The Lady Magazine 3rd March Vorige editie

Dear Readers,

This week we celebrate two quite distinct anniversaries. It is now 70 years since the Partition of India, and the impact it had on that great continent and its people is the subject of a glamorous new film, The Viceroy’s House,
with the 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma and his family centre stage.
True, Hugh Bonneville does cut a dashing figure as the Last
Viceroy, but as he told the Earl’s daughter, Lady Pamela Hicks:
‘I have to apologise because your father looked like a movie star
and I’m afraid I don’t.’
It is also the centenery of the birth of Lucienne Day, who designed the fabric
that graces this week’s cover for the 1951 Festival of Britain – a culture-changing event many still remember. It was a burst of bright energy on a battered war-torn landscape. Day’s radical new fabric design, Calyx, which still seems so modern now, allowed ordinary people to bring colour into
their homes. Day became the lead designer for Heal’s and, crucially, for dear old John Lewis. For those of us who can’t resist a trip to soft furnishings, there are some lovely new cushions available in her fabrics. Just the thing to prop your feet up on while you flick through this week’s stunning Scottish travel pages.
Until next week,
best wishes,
Sam Taylor
Editor