Christian Hook Exhibits At Althorp, Home Of The Spencer Family & The Althorp Literary Festival

One of the many reasons that I find my childhood friend, internationally acclaimed Artist Christian Hook inspiring, aside from the obvious, is because he was in his 40s when he took the courageous step of leaving his secure teaching job and pension to embark on a years’ contract with Sky Arts TV, having won Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the year. Many in his shoes may have opted for security; Christian had faith and put his ‘pension on the table’; his career sky-rocketed after that! Life is short. Living from your authentic Self is, I believe, what sets us free and allows us to be the best expression of who we truly are. The best we can offer others is to serve from our essence, high energy, high vibration and high level of consciousness.

At Christian Hook’s masterful exhibition at Althorp, I was also privileged to meet at the Althorp Literary Festival running in parallel, authors and screenwriters who are positively impacting the globe. As I scanned through the schedule, I chose to attend presentations from which I could draw deeper insights into my work and learn new wellbeing tools to support my clients and website users.

Rachel Kelly is a British author and mental health advocate, having suffered with depression, including hospitalisation for suicide risk and a multi-stage recovery. She has worked as a journalist at The Times and is the author of the books Black Rainbow, Walking on Sunshine, The Happy Kitchen and Singing in the Rain. Since 2014 Rachel runs wellbeing workshops for mental health charities MIND and other organisations. Her aim is to help others stay calm and live happy after severe depression. You can find her books in our Shop.

Allison Pearson’s first novel, “I Don’t Know How She Does It” (2002) is about mothers who are trying to balance family life and career simultaneously. The book was a bestseller and made into a film starring Sarah Jessica Parker and Pierce Brosnan. Allison is previously subeditor of the Financial Times, The Independent and The Independent on Sunday, became a TV Critic, then a columnist for London’s Evening Standard and The Daily Telegraph. Allison also presented on Channel 4 and BBC Radio.

Julian Fellowes, Baron, actor, novelist, film director, screen writer and a Conservative Peer for the House of Lords, spoke about his writing for TV (including Oscar award winning Gosford Park and ITV award winning series Downton Abby). He spoke about his work, the craft, the characters, the stories in the process of writing for TV- an interesting comparison to legal drafting for Court Rooms! Having practised Family Law since 1999, I have found that in many of my clients’ cases, life (or as Mark Twain said, truth) is stranger than fiction.

Being motivated by listening to Baron Fellowes talk at Althorp, I did further research about him and I share below an extract of his interview by Nik Powell at the London Screen Festival in 2016, as a powerful message in support of a Holistic approach to Legal Practice, he says:

“A lot of my stuff is about self-knowledge, or lack of self-knowledge and is about people realising who they are and waking up … my father always used to say everyone had one key virtue that they valued above all others and he valued courage, but I think self-knowledge is the most important thing because it is our lack of self-knowledge that invariably gets us into trouble and our self-awareness, as long as it is realistic, can help us achieve what we want to get done…”.

As a Holistic Lawyer, I wholeheartedly agree with this testimony. It is why it is crucial that as lawyers, we support our clients not only by resolving their legal problem but by being their conduit or facilitator through which they can be enlightened to themselves. Legal problems and disputes invariably arise due to our clients’ childhood programming, limiting beliefs (I am not good enough, not worthy enough, not loveable, undeserving of happiness, etc); they can through self-awareness change and transform their patterns and behaviours, leading to restoration, balance, increased happiness, peace and wellbeing.

I also found the following a very supportive statement which can apply to so many life situations, particularly for lawyers starting off: “… you mustn’t be held back by the possibility that you are going to make a fool of yourself, because you certainly are going to make a fool of yourself, many times! And as you go on you just accept that, that some of the things you do won’t come off, sometimes they are good … you just have to keep going forward and not let that get you down."

Charles Spencer, 9th Earle Spencer and Countess Spencer, are the hosts of the Althorp Literary Festival. He is a nobleman, peer, author, journalist (The Guardian, The Independent on Sunday, The Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Telegraph, Vanity Fair); broadcaster (NBC News, Today, NBC News Nightly, Granada Television); and younger brother of Diana, Princess of Wales. It was an honour and a privilege to meet the Spencers, spend time in their historic home and meet so many inspiring people.

For further information, please contact: amber@amberlaw.com