The Modern House | The Dartmoor eco-home of literary editor, Gail Pirkis

“I wanted to be surrounded by bookshelves”

The impeccably organised, grass-roofed, book-lined home of literary editor, Gail Pirkis

Feature: The Modern House Journal
Words: Madeleine Silver
Photography: Elliot Sheppard

Gail Pirkis | The Modern House | Words Madeleine Silver Photography Elliot Sheppard

When her books were unloaded into her newly finished house overlooking an outcrop of Dartmoor, Gail Pirkis’s architect looked daunted. “He had come round for a drink one evening and saw piles and piles of books on the floor and said: ‘I’m not sure this load is in my calculations. I think you better start shelving them,’” Gail laughs.

When the literary editor and her husband David approached the now-retired local architect – Peter Hall from Van der Steen and Hall Architects – over 20 years ago to build their grass-roofed house, books were a priority. For it’s from the kitchen table and against a flawlessly framed vignette of rolling moorland (just one other house reveals itself when the trees are left bare in winter) that Gail combs through proofs of Slightly Foxed.

This year marks 20 years since the first issue of this quarterly literary magazine – which Gail co-edits with Hazel Wood – was published. Printed in Yorkshire by craftsmen printers Smith Settle, with covers illustrated by contemporary British artists, each issue celebrates fiction and non-fiction books that have been lost, forgotten or overlooked. “We started in 2004 when chain bookshops were everywhere, flogging three books for the price of two, and selling piles of celebrity memoirs. It meant that the back list – books that are still worth reading – was neglected. We felt frustrated that everything was focused on the new,” Gail reflects. “People thought we were mad but 20 years on, we’re still going strong.”

Her bookshelves – winding down the circular staircase which takes you to the bedrooms, or lining the corridor running behind the dining room so as not to obscure the view – form her own reference library. Meticulously organised and delightfully diverse, there’s a section dedicated to China (the couple spent eight years in Hong Kong), and at the next glance, a shelf championing the British countryside. Outside her spare bedroom, where her grandchildren happily decamp, are carefully collected editions of Beatrix Potter nestled up against Harry Potter and Arthur Ransome.

But it’s rounding the bend from the sprawling sitting room that the house’s jewel appears: a book-lined study. “I wanted to be surrounded by bookshelves. The dome above the desk, which is backlit, echoes John Soane’s house in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, which I love,” explains Gail. Hidden in the back wall of the shelves is a secret door on wheels which conceals a music room. And, like the larder with its uniform Kilner jars, or the enviably organised boxes of Lego hiding in a built-in cupboard and ready to be upended, the house is clutter-free. “One of my favourite TV programmes is Stacey Solomon’s Sort Out Your Life. And that’s what editing is really, clearing out the unnecessary and going for clarity. Clarity and beauty.” Here, Gail explains how the house embodies her editor’s mind — and how it seamlessly sits in its West Country landscape.