Tina Guillory of Carrier Company on her shed with a view

Tina Guillory of Carrier Company on her shed with a view

Tina Guillory of Norfolk-based outdoor clothing and vintage workwear label Carrier Company on the place she most likes to sit, book and cuppa to hand…

A ‘hole-and-corner’ is an old English term meaning a secret place: somewhere you go to escape the world, to be inspired, to contemplate and create. Where is your ‘hole-and-corner’?
My ‘shed’ at the bottom of the garden, between apple and quince trees, built for me by Sam Brettingham and paid for by my friends and family as a 70th birthday present. On spring, summer and autumn afternoons, here I sit in the dappled afternoon sunshine – book in one hand, cup of tea in the other… the view is through the walnut tree and on across the meadow to the river Stiffkey. Chickens – always too many – perch in the quince tree and my dogs lounge about nearby. This is the life! This is my hole-and-corner!

Can you explain why it is so special to you?
To escape to my shed in the corner of my garden or take a long walk out over the salt marsh to the sea, to swim in our ‘secret’ hole amongst sea lavender and sandy reaches. To gather cockles and samphire…

What do you like to listen to when you’re working (and why)?
While I work I listen to silence: there is so much noise around us that the silence of living in an old house is already loud. When I feel the need for music it’s Monk, Marley, Zawinul, Dylan… music that endures.

Is it private to you or do you let other people visit?
My ‘shed’ really is made for one: me! There is a bed inside and a balcony outside… it is a fine place for my grandchildren to play when I’m not in residence – and when I am then it is a fine place for storytelling. A shed surrounded by greenery a perfect hideout for fairies and elfin folk!

What’s the best advice you’ve ever been given?
I suppose I do listen to advice and take it… or leave it as suits my mood, but as for specific advice: no, no specific piece of wisdom springs to mind!

 

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