In 2010, London's Victoria & Albert museum chose 26 objects from its British Galleries and randomly assigned them to 26 writers. Each person wrote exactly 62 words - 26 in reflection - in response to the object.
The results were beautiful, surprising, lyrical, sometimes comical. Andrew Motion wrote about a bust of Homer, a 17th century Chinese porcelain figure reminded a writer of a pub landlord in Inverness, while the wedding suit of James 11 inspired 62 words about 'a suit as full of scratches as a rose-garden'.
In 2011 they took the idea to the National Library of Wales, the Ulster Museum and the National Museum of Scotland, where writers were let loose on objects as disparate as a mediaeval illuminated book, a beggar's badge and a 16th century Scottish guillotine. It seems that all writers and readers treasure connections with the past through objects - personal ones and those displayed in museums. There are more than a hundred writers involved in this collection, including many of the best-known literary authors in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The result is an exquisite illustrated book, where the 104 objects and their accompanying sestudes appear side-by-side.
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