Blog Archives
Broken Rooms
Broken Rooms is both a memoir and a novel, though it never settles quietly into one category. It tells the story of Sebastian Cole, a gifted mathematician from Sheffield who stumbles into the world of design, beauty, and wealth through a fateful meeting with Lady Judy Beardsley. What begins as weekend tutoring spirals into an immersion in luxury, power, and temptation. The book follows him through grand houses in London, decadent travels, passionate but destructive relationships, and the search for authenticity in a life caught between duty, desire, and dreams. This is a story about reinvention. It is about the tension between longing for beauty and grappling with the shadows of shame, heartbreak, and secrecy.
Reading it, I felt pulled into Sebastian’s inner world in a way that was both thrilling and heartbreaking. The writing is lush, almost cinematic, full of detail about fabrics, food, interiors, and scents. Sometimes, I caught myself pausing just to savor the descriptions of a chandelier or the taste of a Tarte Tatin. At other times, the excess weighed on me, the same way Sebastian is weighed down by the very luxuries he covets. I found myself admiring the author’s ability to weave emotion into objects, to make a velvet curtain or a marble foyer feel like characters themselves. Yet I also wrestled with frustration at Sebastian’s self-sabotage, at his naivety, at his constant return to toxic people who drained him. That tension kept me hooked, even when I wanted to shout at him to run in the opposite direction.
On a personal level, I connected with the book’s exploration of longing and identity. The novel is about design, yes, but beneath the wallpaper and chandeliers, it is about a man trying to carve out a place for himself in a world that doesn’t quite accept him. That struggle felt raw and real. There were moments that made me laugh, and others that left me sitting in silence, heavy with empathy. At times, I found the prose almost indulgent, yet that indulgence mirrors Sebastian’s journey. It is the language of someone intoxicated by beauty, love, and possibility, even when those things unravel. The book made me think not only about art and design, but also about how we all build rooms, real and emotional, to house our deepest desires.
Broken Rooms is not for everyone. Its pace lingers, its details are rich to the point of decadence, and its protagonist can be both magnetic and exasperating. But for readers who appreciate personal storytelling dressed in velvet and candlelight, who want to be transported into salons and safaris while also being invited into the quiet ache of the heart, this book will be a gift. I’d recommend it to lovers of memoir, design, travel writing, and anyone who has ever chased beauty while carrying their own brokenness.
Pages: 340 | ASIN : B0FNWB1LZL
Support Indie Artists
Knowing Irv: The Life and Art of Irving Schiffer shares with readers the lesser-known areas of your father’s life and his passion for artwork, both written and with various media methods. Why was this an important book for you to write?
The year 2022 was the 50th year of his passing. I was 14 at the time. He was a writer, a painter, a photographer, and more…but, of course, he was my dad, and not a day goes by that I don’t miss him terribly. But in 2022, my brother and I wanted to put his legacy out in the public for people to learn about what a wonderful and creative soul he was. I began to gather his paintings, his stories and cartoons, had over 300 slides converted to digital, and before I knew it, there was a substantial body of work.
It was as much a personal passion project as it was about sharing his art with the world. I think that, too often, we look at art and don’t see the person behind it. Irv Schiffer expressed himself in so many ways that I felt it was the most important thing for me to show others his personality and joy through his art.
When you and your brother were creating this book and researching all of his work, did you find anything that surprised you about your father?
We started this as, not a book, but as something to do to collect our dad’s output in one place. But my brother had just turned 70, and I wanted to surprise him by completing this for his enjoyment. We were both extremely surprised at the amount of material there was. Specifically, I was surprised to learn he had a very renowned literary agent at the time and also that he had just pitched out a book exposing the private surveillance industry for the shady things that were going on at the time. I never knew about that.
Irv Schiffer was a true Renaissance man who created his art using diverse methods and media, from the written word to physical art. What is your favorite work of art that your father created and why?
He was a songwriter and lyricist too, so I think his song “Ain’t You Got a Pencil,” which could have stood shoulder to shoulder with any of the witty songs of the Great American Songbook, is my favorite of all.
What is one thing you hope readers take away from your father’s story?
To cherish authentic art from unknowns wherever you find it and to support indie artists!
Author Links: GoodReads | Twitter | Website | Amazon
Here, for the first time, is a collection of all the paintings we could find, a record of his short stories, trade magazine articles, photos, a full (unpublished) manuscript and a traditionally published book, line drawings for a detective agency newsletter, and even cartoons. While not complete (he gave away or sold some paintings that we have no record of), it is a healthy and appreciable account of a beautiful, artistic soul who was our father. These works will hopefully paint their own picture of why Knowing Irv was a cherished and once-in-a-lifetime experience.
LITERARY TITAN 