Hoglands

BBC Learning English

 People and Places

Hoglands

Amber 1: Hello, I’m Amber and you’re listening to

bbclearningenglish.com

In People and Places today, we meet Mary Moore, daughter of

the renowned 2 British artist and sculptor 3, Henry Moore (who

died in 1986). We meet her in a place called Hoglands –

the house where Henry Moore and his wife, Irina,
lived for over 40 years. Hoglands has recently been opened

to the public for the first time.

Mary shares her memories of her father and mother with us,

and we highlight lots of language that you can use to

describe people.

As you listen, notice first how Mary uses the words ‘moody 4

’ and ‘moodiness 5’ to describe some of the colours in

Hoglands. We usually use these words to describe people

when they’re cross and grumpy – when people are ‘in a

bad mood’, you can say they’re ‘moody’ or there’s

‘moodiness’ about them. And you’ll hear two nice ways of

describing colours that don’t look right together, that

contrast with each other – colours that ‘don’t go

together’, that ‘clash’. And try to catch any of the

descriptions Mary gives of her father and mother.

Now let’s begin out tour of the house. The first

impression you get of Hoglands is how colourful the rooms

are. There’s a bright yellow carpet in the living room, an

orange carpet in the study and a pink floor in the dining

room …

Mary Moore

And there’s a bright purple carpet in the sunroom, which

is kind of remarkable 6. He had the most fabulous 7 colour

sense and you don’t think of sculptors 8 as colourists, but

if you look at his textile designs, or even his coloured

drawings from that period, get extraordinary dark,
 
moody greys, with very bright pinks and yellows and browns

and colours that you would think clash, or don’t go

together, but are extraordinarily 9 successful and have a

kind of moodiness about them. And, it can be very muddy

outside, so usually my mother would make people take their

shoes off at the front door, but sometimes my father sort

of felt that he couldn’t possibly ask them to take their

shoes off, or he had forgotten, and she would see this

trail of mud across the yellow carpet and you would hear

her sort of shout, ‘Henry!’! You know, so, my mother was

very practical. I wouldn’t say that she was house-proud,

but she
was a very careful … because she was the one who had to

get down on her hands and knees and scrub the yellow

carpet!

Amber: So Mary says her father ‘had the most fabulous

colour sense’ – he understood how colours work; her

mother was a ‘very practical’ person – she was sensible

and focused on solving problems; her mother was also not ‘

house-proud’ – which is a lovely way to describe someone

who is literally 10 proud of their house and keeps it very

clean and tidy.
Listen again.

Mary Moore

And there’s a bright purple carpet in the sunroom, which

is kind of remarkable. He had the most fabulous colour

sense and you don’t think of sculptors as colourists, but

if you look at his textile designs, or even his coloured

drawings from that period, get extraordinary dark, moody

greys, with very bright pinks and yellows and browns and

colours that you would think clash, or don’t go together,

but are extraordinarily successful and have a kind of
moodiness about them. And, it can be very muddy outside, so

usually my mother would make people take their shoes off at

the front door, but sometimes my father sort of felt that

he
couldn’t possibly ask them to take their shoes off, or he

had forgotten, and she would see this trail of mud across

the yellow carpet and you would hear her sort of shout,

‘Henry!’! You
know, so, my mother was very practical. I wouldn’t say

that she was house-proud, but she was a very careful …

because she was the one who had to get down on her hands

and knees
and scrub the yellow carpet!

Amber: In our next extract, Mary remembers being a little

girl and sitting at a little table, making models out of

clay, while her father, the great sculptor, worked

alongside her! Mary uses several expressions which neatly 11

describe people who are warm and outgoing. Can you catch

them?
Oh, and there’s a nice onomatopoeic word to convey the

sound of the clay being shaped – ‘crunch 12’!
 
Mary Moore

He had a tremendous sense of fun. He really liked the

company of young people, he was
really curious about people, he loved people. But what was

really wonderful is that I would go into his studio, and I

was able to sit at a little table (there are picture of me

when I’m three)
with a piece of clay, you know, sort of modelling away –

crunch, crunch, crunch - and he’s doing his thing at his

table beside me – and I was able to say, ‘Look, would you

make me a
lion? Can you make me a pigeon? Why don’t you make me a

giraffe?’ You know, and he would stop and he would make

out of clay all these animals for me.

Amber: So Mary says her father ‘had a tremendous sense of

fun’ – he was always looking on the bright side of life;

he ‘really liked the company of young people’ – he

really liked being with young people.

Now here’s a list of the language we focussed on in the

programme today. moody – cross and grumpy
colours that clash – colours that don’t look right

together to be a very practical person – to be sensible
to be house-proud – to be proud of your house!