Elly Millar sits in an armchair in her first-floor office at Galley Beggar Press, with a cup of tea.
On the desk by the window, a manuscript she has laid out and – she tells me – is looking forward to starting. On the wall behind the door, a poster for To The Lighthouse.
The whole room has a Virginia Woolf feel that I would like to take credit for, but the poster was already there.
The wall behind Elly is a grid of shelves holding stacks of published Galley Beggar titles. In reality that grid is much fuller than I have drawn it – I short-handed a lot of the book spines as colour patches, because the picture wants to be about Elly, not a warehouse.
On the left wall, a painting of yellow flowers that has, deliberately or not, a Vanessa Bell feel about it.
The rain had stopped when I made this picture, but the light coming through Elly’s window had a soft blue-green.
This is one of three pictures I made at Galley Beggar. Alongside it hang Sam alone in his shed and the two of them on the living-room floor with post bags and Sirius.
-
Part of Contain Multitudes at Burgh House, 18-23 August 2026.