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The pleasure of a handmade willow basket

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“It will last you for years.”

There is something so beautiful about a wicker basket – in fact I think everything is beautiful about a wicker basket. For a start they are handmade, sustainable and strong.

The one in the photograph was bought at the craft market in Farnham, where the man who made it, Stuart Philpot, was on hand to demonstrate. He made the process look so straight-forward, easy even, but I’m not sure it was. He told us that his father used to make baskets, and passed the skills on to him, however he chose a different career for a decade or so. Then in 2020, with lockdown time on his hands, he returned to the basket weaving his father had taught him. Now it is what he does, and judging by the range of baskets stacked around his position, he is very good at it.

Just touching the baskets made me wonder why we’ve become so addicted to machine made goods.

If you a few minutes free to watch a little basket weaving you might enjoy this link.

Copyright Georgie Knaggs & The Phraser 2023

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“The Mother and Daughter Who Changed History”

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Earlier this week I had the good fortune to be at a talk based on a new book – Anne Boleyn and Elizabeth I – The Mother and Daughter Who Changed History. The author, Tracy Borman, held my attention from the moment she began, her knowledge so fluent and easy to follow.

I was intrigued by the early life of Anne Boleyn, and horrified by the pressures she faced as a royal mother, beginning with the enforced separation from her daughter when she was just three months old. The chilling part was hearing about the steps Anne took to ensure her child would have the truest protectors possible around her as she grew up. It was as though she knew her own fate was uncertain, and sure enough the odds got worse with every day that passed. When the day of execution came Elizabeth was just two and a half years old.

We were then directed skilfully through Elizabeth’s childhood, and on to the major influences throughout her life. By the end of the evening I felt I had absorbed a new emotional awareness of the stresses and consequences of intrigues within the Tudor court. These were sharpened further by the realisation that the hall in which the talk was being given – the recently redecorated Great Chamber in the Charterhouse – was the very room in which Elizabeth I held her first Privy Council before being crowned Queen of England.

What was disturbing for me, and it must have been profoundly disturbing for Elizabeth I, was the realisation that the Tower of London – place of imprisonment and execution, and of vital importance to her reign – was just down the road.

I am looking forward to reading the book.

Copyright Georgie Knaggs & The Phraser 2023

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This book was a revelation

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Recently I shared a two hour journey with a young man who happened to be an expert in Pokémon. What a privilege that was! It was like being given a crash course in a whole new planetary system.

The best part was that my guide knew all the interesting bits, plus he had the Pokémon Super Extra Deluxe Essential Handbook to back him up. What a combination. Right beside me was the who’s who of the whole brilliant world – the evolving, the powers, the connections. I was absorbed.

The names of the different Pokémon are not simple, but my guide’s reading was excellent. Each name was carefully pronounced according to the description details, and then we noted the measurements. Some Pokémon are the size of skyscrapers, others little more than hazelnuts, and each has particular skills that often link back to the name. There is magic on every page.

I span around that galaxy fascinated, studying pages and pages of extraordinary creatures. By the time we arrived whole new layers had been added to my understanding of life as we know it. I only wish I’d had the time to study the world of Pokémon when earlier guides had offered their services.

Copyright Georgie Knaggs & The Phraser 2023