A ‘hole-and-corner’ is an old English term meaning a secret place: somewhere you go to escape the world, to be inspired and to contemplate and create.
Where is yours?MY HOLE-AND-CORNERJames Joyce
Artist and designerWhere is yours?
I have a summerhouse in my garden. It has a table in there, a sofa, a stereo and electricity so it’s like another room to the house. The doors fold out so that the whole front opens out onto the garden, which is great in the summer.
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Is there something particular you like to do there?
It’s just a nice place to be without doing anything in particular. Sometimes if I just need to think and sketch ideas I’ll go there. If I need to make bigg er works I have a studio in east London that has the space I need.
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What would you sit on?
Ideally a nice lounge chair like the Spanish Chair by designed by Børge Mogensen.A fragrance?
Woodsmoke, leather, sandalwood, fig.
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An activity or skill you’re learning or wish to learn?
I’d like to learn carpentry or pottery, something that doesn’t involve modern technology.
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Something to read?
I have a pile of half read books next to my bed. I’m not a natural reader but one of the best books I’ve read recently and actually finished is HHhH by Laurent Binet
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jamesjoyce.co.ukVanity Fairy
Musicial artistWhere is yours?
Dreams / daydreams
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Is it private or are other people allowed in?
Everyone’s invited!
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How do you switch off from everyday life?
I go for walks, but also I like staying switched on because then you can think things through and find solutions to problems.
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What one special/personal object would you like with you?
I like to go unencumbered!
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The dish for dinner/lunch/breakfast?
Nettle soup and foraged ‘shrooms
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What would you sit on?
A nice tree stump or a camel.
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A fragrance?
Rainbow. Not sure what rainbows smell like, so that maybe doesn’t make much sense. But I imagine they smell amazing.

An activity or skill you’re learning or wish to learn?
I’d like to be a better meditator, but then I realise that’s just a passing thought and it’s okay to notice it and let it go.
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@vanityfairydustJulius Arthur,
founder House of QuinnWhere is yours?
Home, which will always be Cornwall. I live in Brighton now, but returning back to my home county always gives me somewhere to see a new perspective through familiar surroundings.

One place, in particular, is Trelissick gardens and estate in Feock. Where the rolling hills meet the woods and the estuary.
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Is it private or are other people allowed in?
Other people are allowed in, usually, it will be a combination of the five dogs we have in the family and my mum and dad, walking through the wild estate and down the hill to the small pebbled beach to forage for small yellow shells and watch the dogs play at the water edge.
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How do you switch off from everyday life?
I need to be in nature or close to it. Country boy at heart and feel relaxed when I can be surrounded by simple, uncomplicated rural settings.
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What one special/personal object would you like with you?
I am always wearing the ring that my mother gave me on my 30th birthday. It doesn’t come off and is a reminder of her every day.
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The dish for dinner/lunch/breakfast?
Not so much a dish. But clotted cream and blackcurrant ice cream, it will always remind me of my gran and being a child when she used to come on walks with us.
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A fragrance?
Woody deep mossy fragrances, the ones that last all week and keep reminding you of places and people.
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An activity or skill you’re learning or wish to learn?
I used to whittle wood with dad when I was younger, and we tried to make walking sticks once. I would like to get back into making things in wood.
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houseofquinn.co.ukRussell Norman
Writer and restaurateurWhere is yours?
When I’m in Venice, which is quite frequently these days, I like to go to the grassy churchyard of San Pietro di Castello. It’s a very tranquil spot on the eastern edge of the city.
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How do you switch off from everyday life?
I try not to do anything other than read or think.
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What one special/personal object would you like with you?
It would be incredibly antisocial, but I’d love to be able to take my guitar.
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The dish for dinner/lunch/breakfast?
Cantabrian anchovies on a slice of cold butter laid on cold toasted sourdough.
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What would you sit on?
There are these terribly incongruous red municipal benches in front of the church but I have grown to love them.
A fragrance?
I love the naturally brackish smell of the Venetian Lagoon.
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An album or track to accompany you – or other sounds if you prefer?
My favourite sound here is the screeching of the swifts as they circle and swoop in the skies above. It’s wonderfully evocative of spring and summer. And the regular pealing of church bells...
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An activity or skill you’re learning or wish to learn?
I’d quite like to learn to row ‘voga’ style like many Venetians. There’s a boat yard quite close to the church so it might be feasible at some point
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Something to read?
Milan Kundera, Kazuo Ishiguro, E.M. Forster... I’m a big fan of those 20th-century masters of prose.
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russellnorman.net
Yo Thom
Ceramist
Where is yours?
My pottery, probably.
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Is it private or are other people allowed in?
It is fairly private, even my family members rarely come in. I don’t have many visitors coming to my pottery.
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What one special/personal object would you like with you?
I like collecting dried pods and flowers which gives me lots of inspiration for my work.
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The dish for dinner/lunch/breakfast?
Whenever we have some left over from the night before, I love to indulge in some Japanese breakfast on my own after sending my children to school. Rice, miso soup and some veggies...
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A fragrance?
Sometimes I like to burn some Japanese incense
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An album or track to accompany you – or other sounds if you prefer?
I love listening to Tapestry by Carol King, and some Beatles, but usually just jazz or folk.
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An activity or skill you’re learning or wish to learn?
I’ve started to learn karate. I wish to learn basket weaving and print making.
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@yothomstudiopottery
Ali Goodman,
founder, Francli Craftwear
My hole-and-corner is my workshop based just outside Falmouth. It’s in a converted cattle barn at Argal Home Farm, a rural outpost that hosts a collective of creative businesses. It’s a unique place – a community of like-minded people doing good work, surrounded by Cornish hedgerows, wild fields, kitchen gardens and orchards.
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Is it private to you or do you let other people visit?
There’s a nice balance of both. It helps to keep the boundaries clear when I’m busy or need to concentrate on a piece of work. When I’m making I like to stay introverted, with minimal distraction. At the same time my door is always open to the busy and sociable farm. With other aspects of my work, the friendly faces and creative chats certainly keep me going.
What do you like to listen to when you’re working (and why)?
I’m a bit of a podcast addict and I need to be doing something with my hands to filter out distracting thoughts while I’m listening to them. So when I’m cutting or sewing, I can get fully absorbed in the conversations. The common threads of human experience fascinate me; I love how you can easily download a podcast and transport yourself into a different story or perspective. The listen list is pretty long but if I had to pick a favourite it would be Design Matters with Debbie Millman.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever been given?
Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.
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How do you switch off from everyday life?
In the sea. Especially surfing – being physically detached from the land and also totally focused on the waves rolling in. The combination of a heavy dose of the elements and a physical state of fl ow has a medicinal and meditative effect. If there aren’t any waves, I can find a similar refresh in a cold sea swim.
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Something to read?
Currently reading On Beauty by Zadie Smith. An on-going read is Women Who Run With The Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estés.
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francli.co.uk

Watch the film here

Rose Blake, 
Illustrator
Where is yours?
London Fields Lido
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How often do you go?
Three or four times a week.
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How do you switch off from everyday life?
By reading a lot.
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What one special/personal object would you like with you?
A handmade plastic poached egg that I bought in Tokyo.
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The dish for dinner/lunch/breakfast?
Porridge with figs and honey for breakfast, tomatoes on toast for lunch, grilled fish, boiled potatoes and green salad for dinner, ice cream for dessert.
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What would you sit on?
210R Bentwood Armchair by Thonet.
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A fragrance?
Portrait of a Lady by Frédéric Malle.
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An album or track to accompany you – or other sounds if you prefer?
Reward by Cate Le Bon.
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An activity or skill you’re learning or wish to learn?
Piano and guitar (I’m learning both).
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Something to read?
The Cost of Living by Deborah Levy.
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iamroseblake.com

Watch the film here
Jack Adair Bevan
Writer
Where is yours?
On my little wooden folk boat Sonas on the west coast of Scotland. She’s moored in a loch, tucked under a Dun (an ancient fort) and sheltered by a spit. It is the most breathtaking spot. She was built in the 1960s with mahogany planking on oak frames. When I sit down below with the sea just short of the port holes I feel completely free from modern life. She has a small two-burner gas stove and I enjoy coming up with simple meals and eating them in the small blue cockpit or sitting on a bunk.
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Is it private or are other people allowed in?
I’ll be pedantic and say both! Being alone on my little boat is good for those quiet reflective times and for thinking and processing. But I often feel most inspired when I’m talking and debating with people, and boats are the best places for this. On long passages you can do nothing but sit, talk and share.
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What one special/personal object would you like with you?
My little copper kettle, which makes exactly two cups of tea. I’ll take it off the boat and into my van so that I have it on the move. I found it at a car boot and it has a large fl at bottom with lots of surface area for a quick boil!
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The dish for dinner/lunch/breakfast?
On the boat up here in Scotland it will always be a one-pan job since I only have a tiny stove. We’ve caught a few mackerel this year and you can’t beat a fillet rolled in pinhead oats then fried and eaten between two slices of bread with lemon and horseradish crème fraîche.
Your tipple?
That would be a cold beer or a glass of vermouth such as Muza from natural wine maker Partida Creus in Catalonia. I’m a bit of a nerd on the subject considering the book I wrote this year, A Spirited Guide to Vermouth: An Aromatic Journey with Botanical Notes, Classic Cocktails & Elegant Recipes (Headline). Shameless plug.

An album or track to accompany you – or other sounds if you prefer?
Dead Rat Orchestra composed a score for a documentary called The Guga Hunters of Ness, it’s a haunting album, rousing and sad all at once. I can listen to anything played on the fiddle by Martin Hayes.
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An activity or skill you’re learning or wish to learn?
I keep threatening to learn the fiddle. I’ll continue to learn to sail and understand the sea forever. That’s a skill and knowledge that’s without an end.
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Something to read?
The Island Years by Frank Fraser Darling. It’s an account of a conservationist living on the Summer Isles, an archipelago near Ullapool. It was written at the advent of the Second World War and is an account of a life devoted to the natural world by a mind that would be as at home among the climate activists of today.
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@jackabevan
PHOTOGRAPHS ALAN CLARKE