A Room Of Your Own

Today’s guest is Karun Thakar - one of the world’s leading collectors of and experts on global textiles. Using his extraordinary collection of textiles, Karun tirelessly works to illuminate history through the lives and the hands of remarkable and often overlooked artists. As well as being a prolific writer, he is an active philanthropist, encouraging young people to learn about world history through textiles. I joined Karun in his London home to talk about his life as a collector and the importance of textile history to our understanding of the world.If you want to learn more about his work, you can visit his website www.karuncollection.com

Today’s guest is interior designer Andrew Torrey. Andrew recently published a book with Rizzoli celebrating his life and journey in design. I joined him in his design studio in Manhattan to talk about what it was like to put the book together, his influences in art and design, before moving on to imagine his dream library space.If you want to learn more about his work, you can find him on Instagram @torreyllc, or buy a copy of his book - Torrey: Private Spaces: Great American Design.

Today’s guest is Heide Hendricks - one half of the architecture and design studio Hendricks Churchill. I joined Heide in her beautiful renovated farmhouse which is the subject of a book published by Rizzoli in 2023 called ‘Our Way Home - Reimagining an American Farmhouse’. We talked about what goes into the Hendricks Churchill aesthetic, Rafe’s habit of turning sketches and renderings into works of art, before moving on to her own dream studio. If you want to learn more about the work of Hendricks Churchill, you can find them on Instagram @hendrickschurchill, or on their website at www.hendrickschurchill.com

Today’s guest is author Lucy Steeds. Lucy won the 2025 Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize for her novel ’The Artist’. It’s a subtle and really atmospheric book that takes readers into the household of a great reclusive master - Tartuffe. The story unfolds through the eyes of Joseph - a young English journalist who has the unique opportunity to write about Tartuffe so long as he sits for him as a model, and through Ettie - Tartuffe’s shy, elusive niece - whose own character and brilliance slowly begin to reveal the true heart of the story. As well as a brilliant character portrait, it goes to the heart of the ‘great master’ myth, erasure, and the ways that creative genius finds a way to show itself under tyrranical suppression.Lucy and I jump straight into discussing the novel, and move on in the second half to discussing her own dream library hideaway. I hope you enjoy it.

In this episode, I was joined by Abigail Horace, who runs her own Design Studio - Casa Marcelo. I joined her in her studio in lovely Salisbury, Connecticut, to talk about her early childhood influences - walking round New York City's great buildings with her father, and her young dream of becoming a librarian. If you want to find out more about Abigail’s work in design, you can follow her on Instagram @casamarcelo.co or look on her website: www.casamarcelo.co