Chiswick House

And I discovered about the Tuke brothers.

And that was actually, I used to live in Chiswick and I hadn't been aware all the time I lived in Chiswick that next to Chiswick House, which is this wonderful, Georgian Palladian mansion.

Next to that, there'd been an addition, which has since been demolished, which was an asylum that the Tewke brothers ran.

And funnily enough, it served my purposes so beautifully when I found out about it, because I thought, right, I'm setting my novel in Chiswick.

But-

Talking of rain, I went to a thing last night in, in, in Chiswick House grounds, my local, Dave.

Oh.

I was telling you earlier this morning.

Uh, you ...

It's the Mark Lewisohn and Samira Ahmed and Tony Palmer ta- do- talking about The Beatles in the marquee in Chiswick House grounds, right where they recorded the video for Rain and Paperback Writer pretty much 60 years ago, wasn't it? When was it? May the 20th, 1966.

Mark Lewisohn and Samira Ahmed, fantastic.

Tony Palmer, what a character.

My first impression of the Barn was it was pretty unexpected and it had a real effect on me.

So I joined English Heritage in January 2024 as the curator of West London and Harmersworth Barn was part of that portfolio, along with country houses, including, you know, Chiswick House, Marble Hill, these fabulous sort of country houses.

And to be completely honest, I mentioned this at the beginning, I'm a fine art curator.

I specialise in paintings and works on paper and sculptures and sometimes furniture at a push.