In the beginning… there was The Country House Course

Leaving for England in 1985

After my graduation from The Lönnbeckska high school in Helsinki in 1985, I spent a year studying at a diploma course in Sussex studying Interior Decoration. The course also included art history and an A-level in art. I was very worn out by the time I arrived in England, it had been a tough year with graduation exams, a full time job straight after that at The Gallen Kallela Museum (in the cafe and later in the museum itself), and my mum had been ill so I had had to take care of her and her move to a new house. Unsurprisingly, I came down with mononucleosis. I should have rested but there was no time for rest. 

It was a bitterly cold winter and the heating was terribly insufficient everywhere, at the school and in the homes where I stayed. The pace was hard: we had to complete an essay per week on art history and the history of British architecture, and obviously also get creative with design projects. To be honest I really found it incredibly demanding. This was just before the boom so there was no precedent to be rely on. You had to keep writing letters to companies and ask for samples and also work with the crafty side of things. For instance, the designs had to be drawn on expensive paper you had to stretch yourself with water on a board, and certain types of brown ink pens were to be used. It was all very costly and I did not have the money many of the other students had (they all appeared pretty rich). They all thought I was strange when I always showed up in the same two green sweaters that I alternated. I eventually bought a children’s coat because it was cheap. To be honest, I also had a weakness for old books so some money went into such frivolities. I was young and not very good with money.

I completed the course but not as well as I would have hoped. The principle Mrs Moreen Biron nevertheless kept in touch for years, I think she was somewhat fond of me because I spoke fairly good English at the tender age of 19. Sadly, I wasn’t much of a photographer back then, maybe I was just too overwhelmed. I remember feeling very depressed during spring term and really hating it all. As a foreigner, I was at an obvious disadvantage, but what I also didn’t realise then was that I suffered from a genuinely debilitating disease (hEDS). I still ended up relocating to the UK in the end. Who knows why! I do love the language. I was also finally diagnosed with hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome in 2018. I have another blog about the challenges I’ve faced since my husband died.

Holmstall, Sussex
The school was in the cottage to the right.

Mrs Biron and I

Graduation
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The bathroom perplexed me. 
It was carpeted and there was no shower unit.
There was no hot water until the evening.

I didn’t stay very long in this house, it got crowded, apparently, 
and I was crowded out.

My last room - I moved three times.

My room for a while.
At least here I was allowed an open fire to keep warm.

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Some places I visited:

Monk House.
I’d written an award winning essay on Orlando
in my last year at high school.

Knole

PROJECTS

The school conversion was my A-level project.
the exam took place at Mayfield College.
I got an A for this project.

A Christmas greeting from Mrs Biron.
Sadly she recently died but she did have a long and fulfilling life.

When I returned to Helsinki, I found a job as an intern at a design studio with a great boss and great colleagues but never took the profession any further. Drawing designs by hand was hard when. you suffered from chronic fatigue like me. I sought in at the School of Design and didn’t do too badly, but the mathematical side of the course would have been too much for me to deal with - no, I didn’t get in. In Finland, the idea of merely being a decorator was rather foreign at the time. I enrolled at the university after this (first philosophy, then history of art) and it suited me quite well until I grew bored and went to study art in France.