I know it’s last minute but, if you’re free this Thursday evening 30th June ,we would love you to join us for a very special evening of readings from
CHERRIES FROM CHAUVET’S ORCHARD.
Written by Ruth Phillips, this memoir of life in Provence with her painter husband, Julian Merrow-Smith, is lyrical, entrancing and the most beautifully written book you could possibly wish to read. So, if you are going to Provence this summer, this is the book for you. If not, this is definitely the book for you - enjoy the tastes, smells, colours of the sunshine life.
Ruth is a professional cellist currently playing with the Garsington/Wormsley Opera. By a happy chance she finds she is free on Thursday evening this week hence this invitation to you. Ruth will be at Barn Galleries to read extracts from CHERRIES.
What a lovely way to spend an hour or two: a glass of wine and Ruth reading to us.
Do join us if you possibly can. Meet Ruth and Julian Merrow-Smith (now known for his own book: POSTCARD FROM PROVENCE). Julian and Ruth will be happy to chat about the phenomenal success of Julian’s paint-a-postcard-a-day project, too.
So - reader, writer, painter or if you just enjoy an evening with a difference do make the most of this unique invitation.
BARN GALLERIES ASTON, HENLEY ON THAMES RG9 3DX
THURSDAY 30 JUNE from 6 p.m. with readings at 6.30 and at 7.30.
Relaxed and casual - and free - but do please RSVP by text (07836209165) or email so that we may arrange seats for everyone. Come when you like, stay as long as you like from 6 - 9 p.m.
We do hope you will join us - it’s a rare chance to meet a new writer. Don’t just take my word for it, read some of these reviews:
When an English painter moves to Provence in search of the muse, he is looking not only for artistic fulfillment but also for love, family and community. This funny and touching memoir chronicles his unconventional route towards almost everything he desires, whilst painting a vivid picture of how hard it can be for one man to face a blank canvas - even in paradise.
`Cherries from Chauvet's Orchard' is full of the author's passion for things Provencal, and will be read by lovers of Provence (and Provencal food) with the greatest pleasure, but it is also an extremely honest account of what it takes for an artist to find his or her way in the world. There is a gritty kitchen sink element to Cherries which is absent in the work of, say, Peter Mayle, and which lifts this book above the usual croissants-and-cafe cr�me panegyric. This is a book about real people struggling to turn a ruin into a home and a relationship into a marriage. The ruin just happens to be set in some of the most beautiful countryside in the south of France.
- Joseph Geary, author of Spiral and Mirror
"In Cherries from Chauvet's Orchard, cellist Ruth Phillips makes music with words, capturing on the page what her painter husband, Julian Merrow-Smith, does on canvas--a way of life that is achingly romantic yet not romanticized, that is earthbound yet exquisite, and one where sweat is rewarded with transcendence. As the couple struggles to build their home out of a farm ruin beneath the shadow of Mt. Ventoux and to make a living and life together, Julian must harness his muse. In a modern-day twist in this ancient place of luscious colors and cuisine, it is the worldwide web that changes their life. This is a true story of talent, ingenuity, and success against the odds, of pathos, passion, and humor. You won't put it down."
--Dean King, author of Skeletons on the Zahara and Unbound
'Cherries from Chauvet's Orchard is a memoir by Ruth Phillips. Ruth is a professional 'cellist, and the wife of the painter Julian Merrow-Smith and she can write. I mean, she can really write; there's a quality about her words you can recognize instantly. It may be the combination of her musicality and visual sense further developed by living with a painter and acting as his de facto studio assistant, that has distilled this lovely prose. Either way, the effect is quite magical, and I will return to it with a full review at a later date.'
-Deborah Lawrenson, author of The Lantern, Songs of Blue and Gold and The Art of Falling
WE HOPE YOU WILL JOIN US -PLEASE RSVP BY TEXT 07836 209 165 OR BY EMAIL so that we may arrange seating.
THIS THURSDAY 30 JUNE FROM 6 - 9 P.M.