London Archives - Helen Walsh

Puglia, War and Figgy Pudding

By Helen WalshPosted on December 8, 2023Posted in LetterboxTagged Figgy Pudding, helen walsh, Italy, London, Puglia, travel, War

I’m writing to you from the land of figgy pudding, carol concerts and endless streets strung with Christmas lights. December in London – my favourite time of the year. The city is jammed; one taxi driver told me it was the busiest he’d ever seen it in thirty years of driving. I made the mistake of trying to walk Oxford Street between meetings, only to find myself sandwiched in a mosh pit of humans, moving forward […]

Private Libraries, Curated Book Boxes + Ascendent Indies

By Helen WalshPosted on July 26, 2023Posted in LetterboxTagged Book Boxes, helen walsh, libraries, London

A few years ago, I started work on a story idea about a woman who curates private libraries for clients. I’d recently read an article in the FT and it piqued my curiosity. A library is your story on a shelf. – Nicky Dunne, creator of bespoke private libraries. Heywood Hill is not your average bookshop. Opened in 1936, it was run during the later years of WWII by Lady Anne Gathome-Hardy and novelist Nancy Mitford, of the infamous Mitford […]