LET’S learn to smile again. Proper, uninhibited, tooth-displaying 1920s smiles, like the ones we see in any footage of the period, always set to the backdrop of jaunty jazzpiano music. Those people on the streets in hats, drinking cocktails in nightclubs or jumping off an omnibus to go shopping in Piccadilly—they were always smiling.
What happened to our smiles in the early 2000s? Pouting Victoria Beckham must take partial responsibility for spreading the belief that smiling in public is deeply uncool. Daniel Craig didn’t help, either. Let’s scrap that deadpan trend and let our smiles—infinitely orthodontically improved since the crooked smiles of 100 years ago— shine out into the world.
Having re-learned to smile in the first few weeks of this new decade, let’s make the rest of it roar. I don’t mean roar with pain, roar with anger or be roaring drunk. I mean roar in the Roaring Twenties sense of roaring fun. Let’s knock on our friends’ doors in the evening and be welcomed in for a spontaneous party. Let’s motor out to a railway bridge at midnight to watch the night sleeper to Penzance fly by underneath. Let’s put loud vinyl records on at home and dance after supper on a weekday. (Spotify will do fine, in a pinch.) If you’re vaguely thinking, ‘it would be nice to hold a party in the last week of January’, go on, write those invitations and send them as hard copies by post to cheer up this country’s too-Minimalist chimneypieces. Inspired by the 1920s, let’s make the 2020s the time for celebrating friendships.
Denne historien er fra January 22, 2020-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra January 22, 2020-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
Kitchen garden cook - Apples
'Sweet and crisp, apples are the epitome of autumn flavour'
The original Mr Rochester
Three classic houses in North Yorkshire have come to the market; the owner of one inspired Charlotte Brontë to write Jane Eyre
Get it write
Desks, once akin to instruments of torture for scribes, have become cherished repositories of memories and secrets. Matthew Dennison charts their evolution
'Sloes hath ben my food'
A possible paint for the Picts and a definite culprit in tea fraud, the cheek-suckingly sour sloe's spiritual home is indisputably in gin, says John Wright
Souvenirs of greatness
FOR many years, some large boxes have been stored and forgotten in the dark recesses of the garage. Unpacked last week, the contents turned out to be pots: some, perhaps, nearing a century old—dense terracotta, of interesting provenance.
Plants for plants' sake
The garden at Hergest Croft, Herefordshire The home of Edward Banks The Banks family is synonymous with an extraordinary collection of trees and shrubs, many of which are presents from distinguished friends, garnered over two centuries. Be prepared to be amazed, says Charles Quest-Ritson
Capturing the castle
Seventy years after Christian Dior’s last fashion show in Scotland, the brand returned under creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri for a celebratory event honouring local craftsmanship, the beauty of the land and the Auld Alliance, explains Kim Parker
Nature's own cathedral
Our tallest native tree 'most lovely of all', the stately beech creates a shaded environment that few plants can survive. John Lewis-Stempel ventures into the enchanted woods
All that money could buy
A new book explores the lost riches of London's grand houses. Its author, Steven Brindle, looks at the residences of plutocrats built by the nouveaux riches of the late-Victorian and Edwardian ages
In with the old
Diamonds are meant to sparkle in candlelight, but many now gather dust in jewellery boxes. To wear them today, we may need to reimagine them, as Hetty Lintell discovers with her grandmother's jewellery
