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Hogarth Press originals on display at Charleston

Thursday 2 April 2026 by Paula Maggio

Ben Majchrowicz at Charleston’s new exhibit, “Virginia Woolf and the Hogarth Press,” which runs through Sept. 9.

When I messaged Ben Majchrowicz last week, asking him for details about “Virginia Woolf and the Hogarth Press“ the new exhibit at Charleston in Firle, he was in the middle of the installation process. But true to form, he sent me everything he promised before the exhibition opened April 1.

Co-curated by Ben and Stephen Barkway, along with Charleston’s exhibition team, the exhibition is a major one. Running through Sept. 9 and created in partnership with the Gordon Square Society, Antwerp, it brings together for the first time the most complete collection to date of hand-printed books produced by the Hogarth Press.

While many know of Virginia’s role as a writer, and her husband Leonard ’s roles as a writer, editor, and Labour Party committee member, this new exhibit shows their pivotal roles as printers, publishers, and makers.

Multiple copies of Virginia Woolf’s “Kew Gardens”

The exhibition includes works loaned from several major private collections across Europe, including Ben’s.

It features more than 100 rare books alongside archival material, letters, and artworks. It also positions the Hogarth Press as a literary enterprise as well as a radical, handmade practice at the heart of British modernism, according to a Charleston media release.

According to Ben, one of the difficulties of putting the exhibit together was making choices. The co-curators had to decide which of multiple copies of Virginia’s Kew Gardens, R.C. Trevelyan’s Poems and Fables, and Fredegond Shove’s Daybreak they should include.

The press and the table it sat on

The Hogarth Press table at the home of the late Cecil Woolf and Jean Moorcroft Wilson in June 2019. ©Paula Maggio

Founded as an independent printing venture in 1917 in the Woolfs’ own home, Hogarth House in Richmond, the press originally sat on the Woolf’s dining room table.

Later, when a larger Minerva platen printing press was purchased in 1921, it moved to the basement. And when the Woolf’s moved to 52 Tavistock Square, London, in 1924, the press made its home in the basement again.

The Minerva platen printing press is now housed at Sissinghurst Castle Gardens, Kent. And the dining table on which it sat is in the London kitchen of the late Cecil Woolf and Jean Moorcroft Wilson and has seen many  dinner guests over the years.

The Hogarth Press and its writers

The Woolfs hand-set and printed many of their early works including their first book publication, Two Stories (1917) by the couple, Katherine Mansfield’s Prelude (1918), and T. S. Eliot’s Poems (1919).

Besides publishing the work of members of the Bloomsbury group, the Hogarth Press also published a diverse list of international writers, including 29 translations from Russian, German, and Italian between the two world wars.

According to the Modernist Archives Publishing Project, the press deliberately pushed to reshape the publishing landscape of interwar Britain, producing seminal texts. These included works by Nancy Cunard, Henry Green, Christopher Isherwood, the colonial novels of William Plomer and Laurens van der Post, and the English translations of Sigmund Freud.

As part of its literary history, the Hogarth Press championed a wide selection of otherwise popular, middlebrow writers, educational and political tracts, children’s literature, and medical and self-help manuals. In the 1930s it published many titles, including these: Vita Sackville-West’s The Edwardians (1930), William Plomer’s The Case is Altered (1932) and Virginia Woolf’s own Flush (1933).

The Hogarth Press also served as a diversion for Virginia. As Leonard put it in Beginning Again, the third volume of his autobiography:

It struck me that it would be a good thing if Virginia had a manual occupation of this kind which, in say the afternoons, would take her mind completely off her work . . . we definitely decided that we would learn the art of printing. (Beginning Again, 233)

About “Virginia Woolf and the Hogarth Press”

Five different covers of Fredegond Shove’s Daybreak

Bringing together hand-printed books, illustrated editions and works conceived through close collaboration between writers and artists, the exhibition reframes publishing as a creative practice shaped by intimacy, courage and control over one’s own voice.

The exhibition includes first editions of key modernist texts published by the Hogarth Press, including T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land and Hope Miralees’ Paris. These classics, appear alongside lesser-known works and books of original visual prints that demonstrate the press’s commitment to new voices, ideas and creativity.

Displayed together, these books reveal the Hogarth Press as a place where literary innovation, political thought and artistic experimentation converged.

Six cover versions of “Poems and Fables” by R.C. Trevelyan

As handmade objects, the books bear the visible traces of their making: one-of-a-kind covers, typographical errors and inky fingerprints. These material details are central to the exhibition, emphasizing publishing as a form of iterative creative practice rather than industrial production.

The exhibition also highlights the contributions of Bloomsbury artists including Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant, Roger Fry and Dora Carrington, whose designs for book covers and illustrations helped craft the Hogarth Press’ distinctive visual identity. These collaborations underscore the close relationship between literature, art and design within the Bloomsbury group, and Charleston’s role as a centre for this interdisciplinary creative community.

Publications of the Hogarth Press blurred boundaries between art, craft and literature, treating the book itself as an art object.

About the co-curators

Ben Majchrowicz is co-founder of the Gordon Square Society, Belgium. Last November and December, he held a world premiere exhibition, sponsored by the Gordon Square Society, called “Letter by Letter (From the Woolfs’ Hands): Handprinted Books by Virginia & Leonard Woolf.” For the first time in Belgium, the public exhibition brought together all 34 books hand-set, printed, bound and published in limited editions by Virginia and Leonard Woolf themselves under their Hogarth Press imprint. These rarities came from Ben’s collection, as well as that of Pierre and Marie-Madeleine Coumans.

Stephen Barkway is co-founder of the Virginia Woolf Society of Great Britain. Along with Stuart N. Clarke, he collected and edited a massive volume of The Uncollected Letters of Virginia Woolf, which was published last year. He co-edits and regularly contributes to the Virginia Woolf Bulletin.

Co-curators Ben Majchrowiczand and Stephen Barkaway at the Charleston exhibit “Virginia Woolf and the Hogarth Press

Publicity graphic distributed before the exhibition opened April 1. It runs through Sept. 9.

The Minerva platen printing press used by the Woolfs to publish volumes for the Hogarth Press at Sissinghurst Castle Gardens, Kent, in June 2004. ©Paula Maggio

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Donate to GoFundMe account to protect Talland House view

Friday 27 March 2026 by Paula Maggio

Turning my back on the view to look up at Talland House on a misty day in June of 2004.

Admirers of Virginia Woolf and protectors of her literary legacy are not giving up.

Yesterday, it seemed the legal cost of protecting the historic view of the Cornish coast and Godrevy Lighthouse from Talland House would prohibit any further action. Today, I share news from the Virginia Woolf Society of Great Britain that Polly Carter has set up a GoFundMe account to help protect that very view.

Carter, the National Trust certified gardener at Talland House in St. Ives, Cornwall, says that if the £1,400 target cannot be met, all donations will go toward creating a commemorative website with films and artworks celebrating the view for next year’s To the Lighthouse centenary events in St. Ives.

Launched on March 25, as of today the account has raised £701 — or 51 percent of its goal. Please support the effort and share it if you can by visiting the “Save the view from Virginia Woolf’s Talland House” GoFundMe campaign.

Why this new fundraising effort?

As Carter writes on the GoFundMe page:

“Unfortunately the development has just received permission from Cornwall Council to make amendments to a set of plans on a historical, 2009, planing permission. Legal advice that we took suggests that there is a legal challenge to how those amendments got attached to the permission.

If we were able to challenge this at judicial review, there is a chance that the developer would not want to build the original plans and be put off. It is not a sure way of stopping the development but this is currently our only way of impacting any change on being able to resist the view disappearing.

“This is my last attempt at raising the the funds that the campaign group need. I realise that raising that much that quickly is unlikely and if we don’t reach the target and are unable to go to judicial review, any funds that are donated will go towards commissioning a website with commemorative films and artworks of the view/centenary celebrations of To The Lighthouse next year in St Ives.”

A judicial review could halt or deter the development, but the cost of initiating it is £20,000, and funds must be raised by Monday, March 30.

Why save the view?

Talland House is important to Woolf’s legacy for several reasons. It was the setting and inspiration for her 1927 novel To the Lighthouse. It was also where Woolf and her family spent their summers  until her mother, Julia Stephen, died in 1895, when Woolf was 13.

The house and its surroundings attract hundreds of visitors each year, drawn by its significance in Woolf’s life and its central role in To the Lighthouse. “The view from the house and garden is an essential part of this heritage setting and deeply connected to Woolf’s personal history, her writing, and the development of Modernism,” according to Carter.

What is the history of the development project?

Plans to obstruct the view are not new. Earlier plans for the construction of $3 million worth of flats near Talland House in 2003 sparked protests from Woolfians around the world, and the project did not proceed. In 2009, developers submitted a new plan, but that did not move forward despite receiving planning permission.

When development plans were in the news again in 2015, Woolfians fought back against the six-flat version of the project that threatened the view of Godrevy. To someone across the pond, it seemed that the protests halted the development. But a March 28, 2026, email from Polly Carter explained why the project did not move forward.

“Just for clarification,” she wrote, “the 2015 planning permission for a different building didn’t get stopped. Cornwall Council  granted the permission, but it was never acted on by the developer and then they sold the plot, with the original planning permission from 2009, which was extant.”

Why can’t Talland House be protected?

It’s complicated. In 2015, a local resident forwarded Blogging Woolf an email from English Heritage detailing a provision that could shut down the project. It said current legislation included a provision to “avoid harm to the setting of a listed building if it contributes to the significance of the building.”

Talland House is listed and considered Grade II, which means it is “nationally important and of special interest.”  The St. Ives resident cited National Planning Framework Section 12 paras. 128,9,132 and shared that information on the St. Ives Council’s comments page for the proposed development.

Then — and now — I did not know if Talland House’s recognition as “nationally important and of special interest” helped halt the development project in 2015 — and could help it now — or not. But the email from Carter clarified the situation.

Carter wrote:

“It’s been particularly complicated due to the fact that the [current] application related to an already existing planning permission. The point made by English Heritage in 2015 would absolutely still stand if what we were dealing with was a new application.

“All the way through we having been trying to find a way to force a resubmission of the 2009 planning application so that we could object on the heritage grounds. Very sadly, this is impossible as it’s a fixed entity in law, and it’s just devastating that no one challenged the permission in 2009.”

Why is the view in jeopardy once more?

A screenshot of the planning document that shows the west and east elevations of the multi-story proposed development, which is called The Terrace St. Ives.

As described above, past efforts to block development plans that would obscure the view from Talland House resulted in temporary delays and the sale of the St. Ives property, but the original planning permission is still in place.

Now a new developer has taken up the project, made adjustments, and is moving forward under the permission granted in 2009. Cornwall Council recently approved amendments to the 2009 planning permission, and work has begun. This time, the new five-story development of 12 flats will likely give its residents a lovely view of the coast and the lighthouse, while completely blocking the view from Talland House.

This is the situation despite legal advice suggesting there may be grounds to challenge the process — and despite posted objections from St. Ives residents and others around the globe. UK media, including the BBC, The Telegraph, and St. Ives Local, have also covered this developing story.

Peter Eddy, owner of Talland House, was quoted in St. Ives Local as saying:

​​In 2022, Talland House was formally recognised as a significant heritage property in Cornwall and awarded a black plaque by the Cornwall Heritage Trust. As guardians of Talland House, we are committed to preserving both the fabric of the building and the unique landscape that inspired one of literature’s most iconic works. To compromise or lose the view that shaped Virginia Woolf’s creative imagination would be a travesty for the literary world and a profound loss to Cornwall’s cultural heritage.

Editor’s Note: This story was updated on March 28 to include clarifications from Polly Carter. 

Polly Carter is restoring the Talland House garden now, but this was the view of a set of stone steps leading to a “Private” area of the garden in June of 2004.

 

Professor Maggie Humm, vice-chair of the Virginia Woolf Society of Great Britain, and Councillor Johnnie Wells, Deputy Mayor of St. Ives, at the Talland House plaque unveiling on Sept. 11, 2022. Photo: St. Ives September Festival

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Legal costs prohibit further action to save Talland House view, but measures preserving Woolf’s legacy are considered

Tuesday 24 March 2026 by Paula Maggio

Godrevy Lighthouse

For years, Virginia Woolf readers and scholars around the globe have fought against development plans that threatened the view of the Cornwall coast and Godrevy Lighthouse from Talland House in St. Ives, Cornwall. Now, it seems, that popular and precious view will likely be lost forever.

The message below was contributed by Polly Carter, the National Trust certified gardener at Talland House, and circulated by the Virginia Woolf Society of Great Britain. It is the latest update on the opposition to the plans and includes a discussion of legal options, costs, and the path ahead.

Background

Talland House is important to Woolf’s legacy for several reasons. It was the setting and inspiration for her 1927 novel To the Lighthouse. It was also where Woolf and her family spent their summers  until her mother, Julia Stephen, died in 1895, when Woolf was 13.

As many of you will be aware, news broke in the new year that there was an application with Cornwall Council for amendments to a 2009 planning permission for a 5-storey block of 12 luxury apartments on a site in front of Talland house, which would block the famous view of the bay and lighthouse from Woolf’s formative childhood summer home in St Ives.

Professor Maggie Humm, vice-chair of the Virginia Woolf Society of Great Britain, and Councillor Johnnie Wells, Deputy Mayor of St. Ives at the Talland House plaque unveiling on Sept. 11, 2022. Photo: St. Ives September Festival

Because the application was for amendments to an existing planning permission we were unable to object on grounds of harm to the setting of a listed building, which according to accounts from St Ives Town Council and Cornwall Council, we would have been successful in doing. We still wanted to object to the application for amendments in the hope that the developer would not want to build to the original plans and put in new planning permission, which we could them object to on heritage grounds.

Because our grounds for objecting to the specificity of the amendments were so limited, we chose to bring in legal expertise. Sarah Clover, Barrister at The Kings Chambers, a top of her field expert in planning law. She found fault with Cornwall Council’s route to applying the amendments to the original planning permission. Cornwall Council objected to the points raised in our KC’s advice and granted the permission anyway.

Last week we met with KC Clover and planning law expert solicitor Brendon Lee and they both considered that we do have a legal challenge worth bringing to judicial review. This would mean employing them to create a case detailing the legal mistakes made by Cornwall Council, inviting Cornwall Council to defend themselves and seeing if a judge agrees that the case is worth bringing to court.

If they did, then we could fight it in court in the hope of winning, resulting in the quashing of the application for amendments. Our problem is that the chances of winning are unpredictable and costs could potentially accumulate to un-manageable amounts.

The financial risks

Estimated costs could include:

  • Initial legal preparation: £10,000–£20,000
  • Further legal work if the case progresses: £10,000–£30,000
  • Potential court costs if the case proceeds and is unsuccessful: £10,000–£30,000
    In total, costs could potentially reach £30,000–£80,000.

Because of these risks, it would likely require a named individual to act as the legal client, which also enables a lower cost capping threshold, rather than relying solely on a loosely organized fundraising effort, in case the fundraising cannot meet the demand.

A difficult decision

The group now faces a very narrow window of time. If a judicial review is to be pursued, legal preparations would need to begin within the next two weeks to meet the filing deadline. After this date, the option of judicial review is no longer available.

But the financial implications make this decision impossible without substantial and swift backing. Even if all the money could be found, the risk that it would still come to nothing at all, and even with a win that the original planning permission is still valid, it feels like too much to ask of anyone.

So, we have likely come to the end of the road for quashing the current application for amendments that the developer has asked for and received.

Looking forward

While the potential loss of the historic view from Talland House would be deeply disappointing to many who value its connection to Virginia Woolf, there is also growing interest in strengthening public engagement with the site itself.

Ideas being discussed include:

  • Developing visual arts related programming around Talland House
  • Increasing the garden tours and sharing the story of the meaningful planting being developed there
  • Setting up a Virginia Woolf themed Book Club in St Ives to connect local people to the significance of Woolf’s work and St Ives’ place within that
  • Building a broader network of supporters committed to protecting the cultural legacy of Talland House.
  • Exploring the possibility of a Virginia Woolf museum and gallery in St Ives
  • Curating To The Lighthouse centenary celebrations next year

Whatever the immediate outcome, the conversation has already highlighted how strongly many people feel about preserving the literary and historical significance of Talland House for future generations.

Thank-yous

Lots of work by lots of people has gone into the overall process so far, and despite it not being quite over yet I wanted to thank some key people who have been instrumental in getting us to this stage.

As the gardener at Talland house I am deeply connected to the place and have experienced first-hand how deeply moved people are by experiencing it and hearing its story which has urged me on. I’d like to thank:

  • Peter Eddy, the owner of Talland House, who has allowed these forms of engagement and supported the campaign opposing the development.
  • The residents of Talland house whose privacy I have tried to respect in this process, but who all care deeply about the place.
  • The Virginia Woolf Society of Great Britain, particularly Maggie Humm who has been beside me all the way in this process, Sarah Latham Philips, previously of the VWSGB Executive but is still supporting the campaign and my development within it,  Lynn Fox who helped put the case file together ahead of decision date and has been an encouraging support, the residents of Gallinus Point,  who were among those who contributed to the legal fees, Gemma Jerome, environmental planner who appeared miraculously at just the right time and has provided guidance and clarity, and a huge thank you to Sharon Bylenga who jumped to action on day one, new year’s eve and has given essential financial support and unwavering guidance to and confidence in me and the team.
  • And finally, everyone who lodged an objection in the planning portal or wrote to the Council/MP’s.

For answers to any questions or to add offers for further support, please write to pollycartergardener@icloud.com, and follow @Tallandhouse on Instagram for future updates.

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View of Godrevy Lighthouse goes unsaved — for now

Sunday 15 March 2026 by Paula Maggio

Blogging Woolf was part of a pilgrimage to Talland House in 2004. This photo depicts the front right corner of the home.

In mid-January, we reported on the most recent plan to construct a multi-million dollar flat project that would obstruct the view of the Cornwall coast and Godrevy Lighthouse from Talland House in St. Ives, Cornwall, the setting and inspiration for Virginia Woolf’s 1927 novel To the Lighthouse. We are sad to report that the plan is moving ahead, according to the Virginia Woolf Society of Great Britain.

Below is the text of a March 13 message sent by the Virginia Woolf Society of Great Britain, which helped lead the resistance effort.

Talland House planning update

”It is with regret that we report the decision of the Planning Committee of Cornwall Council this week to allow the planning application for a building in front of Talland
House in St Ives to go ahead.

“There were over 130 objections to the plan, including a handwritten letter from our President Dame Eileen Atkins. The Talland House Group, including the VWSGB and led by Polly Carter, the heritage gardener at Talland House, employed a KC who raised a legal challenge to the lawfulness of the application.

“The particular points brought by our Counsel remain unaddressed by Cornwall

Godrevy Lighthouse in St. Ives, Cornwall

Council’s legal department. They responded, but not to the points raised. Sadly, the developer can go ahead and build what will irrevocably destroy the To the Lighthouse view. BBC Cornwall supported our campaign.

“We are considering opening this up to judicial review and are exploring other options. The Talland House Group is to be formalised, and may have a website and events that celebrate the view and its importance to Virginia Woolf and her works.

“Time will be needed to re-focus our strategy, but we hope to issue more guidance as to how you can further support the campaign and all that Talland House stands for.

“Our thanks to everyone who contributed to the campaign against this development, and we will keep you updated. This story may not be over yet!”

 

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Global call for participants in forum on Virginia Woolf: Sound and Rhythm in Translation at June conference

Tuesday 10 March 2026 by Paula Maggio

Virginia Woolf scholars from Brazil invite participants from all over the world to submit a proposal to the open forum Virginia Woolf: Sound and Rhythm in Translation, in preparation for the 35th Annual International Conference Virginia Woolf: Woolf and Sound, which will take place in Istanbul, Turkey, 24-28 June 2026.

About the forum

The forum aims to discuss the participants’ texts on sound and rhythm concerning the translation of Virginia Woolf’s oeuvre, with the prospect of having them published after the conference. Papers about all forms of translation, including intersemiotic translations and adaptations, are welcome.

For the detailed call for participants, download the PDF: CALL FOR PARTICIPANTS 35th International Conference Virginia Woolf.

Zoom meetings before and after

Important notice: There will be a pre-conference meeting to discuss proposals on 22 May 2026, from 9-10 a.m. (GMT-3), pre-conference readings, and a post-conference follow-up to discuss publication ideas on a date to be determined. Both pre- and post-conference meetings will be held online. The number of participants is limited to 15.

As the forum follows a collaborative model, in which researchers share their works in progress and explore possible connections with other researchers’ work, participants are encouraged to take part in both the pre- and post-conference meetings even if they do not plan to attend the conference in person.

How to submit

Submit your proposals (200–300 words) by 30 March 2026. Should you have any questions or comments, please write to woolftranssound26@gmail.com

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