Beyond Parnham– for furniture designers

A celebration of a 40 year old UK based design college is not a book for the general public. And it’s just as well as only 1,000 copies have been published. You need to be interested in furniture design and where some of the everyday objects we enjoy came from. But if you enjoy just looking at beautiful things from salad bowls to wardrobes, it may be for you.

John Makepeace OBE founded the college and has work permanently on show in the V&A Museum in London.  He has written an introduction, along with Sir Christopher Frayling, Jeremy Myerson and Lesley Jackson. Work of the alumni of the college is on show, notably from Declan O’Donoghue who went on to help found Letterfrack Furniture College in Galway. Tom Fisher’s brass French horn came out of Farnham, as did Bon Evans’ children’s play tower on the beach in Kuwait. It’s an affectionate look at design and designers and what makes them tick. Available on line at beyondparnham.com £35 and at The Design Museum.