5 minute read
Creative Spark by Sarah Sands
SARAH SANDS
Creative Spark
Invention, reinvention, beauty, perseverance – and a sprinkling of magic – are among the qualities found in the finest British brands
Sarah Sands ► Sarah Sands is a former editor of The Sunday Telegraph and The Evening Standard and of Radio 4’s Today programme. She is a board director of Hawthorn Advisors, chair of Bright Blue think tank, on the board of the Berkeley Group and of London First, and a trustee of Index on Censorship. She is also the Chair of the Gender Equality Advisory Council, G7, and a Walpole Board Director. Above ► The 2012 Olympic Cauldron & its architect, the inventive Thomas Heatherwick.
Opposite ► The Vessel, Hudson Yard, NYC. If creativity is one of the UK’s greatest exports then Heatherwick’s stunning new building is a portent example.
s the clouds of Covid part, the first invitations arrive. Here is one for June: tea and cake with a Benedictine monk at the studio of Thomas Heatherwick. It is the charm of the casting, and the mention of cake, that is so cheering. Thomas’s studio is a fairy-tale secret of King’s Cross. Behind heavy wooden doors, another world exists. A youthful, bright-eyed staff wander round a hanger-like space, examining models of cities, or furniture or wheels or sketches. You can almost see their minds whirring. I asked Thomas once – naturally, over tea and cake – how he would describe himself. A designer? An architect? He shook his curls: “I would like to see myself as an inventor.”
Invention is not a uniquely British gift, but there is an inventive British sensibility. From Alan Turing to Tim Berners-Lee to Demis Hassabis and Sarah Gilbert, there is an enthusiasm for working things out. Gilbert, one of the creators of the Oxford vaccine, very simply summed up her breakthrough to me: “It is an original thought and then confirmation of the hypothesis. Plus perseverance.” It is that original thought that connects so much of what is great about British brands. With it comes a pride of execution. When Danny Boyle wanted to convey Britishness at the opening of the Olympics he showed the Industrial Revolution, the internet, the Mini, the NHS, music, fashion, and launched a brilliant climax with Heatherwick’s Olympic cauldron.
Opposite ► Thomas Heatherwick’s Coal Drops Yard in London. “We are a nation of wand wavers”: Harry Potter is a very British wizard, in the tradition of Gandalf & Merlin.
Below ► British invention comes in many forms: The NHS - the heroes of 2020; James Bond & Nomi in 2021’s No Time to Die; & the up-and-coming Festival UK in 2022.
2020 2021 2022
The James Bond films are full of inventive gadgets, the brand itself a combination of heritage and futuristic. Harry Potter is a British wizard, in the magical British tradition of Gandalf or Merlin. We are a nation of wand wavers. It is a love of problem solving that starts with crossword puzzles and ends with the genius of Bletchley Park and GCHQ.
The British invent and export. It is why international investors are greedy for our science and tech. I am working with a committee on what we hope will become the British Davos – a showcase for our inventors. From new drugs to AI to hydrogen vehicles, the British government is placing a gigantic bet on British science.
It should not forget our more down-to-earth inventions. This is the country that invented rugby and the suit. We may have seen less of the suit among working from home businesses, but politicians have taken to wearing them with ties again. Who wants to see casual wear now from those in charge? We not only invented and exported the suit, but encouraged women to wear it. We have seen it brilliantly reinvented in the American Vice President Kamala Harris. The suit is a symbol of confidence rather than stuffiness.
In the Festival UK 2022, in which art will meet science, we must showcase both creativity and quality. When Sir Nicholas Hytner was asked for guidance about the particular slant a theatrical production should take, he offered the best advice I have ever heard: “Just be good.”
I have tried to use this on occasion. When I edited the Today programme on Radio 4 I had to wade through a long list of compliance and corporation pledges. We needed to please the left, the right, the north, the south, the young, the old. Poor frazzled producers asked what they should prioritise, so I quoted Hytner. If we are good at what we do, audiences or customers will come.
I am reminded of this looking down the list of Walpole businesses, finding not only invention but also beauty. Why else has Rolls-Royce entered our language as an expression of quality? I heard it this year from my son, as he bought gear for his first child: “It’s the Rolls-Royce of prams.”
Of course, what gives enduring quality is the inventor’s appraising eye. How can we answer a need? What can we improve? As soon as we were in lockdown, engineers and entrepreneurs were examining virtual reality and looking to take things on in leaps and bounds. Invention demands reinvention and we saw retail pivot online. Problems must be solved. Our entrepreneurs found ways to keep supply chains running.
Up and down the Walpole list of members we see original thought, invention and reinvention and perseverance. Whether it is the suit, the hotel, the jewellery, the tea, the scent, the champagne, it is the same evolution of quality.
In the brief respite from lockdown in the early autumn, I got an email from the British Library. It was open, on a booking system, and I was welcome to come to look at one of the treasures on display. It was the Lindisfarne Gospels. I had always wanted to see them, and here was the book in real life, bigger, heavier and more magnificent than I had imagined. The monks had found a way of keeping straight lines through tiny pricks in the goatskin page.
Ingenuity and quality. I shall raise that with the Benedictine abbot when we meet over tea and cakes at Thomas Heatherwick’s.
