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Letter to hope

Alex James

Wednesday, 2nd April 2008

Alex James leads a Slow Life

There are only two kinds of people: the ones that make you feel better and the ones that make you feel worse. It’s a shame, but, as far as I can tell, most people make you feel worse. Some are deliberate s***s, but most of them can’t help it. It’s important to hang on to the ones that make you feel better. That’s not always as obvious or easy as it sounds.

My favourite work of art, ancient or modern, is only my favourite because every time I look at it, it makes me feel better. I’m not kidding. It works like magic. It’s a photograph of a man in a warehouse, all in black and white apart from the big square he’s holding, which is dayglo yellow. Underneath the photograph it says, ‘When I woke up in the morning, the feeling was still there.’ I decided a while ago that it was my favourite picture. Up until then I don’t suppose I had a clear favourite.

For years it hung outside the upstairs bogs in the Groucho Club where it caught my eye. Eventually, I pointed it out to others. It had a particular resonance at the Groucho in the Nineties, where so many dreams were cast in bubbles that burst before the sun rose again, but a copy hung in Downing Street, too, and I wonder what it meant there. It’s an image that could wear more or less any room: a letter to hope.

My wife knew how much I loved the picture. As is often the case these days, it was made as an edition and the year before last, for my birthday, she got me a copy of it. It’s the only artwork I’ve ever wanted to own, so my art collection was complete, instantly. It was particularly satisfying. I could move on to other things now. Roses, as it happened. When my elation subsided, I realised we couldn’t possibly afford it. We live on a farm and have a permanently long and practical shopping list. ‘It’s a present,’ she said. ‘I know, it’s the best present I’ve ever had, but we still can’t afford it,’ I said. ‘No, it’s a present from Angus. He said he wanted you to have it.’ Angus is the artist, Angus Fairhurst. What a generous gift. What a good bloke. What a picture!

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