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Book of Hours: An Almanac for the Seasons of the Soul

By  Letty McHugh 2021 - 2023

Over the course of the pandemic, a complication with my chronic illness left me alone in a darkened room for three weeks. I drew comfort from an imagined Book of Hours. Half Almanac, half prayer book, medieval Books of Hours offered guidance for every situation and every day of the year. As I recovered I started to wonder, where was the spiritual guidebook for people like me; lost, sick, artists who watch too much reality TV? I couldn’t find one, so I made my own.

Borrowing wisdom from Anglo-Saxon hermits, contemporary artists and The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. Book of Hours is a collection of lyric essay and poetry exploring what it means to have faith, why we chase suffering and how to take solace in small joys.

Winner of the Barbellion Prize

IMG 1163 1716941267 Letty McHugh

Early summer 2021 I was walking home one evening when I saw a pile of stuff someone had clearly left out for the scrap man. In the middle of the pile was this beautiful old Hand-wound sewing machine. It broke my heart to see it abandoned in the gutter, so I brought it home. 

The machine had obviously been living at the back of a garage or a garden shed for years. Everything that should’ve moved had seized up and everything that should stay still was worryingly easy to move.  In the…

The Unknown Sewing Machine

The Centre of the Known Universe

When Keighley's new Mechanics Institute opened in 1825 it was with the aim that 'latent genius may be excited and prompted into action, the dormant abilities of individuals, yet unknown, may be roused, brought to light, for the general good.' At the opening Rev Drury gave a speech in which he expressed hopes "that brilliant talents might be called forth". When I read the account of the opening in the Keighley News a few months ago I felt that the speech had the potential to become a new…

Let Brilliant Talents Shine Forth (BD Is Lit)

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