Charleston Farmhouse 1981

A new and revised edition of the book Charleston Farmhouse 1981 evokes a time when the future of Charleston – artistic refuge of the Bloomsbury Group – was far from certain.

Visiting Charleston as an art student in 1981, Kim Marsland discovered a house that had been virtually untouched since Duncan Grant's death in 1978. The photographs she took that day offer a glimpse into the extraordinary lives of the Bloomsbury Group and will be a revelation even to those who know the house well.

The book has been released by Random Spectacular, the publishing imprint of design collective St Jude's, to coincide with the Tate Britain exhibition Vanessa Bell & Duncan Grant: Inside Bloomsbury.

Charleston Farmhouse 1981: A Photographic Recollection of the Home of the Bloomsbury Group in Sussex is priced £22.50.

A spokesman said: “Charleston is now renowned as the artistic refuge of the Bloomsbury Group, some of the 20th century’s most radical painters, writers and thinkers, but after the death of its last occupant, Duncan Grant, the future of Charleston was far from certain.

“As an art student in 1981, Kim Marsland discovered the farmhouse in rural Sussex where the artists Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant lived and worked at the heart of a wide cultural circle, fusing the fine and decorative arts to create interiors where every surface was adorned. “At the time, there were relatively few books about the Bloomsbury Group so, hoping to find out more, Marsland contacted Charleston’s first curator to arrange a visit. On arrival, she found a house that had remained virtually untouched since Grant’s death in 1978.

“Left alone to wander from room to room, Marsland came across open sketchbooks, abandoned photographs, piles of books, drawings, paint brushes, a crooked lampshade, all as Grant had left them.

“The photographs she took that day – and which are now published in this superb new edition of Charleston Farmhouse 1981 – are intensely evocative and capture an extraordinary moment in time. They offer a fascinating glimpse of past lives and convey a remarkable sense of place that hints at Charleston’s vibrant, vivacious and highly unconventional history.

Marsland was struck by the strong presence of character she felt as she came across tiny treasures such as Grant’s dust-covered shoes, and this rare spirit comes across on every page of her beautifully haunting book.

“Charleston Farmhouse 1981 takes the reader back to a fleeting time before the farmhouse underwent a complete restoration by the Charleston Trust. The book will be a revelation even for those who have come to know the house and gardens well since it so atmospherically evokes a time when the future of Charleston was precarious and the opportunity to enjoy a glimpse into the Bloomsbury Group’s extraordinary lives could so easily have been lost for ever.”

Kim Marsland studied at the Royal College of Art in London, where she was taught by Quentin Blake and Sheila Robinson. She is an artist and lecturer and lives near Lewes.

Published by Random Spectacular, the publishing imprint of design collective and print gallery Charleston Farmhouse 1981 is available to buy from www.stjudesprints.co.uk