June Newsletter
A change of pace this month. I submitted myself to the famous Proust Questionnaire — the parlour game of confession and self-portraiture that Marcel Proust answered as a young man, and that Vanity Fair has run on its back page for decades. Thirty-three questions, answered honestly and briefly.
What is your idea of perfect happiness? Italy. Food. Wine. Loved ones. Dogs. Nature. Not in that order.
What is your greatest fear? Emptiness.
What is the trait you most deplore in yourself? Egotism.
What is the trait you most deplore in others? Egotism.
Which living person do you most admire? Björk.
What is your greatest extravagance? Solitude.
What is your current state of mind? Peace.
What do you consider the most overrated virtue? Compliance.
On what occasion do you lie? To be kind.
What do you most dislike about your appearance? Nothing — I like all of me. I am, however, going to have a breast reduction next week, so…
Which living person do you most despise? The full basket of deplorables — the world’s itty bitty “strongmen”, take your pick. I don’t want their names sullying my blog.
What is the quality you most like in a man? Mildness.
What is the quality you most like in a woman? Kindness.
Which words or phrases do you most overuse? “No comment.”
What or who is the greatest love of your life? No comment. To be honest; probably my mother.
When and where were you happiest? My childhood. At my maternal grandparents’ house and grounds, in the country. Paradise on earth.
Which talent would you most like to have? Genius.
If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? Impulse control.
What do you consider your greatest achievement? Surviving until fifty. Let me re-phrase that, living until fifty.
If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be? A light spirit.
Where would you most like to live? Somewhere less tricky than 2026. Maybe 1996? I was incredibly happy in 1996.
What is your most treasured possession? My eighteenth-century etching after Raphael’s Madonna della Seggiola — the Madonna of the Chair. A Christmas gift from my mother.
What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery? People consumed by the seven deadly sins.
What is your favourite occupation? Curating. Writing.
What is your most marked characteristic? Punk AF.
What do you most value in your friends? Generosity of spirit.
Who are your favourite writers? Chekhov, Turgenev, Evelyn Waugh, Virginia Woolf, Marcel Proust, Hemingway, Tolstoy, Antal Szerb, Balzac, Camus, Simone de Beauvoir, Josefine Klougart, Jacob Skyggebjerg, André Gide. I am probably forgetting some…
Who are your favourite heroes of fiction? Prince Andrei Bolkonsky.
Cesare Borgia.
Which historical figure do you most identify with? None. You don’t become a historical figure if you are anything like me.
What are your favourite names? Eartha Kitt. Elvis Presley.
What is it that you most dislike? The corruptive element of power.
How would you like to die? Mæt af dage — “full of days,” sated with a life fully lived.
What is your motto? In the words of Tupac Shakur: “Just because you lost me as a friend doesn’t mean you gained me as an enemy. I’m bigger than that. I still want to see you eat — just not at my table.”
Back to the regular features, and come the end of summer, a day of the week for each of the things I love: music, design, authors, film, travel, art and philosophy.
My World of Interiors 