A Room Of Your Own

Max Moorhouse
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A Room Of Your Own

I’m Max Moorhouse, and I curate people’s personal libraries for a living. Fairly recently I came to a realisation - that the stories people were telling about how they imagined their dream space and what books they would surround themselves with - said something fairly profound about who they imagined themselves to be. They were weaving their memories with their aspirations and telling me a story about who they thought they were. In A Room of Your Own, I’ll be inviting guests to explore the books and the spaces that they’ve loved. I’ll help them to construct their own dream library, and act as architect, designer and curator, inviting you to listen in on our rambling consultation on books, life and memories.

  1. AROYO 26 // Susan O'Neill

    12/13/2024

    AROYO 26 // Susan O'Neill

    This week I’m joined by musician and artist Susan O’Neill. We had a wonderfully in-depth conversation about the creative process, and particularly the environments that have inspired her to compose music. We also dive deep into what it means to collect and gather objects around us, and how those objects – particularly the books that we pick up for ourselves or have gifted to us - come to tell a story about our lives.   Susan recently released an album called Now In A Minute, which I’d thoroughly recommend finding on youtube, spotify, or on her website susanoneill.ie

    57 min
  2. AROYO 25 // Christopher Beanland

    10/19/2024

    AROYO 25 // Christopher Beanland

    This week I talked to author, podcaster and comedian Christopher Beanland. His work spans a huge range of subjects, and seems to really reflect a life spent pursuing his own interests. He’s written a number of books exploring and celebrating favourite public spaces in the city including Lidos and City Parks, as well as two novels – Spinning Out of Control and The Wall In The Head.   In this conversation, we jump straight into talking about what it means to lead a ‘creative lifestyle’ and making sure that your work follows your interests, before moving on to the power of buildings to shape our lives. Check out Christopher’s work either through his website: https://christopherbeanland.com/ Or on Instagram @christopherbeanland

  3. AROYO 24 // Joelle Taylor

    10/03/2024

    AROYO 24 // Joelle Taylor

    This week I talked to poet, novelist and performance artist Joelle Taylor. Joelle is the author several works of poetry, including C+NTO – for which she won the T.S. Eliot Prize in 2021 – which is both a memorial of and a tribute to the places and people that were part of the butch culture of the 90s in London. She has most recently published a novel – The Night Alphabet – which expands horizons and narratives to tell the story of violence done to women, weaving together narratives from the past with imagined futures to tell the story of the female body as the sight of experience, shared knowledge and resistance.   In this conversation, we just straight into discussing The Night Alphabet, and how she imagined drawing together the stories of different people at different times to tell a story of violence.

    52 min
  4. AROYO 23 // Dominic Bradbury

    09/19/2024

    AROYO 23 // Dominic Bradbury

    This week I talked to author and journalist Dominic Bradbury, whose writing over his career has focused on showcasing and exploring the world’s most inspiring architecture and design, with his recent writing particularly focusing on the Mid-Century Modern Style. We talk about his upcoming book – The Atlas of Mid-Century Modern Masterpieces , as well as his reading influences from his parents – who were both deeply bookish and who introduced him to the authors and designers from around East Anglia in the 1960s.   This is a fascinating and wide-ranging conversation about where the world of architecture and design stand now and what we can expect looking forward. It is also a fascinating look into the early reading life of someone who grew up surrounded by some of Britain’s most influential authors.

    1h 2m
  5. AROYO 22 // Bettina Farack (Library of Lost Books)

    09/05/2024

    AROYO 22 // Bettina Farack (Library of Lost Books)

    This week I talked to Bettina Farack who has spent the last few years telling the story of the Higher Institute for Jewish Studies in Berlin. The Higher Institute was a centre for learning and a really important cultural hub for the Jewish community in Berlin before it was looted by the Nazis during the holocaust, and its books confiscated and distributed. Remarkably, in the last few years thousands of those original books have been collected from around the world, with each one not only telling the story of its origins, but also tracing a fascinating line to the present of books lost travelling around the world to private collections, libraries and flea markets. This is a fascinating conversation with someone who is wholly engrossed in the lives of lost books.

    47 min
  6. AROYO 21 // Meg Rees (Bunny's Tattoos)

    08/28/2024

    AROYO 21 // Meg Rees (Bunny's Tattoos)

    This week I caught up with Meg Rees – who’s known as one of the most creative and expressive tattoo artists in London, and puts an element of the personal into everything that she does. People also may recognise her from her sex and relationships podcast – You’ve Gotta Be Joking – which dives deep into the trials of dating, and will be really relatable to a lot of young Londoners.   I met Meg a couple of years ago when she gave me my first tattoo, and I’ve been following her work ever since. In this episode we talk making her own space in East London, the objects around her house that act as reminders of friends and family, as well as delving into the book she is in the process of writing. Find her on Instagram @bunnystattoos to see more of her tattoo work, painting, and fits from her ever-expanding wardrobe.

    39 min
  7. AROYO 20 // Amy Jeffs

    08/23/2024

    AROYO 20 // Amy Jeffs

    This week I was so lucky to be joined by author, artist and academic Amy Jeffs. Amy’s work centres around the medieval world of the British Isles, and looks to capture and give in her own words the sense of wonder that she finds in the foundations of our own mythologies. Amy's writing takes you deep into the landscape - both physical and psychological - of Medieval Britain. Re-telling myths and legends from the 7th to the 14th Centuries, Amy makes these foundational stories accessible to a modern audience, and accompanies this with her own artwork and music.Her latest work - Saints - takes us through the calendar year of Saints days and feasts - re-telling the stories that inspired followers in Medieval Britain and across the world.   In this episode, Amy tells me about some of the books, places and memories that have inspired her and that bring her closer to the world that she creates for her readers – as well as some of her favourite stories and characters that she came to know while writing Saints. In the second half, she builds her perfect garden writing shed, and talks about the objects and the books she would fill it with. You can pre-order Saints here: https://geni.us/saints

  8. AROYO 19 // Ferren Gipson

    08/15/2024

    AROYO 19 // Ferren Gipson

    This week, I was joined by author and Art Historian Ferren Gipson who’s written some amazing books including ‘Women’s Work – From Feminine Art to Feminist Art’ and The Ultimate Art Museum – where she curates 4,000 years of Art History into a dream museum that tells its story – correcting some of the wrongs of the past and highlighting overlooked pioneers. We start off going into her journey into Art History and the objects, artists and books that have inspired her throughout her life. We then go on in Part 2 to discuss a little bit about what our book collections can mean to us, before building up a dream library-cum-gallery-cum-studio-loft that has all of the things she would need to keep on exploring her interests and exploring new types of creative projects. If you enjoy this episode and want to find out more about the work that I do as a Library Curator, do visit my website - www.aroyo.org

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About

I’m Max Moorhouse, and I curate people’s personal libraries for a living. Fairly recently I came to a realisation - that the stories people were telling about how they imagined their dream space and what books they would surround themselves with - said something fairly profound about who they imagined themselves to be. They were weaving their memories with their aspirations and telling me a story about who they thought they were. In A Room of Your Own, I’ll be inviting guests to explore the books and the spaces that they’ve loved. I’ll help them to construct their own dream library, and act as architect, designer and curator, inviting you to listen in on our rambling consultation on books, life and memories.

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