Latest news with #LucianFreud
Irish Times
16-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Esther Freud: ‘My sister always wants me to be harder, be meaner, be tougher. To cut through'
I meet Esther Freud in a north London cafe in advance of the publication of her 10th novel, My Sister and Other Lovers. It's 30 degrees outside so we order orange juice, and sit under a slow ceiling fan. The atmosphere in the cafe is charmingly chaotic: bright yellow walls, books and plants overspilling the shelves, the sound of chatter and cutlery clinking layered with Classic FM and the occasional burst of a passing car radio. Freud speaks with quiet assurance and pauses to consider her answers. Her demeanour is warm and curious. My Sister and Other Lovers marks a return to the highly autobiographical terrain Freud first mined in Hideous Kinky (1992), her breakout debut about a girl's unconventional childhood in Morocco with her sister and their bohemian mother. The father, an artist in London, is notable mainly for his absence. The author is the daughter of the artist Lucian Freud and Bernardine Coverley. Her sister is the fashion designer Bella Freud. READ MORE More than three decades later, she revisits this material from a different angle, looking at a different chapter in their lives. It is also a return to Ireland , where her mother was from and where Freud continues to draw from the painful, rich well of familial and national history. Her 2021 novel, I Couldn't Love You More , tackled the trauma of Ireland's mother and baby homes . This time around, though, the book emerged uncertainly. Freud describes a period of drifting after her last novel, coinciding with the start of the Covid pandemic. She turned to short stories, feeling they required less commitment. 'Almost before realising it,' she says, 'I had a book of short stories, and I wasn't that excited. I just felt quite pleased with myself in a slightly childish way, like, oh, that was easy.' That ease, she admits now, was a sign. 'Books do need to be quite hard to be good. Books have to be so good to touch you.' When she looked at the collection more closely, what stood out were the sisters: their communication, their lives, their deep connection. The stories were all titled after songs or albums – the first, called Desire, after the Bob Dylan album, was meant to be the title story. But something didn't feel right. The book wasn't about desire, not really. It was about love. It was about the sisters. And so, the title changed: My Sister and Other Lovers. At that moment, Freud realised she would need to begin again. Two more years passed as she reworked the short stories into a novel with a clear narrative arc. It was becoming a sequel of sorts to Hideous Kinky. At first, she resisted this idea, changing the characters' names, pushing them away. But eventually, she gave in. 'I used my own life and filled out the stories,' she says, 'and formed them into more of a narrative arc.' Freud has always been open about drawing from her own experiences, though she is rarely included in discussions around autofiction, a label often applied to contemporary women writers. 'I suppose because I always want to create a more traditional novel,' she reflects. But she is always up front about drawing from life. 'Maybe I out myself more readily than another writer might.' Esther Freud as a young girl Memoir and autofiction, she notes, come with a particular intensity. She has a great deal of respect for a lot of recent books that confuse the distinction between fact and fiction, but she isn't drawn to experimentalism in her own writing. 'Often those books can be quite academic. I'm not really so interested in that. What I'm interested in is story.' Still, she admits she worries about writing from life. 'Anything recognisable, I worry that someone will be offended,' she says. 'But the alternative is not writing something that will work in the book.' At a certain point in the process, a cold determination takes over: 'that famous splinter of ice in the heart'. The story becomes everything. Nothing else matters. 'It's terrible not to be able to write what you want to write.' Childhood remains one of her richest themes. Writing from the perspective of a child comes more naturally, she says. 'There's an ease to it. I love describing things seen for the first time.' Writing from the point of view of an adult woman, she finds more difficult. Perhaps it's related to another of Freud's themes: freedom. I've noticed that many of her characters seek to free themselves from familial or social constraints, and become trapped in other ways. She had never quite framed it that way herself, she says, but the observation resonates. 'I like to write about people who go on journeys to try to find a life that suits them better. I'm always dreaming of escaping. I love moving. My parents both lived life as they wanted to, and I think they understood that I had every right to do the same.' Freud moved often as a child, and Hideous Kinky was, in part, a testament to that instability and its unexpected gifts. When it was published in 1992, she recalls, many readers, particularly single mothers, expressed gratitude. Here, at last, was a child's perspective on a mother who didn't have many resources but still managed to prioritise adventure. 'There's so much criticism of those women who thought to do something differently,' she says. 'I thought the book was non-judgmental, but people didn't see it that way. I think if I wrote it now, as a mother, I'd be more careful. But when I wrote it I wrote it as if I was a child. That's what made the book work.' [ From the archive: Lucian Freud painting of teenage Irish lover seeks up to £10 million Opens in new window ] Male critics at the time were particularly ungenerous. 'They described the plot as this feckless hippie mother dragging her kids around. Well, she wasn't dragging us. Things then were really hard. There was no support. But she saved herself. And she gave me an enormous amount of inspiration.' With My Sister and Other Lovers, she returns to her family story from a more nuanced perspective. The novel investigates the undercurrents of sisterhood, the tensions that pull at relationships beneath the surface. 'I wanted to write about sisters and the complicated relationship sisters have with each other,' she explains. 'The tug of war that happens underneath every family story. Times when someone has a very different worldview and they want you to agree with theirs. You're trying to convince each other of the validity of the way you see things.' It's not nostalgia, exactly, though she admits to a remarkable memory for the small details of the past. 'Not for anything that useful,' she laughs. She can remember whole conversations. 'I spent quite a lot of time making life into stories when I was young, which probably helps keep memories alive. I think some people are less interested in that; in being reverent about what happened, turning it into a story. Maybe they live more in the present.' Writing, for her, involves bravery and curiosity. She believes a subject is worth pursuing only if it contains something mysterious. 'Often when I write I don't know how it's going to unravel,' she says. 'I really didn't know how the sisters' journey would go, I only knew a few stepping stones. A few scenes I really wanted to write. But I was saving them, as a reward for getting there. To be a good subject, you have to be really interested in it and you have to not know everything. I always want to be brave enough to go down into a subject that's close to me, to give myself permission to focus for however many months or even years on the thing that's interesting to me.' In this book, that mystery was the heart of the relationship between the sisters. To write it compellingly, she had to draw on her own deep and complex bond with her own sister. Has her sister read the book? 'Yes, she's one of my earliest readers. She's a very good reader. A very, very good editor. She has no time for superfluous or soft descriptions. She always wants me to be harder, be meaner, be tougher. To cut through. With each book, there's someone sitting on your shoulder, and with this one it was definitely her.'
The Independent
12-07-2025
- Business
- The Independent
The Wolseley's global takeover is thriving. Investors and Keir Starmer should take note
There was consternation among London restaurant -goers when their favourite venue, owned by their favourite restaurateur, was acquired three years ago by a Thai-based group. It was feared The Wolseley, adored by many, including Lucian Freud (whose regular corner table was covered with a black cloth and a single candle following his death) and AA Gill, would be no more. It would not be the same without Jeremy King, its co-founder, greeting regulars and attending to every last detail. But fears The Wolseley would lose its cachet have proved groundless. The restaurant and its siblings, including The Delaunay, Colbert and Brasserie Zedel, plus a new Wolseley in the City, are thriving. The Wolseley remains as it was, known far beyond London for its 'Parisian cafe meets Viennese dining room' menu, spectacular but intimate room, and warm ambience. The numbers speak for themselves. Last year, the original Wolseley sold 21,803 schnitzels, 7,542 pancakes, 45,750 afternoon teas and 29,837 oysters. As a group, the restaurants managed 18,358 champagne bottles and 91,306 glasses, 99,013 schnitzels, 15,755 pancakes and 49,104 afternoon teas. Wolseley parent company, Minor International, turned in thumping annual results, including record net profits. Now Minor is taking the business international, and going further still, by opening The Wolseley Hotels. Proof that no single person is bigger than the brand, and evidence that what they created is capable of developing and expanding into a money-making machine Minor is so-called because it was founded by entrepreneur Bill Heinecke when he was underage. American-born Heinecke started in business in Bangkok at the age of just 14, in 1963, while he was still in high school. He persuaded the editor of the Bangkok World newspaper to let him write a column on go-karting, securing advertising space alongside it. This initiative was so successful that he took over the paper's advertising manager position. When Heinecke left school at 17, he decided he wanted to set up on his own. He borrowed $1,200 from a backstreet moneylender to register his first two companies: Inter-Asian Enterprise, which provided office cleaning services, and Inter-Asian Publicity, an advertising company. The holding company was Minor Holdings – for the first year, his mother had to sign the paychecks on his behalf. Over nearly six decades, he grew Minor into a major powerhouse, encompassing hospitality (Minor Hotels), food (Minor Food) and lifestyle retail. Pivotal was the 2018 acquisition of Spain's NH Hotel Group, tripling Minor's hotel portfolio and propelling it to leading world hospitality player. Today, Minor owns 560 properties with 85,000 rooms across 57 countries. They will be joined by four new brands – The Wolseley Hotels, Colbert Collection, Minor Reserve Collection and iStay Hotels – to help Minor achieve its aim of reaching 850 hotels and 4,000 restaurants by the end of 2027. It's all part of Heinecke's bold vision. When asked which was his best decade, he is quick to answer: 'My best decade has yet to come.' Ian Di Tullio, chief commercial officer of Minor Hotels, said the Wolseley Hotels will 'take multiple cues' from the restaurant in Piccadilly. 'Like the restaurant, the hotel will be a place where formality melts away, replaced by friendly familiarity and glamour without pretension. Rituality and attentiveness are at the heart of the guest experience, where every guest will be treated to our effortless balance of class and etiquette, from their welcome by The Wolseley Hotel's door person to the stay rituals delivered by a team passionate about the craft of hospitality.' Minor is looking to open Wolseley Hotels in New York, Paris, Singapore, Hong Kong and Dubai and other key centres. London is also earmarked as 'a fantastic location and a natural fit'. Di Tullio said: 'We will be very particular and deliberate about where we open The Wolseley Hotels properties, growing its footprint slowly with partners who share our vision for the brand experience. This will be a carefully curated rollout, with each new location thoughtfully chosen to be a perfect match for the brand's character and values.' He added: 'Brands are a brilliant way to endorse existing customers and find new ones.' He makes the point, though, that it does not apply to all. 'The Wolseley is an iconic brand with soul and character, and an individual creativity – there are very few of them, which is why we want to start a new hotel portfolio with our existing brands.' Nevertheless, he has a product – Britain has a product – that is internationally transferable, provided standards are maintained. 'There is pure theatre, pleasurable impact for anyone entering The Wolseley and we want to celebrate and to share that special sense of luxury with a new global audience. We will do that respectfully and carefully and with passion.' So, The Wolseley brand sustains and is expanding. Rather than the world taking over a uniquely British label, that British label is taking over the world. It shows what Britain is capable of, with an injection of self-belief and commercial strength and savvy. What began as a car showroom was, through imagination and flair, transformed into an exceptional restaurant, then widened. Now it's to be raised to another level, across the globe, in hotels. Credit to Minor and Heinecke for having the idea and for going where others have not. You realise that a Paris or Brussels restaurant could not make the leap, they just don't have that same internationally-admired British style. We could make so much more out of this as a country, as an economy. It does make you wonder what other loved and homegrown brands could achieve with the application of similar faith and a fair wind. Investors, brand proprietors and Keir Starmer and his teams devoted to exporting British soft power, please note.
Times
07-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Times
Esther Freud — my favourite three books
Esther Freud, 62, was born in London, the daughter of the painter Lucian Freud and the great-granddaughter of the psychologist Sigmund Freud. After travelling the world with her mother, she returned to England in 1979, where she trained as an actress, appearing in The Bill and Doctor Who. She later became an author, best known for her 1992 semi-autobiographical novel Hideous Kinky. It recounts her unconventional childhood and was made into a film starring Kate Winslet. After writing her second novel, Peerless Flats, she was included in Granta's 1993 list of the best young British novelists. She has since written seven novels, including The Sea House and I Couldn't Love You More, and a play, Stitchers, that ran at the Jermyn Street Theatre in London in 2018. Her latest novel is My Sister and Other Lovers, a sequel to Hideous Kinky. In her 1995 novel The Blue Flower, Penelope Fitzgerald tells the story of the young and brilliant Friedrich 'Fritz' von Hardenberg, a master of dialectics and mathematics who becomes the great romantic poet and philosopher Novalis. Fitzgerald throws us headlong into the world of Leipzig in the 18th century and beguiles us with the wit and delicacy of her storytelling. The novel is surprising, eccentric and moving, and with a humour that is all her own it touches upon the illogicality of love and the irrationality of genius. To me it seemed to show that books are the best place to learn about life — both past and present — and proved how modern a historical novel could be. • 80 best books to take on holiday this summer — chosen by the experts A book that holds more stories than most is Michael Holroyd's A Strange Eventful History: The Dramatic Lives of Ellen Terry, Henry Irving and Their Remarkable Families (2008). It is a masterwork of biography, unravelling one life after another, illuminating the passions and triumphs of the Victorian stage and, later, the artistic and sexual adventures of the ensuing generations. Holroyd adds layer upon layer to his multi-character tale, full of affection for each of them and the chaotic nature of their lives. The marriages, the affairs and divorces, the children, cherished, abandoned, a great many of them the offspring of Terry's son, the set designer Edward Gordon Craig, one of whose children is born — with tragic consequences — to the dancer Isadora Duncan. This book is as engrossing and fantastical as any novel and reveals the single-minded self-involvement that can sweep up a great artist. • Read more book reviews and interviews — and see what's top of the Sunday Times Bestsellers List I have always loved Voyage in the Dark by Jean Rhys. It's not that Rhys is so very underrated, but her late novel Wide Sargasso Sea has overshadowed her earlier, more autobiographical books. I picked up my copy on a market stall just as I was beginning to write my first novel, and I have kept that copy in my study ever since as a talisman, a mark of what I most want to achieve. Voyage in the Dark (1934) tells the story of Anna, recently arrived from Dominica, working as an actress, touring the chillier, drabber seaside towns of Britain. It is written with spare elegance, the humour of the dialogue exquisite, and we are shown through Anna's dreamy, shivery reflections of West Indian life what this move from home has cost her. It's a story of belonging, of rootlessness, of prejudice, Anna's adventures fuelled by the hope that love might be the one thing that can save her. My Sister and Other Lovers by Esther Freud is out now (Bloomsbury £18.99). To order a copy go to Free UK standard P&P on orders over £25. Special discount available for Times+ members
Daily Mail
30-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Sherwood star David Morrissey's ex-wife Esther Freud, 62, reveals 'unbearable' menopause led to the shock collapse of their 27 year relationship - after actor, 61, moved on with girlfriend Larah Simpson, 32
Novelist Esther Freud has revealed the real reason behind the shock collapse of her 27 year relationship with Sherwood star David Morrissey. The daughter of the late artist Lucian Freud, who was wed to the actor, 61, for 13 years until 2019, has admitted that despite trying 'absolutely everything' to save it, the menopause and her overwhelming desire for children put intense strain on their marriage. 'I don't think what I was going through at that point even occurred to me as menopause related,' said Esther, 62. 'But what I found was things that I had been able to manage suddenly became unbearable'. 'I couldn't sleep, and the thoughts and worries and frustrations just went round. It was a very painful period, and led, ultimately, to the end of my marriage.' The couple, who met at drama school, married in a ceremony on Southwold Pier after dating for over a decade. They have three children together: Albie, Anna and Gene. Following their split David moved on with theatrical agent Larah Simpson, 32 - who is just four years older than his eldest son. Esther, the great-granddaughter of Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, has now revealed the extent to which her menopausal symptoms contributed to the end of her relationship. Speaking on the Postcards From Midlife podcast, she explained: 'It's not that things were so much worse than they had been at different times, but somehow, suddenly, it was impossible for me to bear,' she said. 'I tried absolutely everything to keep my marriage together.' She added that her desire to keep the family intact was rooted in her own upbringing, which saw her parents split before she was born. Esther is one of Lucian Freud's 14 children. Her mother was the writer and gardener Bernardine Coverley. 'I wanted to do things differently. I wanted a stable environment for my children. I had a sort of romantic idea, which I have to say I still do, of coming through.' Esther admitted she had pre-grieved the relationship long before David finally moved out of their London home. 'I did lots of things to distract myself around that time,' she said. 'I started having singing lessons, piano lessons, and weirdly and unusefully, German conversation classes. Anything that was available. 'I felt so devastated by the breakdown of the relationship. I was having a piano lesson the day he moved out… I didn't even mention it even though I was quite good friends with the piano teacher.' Esther also revealed how her deep longing for children shaped - and in some ways unbalanced - the dynamic of her marriage. 'I was very, very driven by the desire and the need to have children. So my relationships were quite overshadowed by the fact that I needed something. I needed permission to do something I desperately needed to do, and there was a power imbalance in that.' She added: 'It wasn't that I just needed one child. I needed three. And I'd known that since I was about three. I've always known it. When I got that third one, I was so happy. 'A completely different self came out [after the divorce]. It is really interesting how different it is. I wish I could have always been that person, but I was extraordinarily broody, and I don't think you can do anything about that.' David previously highlighted the great differences in pair's backgrounds. While he is the son of a Liverpudlian cobbler and a mother who worked for Littlewoods, Esther's bohemian childhood formed the basis of her acclaimed novel Hideous Kinky, which was turned into a 1998 film starring Kate Winslet. She is now in a relationship with Gerry Simpson, 62, a professor of law at LSE. 'There was nothing I needed from him,' she said of her new partner. 'All I needed from him was that it was interesting, and that it was fun, and that he was someone I could really speak to… I wasn't trying to be a very capable person, or someone who wouldn't mind if they went away for nine months. It's just like a completely different self.' Another source of healing has been her daily ritual of outdoor swimming, which she credits with curing her codependency. 'I decided to swim every Sunday and Wednesday for a whole year. Whether it was snowing, whether we had to break the ice, whatever. I had been a really codependent person… Suddenly, I just did it. I would say it almost cured me.' Though the end of the marriage to David was painful, Esther insists it was the right decision for both of them. 'He's happier now. We get on really well. Kids seem fine. I'm happier for sure. And it took courage. I really admire people who have the courage to leave a relationship that isn't working if they've tried everything they can try.' And as for lasting love, she remains a believer. 'I'll never give up. I love romance. As far as I'm concerned, if you can find the one, find the one… Maybe there are more than one. Our lives are long.' Following their split in 2019 a source told MailOnline: 'It's a great shame, but they just couldn't make it work any longer, They are making sure that the interests of their three children come first.'
Times
28-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Times
Why the A-list love Bella Freud's couch
Bella Freud is a fashion designer, the daughter of a famous portraitist (Lucian) and the great-granddaughter of the founding father of psychoanalysis (Sigmund). Her podcast Fashion Neurosis with Bella Freud knowingly draws on this background. In each episode she invites a well-known guest to sit for her — or actually, lie on her couch, as if in a therapy session — then asks them about their lifelong relationship with clothes as a way into bigger themes. It is a strong format, instantly conferring structure and intimacy. Clothes can offer our first shot at self-expression and have a transformative, talismanic effect. But outfits can be what we hide behind too. Even celebrated beauties, you learn here, lack confidence and have complex relationships with their bodies. Freud, who has been in analysis for years, makes tongue-in-cheek nods to the therapy process. This is a visualised podcast, one of the few that might merit watching over just listening: Freud sets her stage stylishly, with precise attention to details like lighting. Each episode begins with the client being buzzed into Freud's consulting room. A metronome or old-fashioned clock ticks. Moody piano music plays. The camera lingers over arresting black-and-white portraits, among them a teenage Bella with her father.
