Annie is an expert furniture and interior design writer. Her current area of specialism is tiles, bedroom furniture and design
At home with... Priscilla Carluccio
I live in... a very simple, modern flat in Battersea.If my house was burning down... I would save a painting of my grandmother.Shopkeeping is… a dying art. Most retailers are only interested in profit. I find the business side of things extremely interesting, but without passion it’s completely banal.Few and Far is... a name, not a brand. The products we sell are the brands; I merely promote the suppliers.I want the store to be… accessible to everyone. I try to have reasonable prices but I don’t believe in selling to a socioâ€"economic group. It’s nice if people can buy something they like, but more importantly it’s a place for people to feel at home.A good buyer needs… to have an eye, excellent organization and a bit of cheek. I love working between the designer and the crafts person to interpret what is commercially viable.When I created Carluccio’s… the concept was for it to be a series. Few and Far is creatively very different. It’s a one off.My creative flair comes from… my mother. My father could draw, but my mother was very creative. She would have loved to have gone to art school. She always taught us if we had something to say, to say it, and she gave us our work ethic. She taught us to finish what we had started.I grew up… in a real working farmhouse â€" it wasn’t romantic at all. We had a pottery wheel and a kiln where we did 24 hour firings. I used to go out in the middle of the night to help.The second world war… changed things enormously. It brought out the humanity in people. We had some evacuees from London, all adults, and they were incredibly damaged. It was very hard for them to come to the countryside, but I think it did them good. I remember a lot of fear; people were very scared. I think in many ways we’re in a similar situation now. We can’t expect to go on buying things that are not kept and valued.When I was a girl, I wanted to be… a ballet dancer. I had a Russian governess, which seemed deeply romantic. I never did go to Russia, just so I could keep that romance intact. Later, I fell head over heels in love with Laurence Olivier and wanted to be on the stage.I was first inspired to work in design… at the Festival of Britain in 1951. Of course, Terence was exhibiting there, and after the war, it was like seeing a butterfly emerge from the ashes. It was so witty and fun.I studied photography… at the Guildford School of Art. It was the first place in the country to teach photography. There were thirty or so students from all over the world and we had to queue to use the dark room. We were taught to be sparing in shootingâ€" almost exactly the opposite of the way things are now.The person who taught me most about life… was a drunken welshman (my tutor) at Guildford. He would never have let me get away with work that wasn’t my best.I try to pass on to my children… the importance of freedom of expression and creativity. I want them to know joy, but also to have a work ethic.I’m not interested… in the avant-garde, unless it makes me laugh. I’m only interested in things that are beautifully made, from designers like Jasper Morrison or Nigel Coates, who I stock here in the shop.Design is very important in this country… but there needs to be a fundamental knowledge of materials. Manufacturing abilities have become enormously advanced so there is no excuse for things not to last for a long time. That's why I'm so keen on crafts, because if we don't support them, these skills will be lost.