The Village Hall Vendetta

CopyrightHarperNorthWindmill Green,Mount Street, Manchester, M2 3NXA division ofHarperCollinsPublishers1 London Bridge StreetLondon SE1 9GFwww.harpercollins.co.ukFirst published by HarperNorth in 20231 EDITIONCopyright © Jonathan Whitelaw 2023Cover design © Mr Letters 2023Jonathan Whitelaw asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this workA catalogue record for this book is available from the British LibraryAll rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.Find out about HarperCollins and the environment at www.harpercollins.co.uk/greenSource ISBN: 9780008520540Ebook Edition © May 2023 ISBN: 9780008520557Version 2023-04-03 Note to ReadersThis ebook contains the following accessibility features which, if supported by your device, can be accessed via your ereader/accessibility settings: Change of font size and line heightChange of background and font coloursChange of fontChange justificationText to speechPage numbers taken from the following print edition: ISBN 9780008520540 DedicationFor Anne-Marie and Henry, the eternal loves of my lifeAnd to art – for always illuminating me. ContentsCoverTitle PageCopyrightNote to ReadersDedicationPrologueChapter 1: Luncheon of the Boating PartyChapter 2: The Blue WindowChapter 3: The KissChapter 4: FoxesChapter 5: Red BalloonChapter 6: Water LiliesChapter 7: Willows, GivernyChapter 8: The Hireling ShepherdChapter 9: The SnailChapter 10: The Japanese BridgeChapter 11: Impression, SunriseChapter 12: Two Women in a RowboatChapter 13: Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande JatteChapter 14: The ScreamChapter 15: Wild RabbitChapter 16: The SwingChapter 17: Interior With a DogChapter 18: A Friend in NeedChapter 19: Ship Being ScrappedChapter 20: Composition VIIIChapter 21: The Madonna of Port LligatChapter 22: Woman With UmbrellaChapter 23: Garcon a La PipeChapter 24: Charing Cross Bridge 9Chapter 25: ForestChapter 26: Untitled (1952)Chapter 27: The Seed of the AreoiChapter 28: Fire in the EveningChapter 29: Notre-Dame, Une Fin D’Après-MidiChapter 30: Paris Street in Rainy WeatherChapter 31: Woman With FlowerChapter 32: At Saint-Valery-Sur-SommeChapter 33: Lavender Fields in Old ProvenceChapter 34: The Artist’s Garden at GivernyChapter 35: The FrameAcknowledgementsAbout the Publisher PROLOGUETo the trained eye, Buttermere at Dawn is a modern masterpiece. Subtle in its colour, its tones, even its brushstrokes seem minimal, barely caressing the canvas. It captures so much of an often overlooked wonder of the Lake District in next to nothing. And even the experts are left wanting more.For everyone else, it’s a part of the cultural zeitgeist. A titan of modern British minimalism, the painting can be found on everything from calendars, T-shirts and tote bags to postcards and tea towels. Not bad for a painting that’s been in the hands of private collectors for most of its existence.The art world is in mourning this week after the sudden death of Buttermere at Dawn’s creator. The enigmatic and elusive Elvira was as inscrutable as the masterpiece that made her a household name in the late seventies. But who was the woman behind this legend? And has the fabled curse of Buttermere at Dawn claimed another victim?Like everything else that surrounds Elvira, her own past is even up for debate. Most profilers of the artist agree that she was born Mae Anne Armstrong sometime in 1951, although years have varied depending on who you read. Her mother was a housewife and her father a farmhand who worked the dales of Cumbria after the war. A loner at school, she had always shown a keen interest in nature and the surrounding splendour of the countryside. One biographer in the 1990s noted that the young Mae Armstrong had shown an eye for detail in her art classes from as young an age as five. And friends who were interviewed over the years always said she spent most of her time on her own, wandering the fields and exploring the Lakes.Although Armstrong was noted as having enrolled in the prestigious Manchester School of Art in the autumn of 1969, when she was eighteen, no further academic notes have been discovered. And there are no records of any student sales by the woman who would go on to be dubbed the ‘monumental talent of her generation.’Very little of what Armstrong worked on during these years is evident now. Lost to history, her formative experiences and evidence of being a working artist are tragically scant. It’s not until Buttermere at Dawn first sold at public auction that the public learned of this enigmatic talent. But almost as quickly as it was sold, it was sold again. It had already been privately bought and sold before it came under the auctioneer’s hammer, and soon after, the rumours of a curse began to rear their heads. Tabloid tales abounded of ill-fated accidents and the untimely deaths of those connected to the picture. There were even tales of financial ruin brought on by merely being in the presence of the painting.By the end of the decade, young Armstrong, who had adopted her moniker ‘Elvira’ soon after graduation, was making huge waves, not just in the art world, but the wider cultural sphere. While the likes of Damien Hurst and Banksy are household names now, Elvira was paving the way decades earlier. Interviewed in 1977 ahead of her first major exhibition, a celebration of minimalism at the National Gallery in London, she was asked about her new guise.‘Vira is a Sanskrit word. It means a brave person or hero,’ said the artist. ‘I’m neither of those things, the opposite in fact. But it’s a mask I wear, like you read in the comic books, or the Lone Ranger. When I paint, when I talk to people, I’m wearing this mask. Elvira, she’s the one who does the painting. She’s a creation, like my work. I’m just the vessel where she lives.’The exhibition was a huge success. And Elvira very quickly became the hottest name; the must-have