Carla Bruni loves British eccentrics

According to a recent interview..

Vivienne Westwood show

There's a show that opens today in Sheffield, at the Millennium Gallery, dedicated to the work of Dame Vivienne Westwood: it's a retrospective of her clothes, a monument to her status as grand dame of British fashion.

Typical of most of the Vivienne references I found while researching the chapter on her in In Search of the English Eccentric is this: "She is one of the most original voices in 20th century fashion," says Claire Wilcox. "She never swam with the tide. In 100 years' time I still think her work will be strong and will speak for itself."

I agree. Although it's a shame that the show doesn't seem to focus on Vivienne herself, and what she stands for. For more, see her manifesto.

Bankesy

Here's an interesting piece from the Jerusalem Post all about the ruins of Qasr al-Abd, west of Amman, capital of Jordan, brought to the attention of the world by 'an eccentric English aristocrat', William Bankes. Orientalist, Egyptologist, collector and mate of Lord Byron, Bankes recognised these ruins as being those of Tyros, described by the 1st century AD Jewish historian Josephus, when he came across them along with two British naval officers midway through a grand tour of the world.

Although he was mostly responsible for redesigning Kingston Lacy and leaving it in the shape it is in today, Bankes barely got to live in or enjoy his creation. He was forced to flee the country and live more or less in exile after he was caught in flagrante with a guard in Green Park. Sodomy, at the time, remained a capital offence.

Throughout his life he sent back to Kingston Lacy numerous artefacts or curiosities that he picked up on his travels, and is said to have returned home in secret to glimpse this collection just before he died.

Videotape, Youtube, Moral Turpitude

I've found Arthur's video- or rather someone else found it and passed it on to me. This is a relief. The tape was in a box at a film production company's office and looked set to see out its days in there until the box was opened accidentally, which means I can, in theory, look him in the eye again.

With the kind of symmetry that I like, only hours after getting my hands on his compilation tape of former tv appearances I was able to upload a brand new piece about Arthur. It's the pick of the footage shot by me and Hels (lover) over the last four months. I do the camerawork. She does the sound. We both ask questions and nod politely. I think the section at the end of this clip is really moving.

In other news In Search of the English Eccentric, I've edited my chat with Sebastian Horsley about Moral Turpitude and being eccentric into this; the nation's favourite jailbird has been moved into a secure unit after prison staff learnt of a plot to do him in; and Vivienne Westwood has just launched a new line of shoes in collaboration with Melissa (who is not a person but one of the leading lights in Brazilian footwear, I'm told).

I had dinner with someone called Sebastian Mary this week. Sebastian Mary blogs a lot. She has more blogs than pairs of shoes. She said that when it came to writing blogs the key was to keep it to three paragraphs, or less, and always include a picture... So. If I can't do three paragraphs, I can at least put up a picture. Here are Dame Vivienne's new shoes. The silver one is best if you ask me. And I think we need one of Arthur,

where to begin

This really is not the beginning. That won't be for a month or so, for now I just want to see how it works, and what the words look like on the screen.

That said, while I'm here, I may as well run through what some of the people who appear in In Search of the English Eccentric are up to - after all that's what I've just said I'd do in filling out the bit at the top that asks you what your blog is about. No more than 500 words. So. How are they? Arthur's doing very well, he's just written a book, and although a bit broke, is in good spirits and looking forward to Gordon Brown calling a General Election so he can start his campaign for Salisbury. I am right behind him. He's also about to start a picket at Stone Henge in the next few weeks. I had lunch with him yesterday in a pub in Kennington because I'm trying to make a film about him. Though this might be in jeopardy- there's a slim chance that one of his videos went missing while it was in my care. It's a compilation tape that he lent me a few months ago. This makes me feel really bad. Not only do I hate losing things that belong to other people but Arthur is someone I don't want to piss off - probably a combination of fear and liking him a lot.

Sebastian Horsley, the Dandy, was deported from America a few weeks ago on account of, as he told me this afternoon, lips curling themselves around the words as if they were female and getting undressed, 'moral turpitude'. What he said will go up on my website fairly soon as I had a camera on my lap.

There are plenty of other things to say about the people in my book, since the book has gone to the printers, but I will leave the rest until later and close with the beginning of the letter that arrived today. It came in a dinky cream-coloured envelope, second-class post. On the back the following words had been stamped: THE ONLY GOOD GERMAN IS A DEAD ONE. Because a stamp had been used, rather than one of those gold stickers people with stationery disorders used in the 90s, it looked for a moment like a Royal Mail frank. Perhaps they were trying to promote a new line of first edition stamps I thought for a moment. Or it was a new advertising space - what a great place to advertise. But I knew by then who it was from, and that I'd interviewed him a year ago.

'Dear Henry', it began, 'Thank you for your letter warning me that your book is actually going to happen. This is going to cause me much embarrassment, so I will have to hope the work proves a miserable failure. In any case I shall arrange to live abroad for a couple of years.'

The rest can wait for a little bit.