaric on Decorating (£35)
A lavishly illustrated look at the work of David Mlinaric, one of the foremost interior designers of the last forty years. In addition to having taken over the mantle of adviser to the National Trust from John Fowler, David Mlinaric has worked on some of the most important historic projects in recent years: Waddesdon, Spencer House, the Royal Opera House, and the British Embassies in both Paris and Washington. The book also includes beautiful images of his own houses; Thorpe Hall in Suffolk, being particularly gorgeous with interiors of stunning simplicity and great elegance.


MOSLEY, CHARLOTTE In Tearing Haste: (£25)
Although at times sporadic, the Dowager Duchess of Devonshire and the travel writer Sir Patrick Leigh Fermor have exchanged hundreds of letters over the last 50 years. Charlotte Mosley has used her considerable judgement and skill to draw out some of the very finest of these, illustrating his devotion and her friendship. Paddy Leigh Fermor’s poetic travel writing, which immediately draws one to the place and event described, is perfectly balanced by the highly individual mode of expression of his correspondent. Light hearted and fun, a terrific read.

Click here for an interview with Debo herself.


NICOLSON, ADAM Sissinghurst: an Unfinished History (£20)
A fascinating and beautifully written account of Adam Nicolson’s relationship with the place which is home to him, but which for many people is a national treasure, something to be preserved in aspic. This is a book about place, how it becomes a part of you: the history, the trees, the soil. Nicolson weaves the story of his efforts to reconnect Sissinghurst with the surrounding landscape into the history of the place itself.