FIRST IMPRESSIONS: EMMA BRIDGEWATER
What are you working on?
Perfume samples for a toiletries range, which should be out later this year.
When are you at your happiest?
When a creative project comes to fruition. I go through dark doubts during it but as it gets there, I love that feeling.
What is your greatest fear?
Snakes.
What is your earliest memory?
Running down a hill, towards a pond, with all my teddies in a little cart and thinking, ‘I can’t let go of them, I have to go too.’ Luckily I didn’t fall in.
Who has been your greatest influence?
My mum. Amazingly creative, brilliantly good at making it look like she mostly just lay on the sofa and yawned, but secretly she got up at 5am, baked the bread, exercised the horses and always made home feel like just where you wanted to be.
What do you most dislike about yourself?
My temper. And greed – only because I don’t want to get fat and I always want a third slice of cake.
What is your most treasured possession?
A lovely marble mortar. A very kind and lovely friend gave us a Magimix and we just stare at it in consternation – we regard the pestle and mortar as the only food processor we need.
What trait do you most deplore in others?
Lack of generosity. I don’t see the point in not trying to make it lovely for everyone all the time.
Do you have a fantasy address?
I like the thought of a totally footloose, marvellous apartment in Paris. With just one key. We used to say Venice because there’s a Henry James story about being given a box with a key in it to a little pink palace in Venice.
What do you most dislike about your appearance?
When I was about 15, I had this wonderful French teacher, and she asked us in class: ‘Would you rather have been born with beauty or brains?’ I knew perfectly well that I hadn’t been born with either in any considerable dimension, but we all thought or wished we were beautiful. Now I see from the viewpoint of middle age how useful it’s been, in a way, not to have had knock-you-dead looks. You work harder.
What is your favourite book?
The one haunting me at the moment is a very slight, very bewitching novel, Le Grand Meaulnes by Alain-Fournier.
What is your favourite film?
Some Like It Hot. It delivers thigh-slapping, absolutely predictable, results-every-time happiness.
What is your favourite record or piece of music?
I listen to a lot of country music. My excuse used to be that I drove 50,000 miles a year. I still listen to country, even though I don’t do the same mileage.
What is your favourite meal?
Macaroni cheese. And baked potatoes. On a Saturday at lunchtime.
Who would you most like to come to dinner?
It’s got to be Shakespeare, but I wouldn’t do it on my own. I would have to have my three daughters and their most beautiful friends there.
Which historical character do you most admire?
I’m very, very distantly descended from Elizabeth Fry – a prison reformer, very interested in the plight of women prisoners – and I feel, in my blood, the infl uence of grandmothers and great-grandmothers and great-great-grandmothers who never felt belittled or unempowered by being women.
What is the nastiest thing anyone has said to you?
‘There’s been an accident!’ In a way, it’s desperate and shattering, but it’s hugely empowering because you think, ‘Well, the worst has happened.’
What is your secret vice?
A Mars bar, on my own, in my car, listening to country music.
Do you write thank-you notes?
I’m really bad at it and I’m married to a man who writes absolutely fabulous ones. So in a weak and craven way, I hide behind his shoulder.
Which phrase do you most overuse?
I overuse the verbal tic ‘pregnant silence’.
What single thing would improve your quality of life?
A fantasy eruption of fruit trees in my garden.
What would you like your epitaph to be?
‘She turned around the decline of the pottery industry.’ That would be bloody marvellous.
Emma Bridgewater has created a new homeware range for Red Nose Day (15 March). Available from HomeSense and TK Maxx stores nationwide.
Perfume samples for a toiletries range, which should be out later this year.
When are you at your happiest?
When a creative project comes to fruition. I go through dark doubts during it but as it gets there, I love that feeling.
What is your greatest fear?
Snakes.
What is your earliest memory?
Running down a hill, towards a pond, with all my teddies in a little cart and thinking, ‘I can’t let go of them, I have to go too.’ Luckily I didn’t fall in.
Who has been your greatest influence?
My mum. Amazingly creative, brilliantly good at making it look like she mostly just lay on the sofa and yawned, but secretly she got up at 5am, baked the bread, exercised the horses and always made home feel like just where you wanted to be.
What do you most dislike about yourself?
My temper. And greed – only because I don’t want to get fat and I always want a third slice of cake.
What is your most treasured possession?
A lovely marble mortar. A very kind and lovely friend gave us a Magimix and we just stare at it in consternation – we regard the pestle and mortar as the only food processor we need.
What trait do you most deplore in others?
Lack of generosity. I don’t see the point in not trying to make it lovely for everyone all the time.
Do you have a fantasy address?
I like the thought of a totally footloose, marvellous apartment in Paris. With just one key. We used to say Venice because there’s a Henry James story about being given a box with a key in it to a little pink palace in Venice.
What do you most dislike about your appearance?
When I was about 15, I had this wonderful French teacher, and she asked us in class: ‘Would you rather have been born with beauty or brains?’ I knew perfectly well that I hadn’t been born with either in any considerable dimension, but we all thought or wished we were beautiful. Now I see from the viewpoint of middle age how useful it’s been, in a way, not to have had knock-you-dead looks. You work harder.
What is your favourite book?
The one haunting me at the moment is a very slight, very bewitching novel, Le Grand Meaulnes by Alain-Fournier.
What is your favourite film?
Some Like It Hot. It delivers thigh-slapping, absolutely predictable, results-every-time happiness.
What is your favourite record or piece of music?
I listen to a lot of country music. My excuse used to be that I drove 50,000 miles a year. I still listen to country, even though I don’t do the same mileage.
What is your favourite meal?
Macaroni cheese. And baked potatoes. On a Saturday at lunchtime.
Who would you most like to come to dinner?
It’s got to be Shakespeare, but I wouldn’t do it on my own. I would have to have my three daughters and their most beautiful friends there.
Which historical character do you most admire?
I’m very, very distantly descended from Elizabeth Fry – a prison reformer, very interested in the plight of women prisoners – and I feel, in my blood, the infl uence of grandmothers and great-grandmothers and great-great-grandmothers who never felt belittled or unempowered by being women.
What is the nastiest thing anyone has said to you?
‘There’s been an accident!’ In a way, it’s desperate and shattering, but it’s hugely empowering because you think, ‘Well, the worst has happened.’
What is your secret vice?
A Mars bar, on my own, in my car, listening to country music.
Do you write thank-you notes?
I’m really bad at it and I’m married to a man who writes absolutely fabulous ones. So in a weak and craven way, I hide behind his shoulder.
Which phrase do you most overuse?
I overuse the verbal tic ‘pregnant silence’.
What single thing would improve your quality of life?
A fantasy eruption of fruit trees in my garden.
What would you like your epitaph to be?
‘She turned around the decline of the pottery industry.’ That would be bloody marvellous.
Emma Bridgewater has created a new homeware range for Red Nose Day (15 March). Available from HomeSense and TK Maxx stores nationwide.