*[…Well. It’s exciting for us, and we’d like to share it with you]

It’s all go, here at Wrightington Towers…!

First up, several of you have mentioned that you’ll miss Robert’s dulcet tones and pearls of wisdom over the long break between terms, so….

Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo, alakazam… and ta-daaaah!

Voila - one shiny online taster course, available for booking now!

The Shock of the New: The birth of modern art

Saturdays 4 & 11 December, 10.00-12.30

Online via zoom. 

In terms of chronology, this is a natural follow-up to Art Nouveau, so if you’ve enjoyed that and/or The Impressionists or Post-Impressionism, this should be right up your street too.* If you’ve tended to steer clear of his arty stuff because you’re not sure whether you’d like it as much as his more obviously historical courses, this would be an ideal opportunity to try out something new, rather than risking committing to the full ten week course, sight-unseen, as it were, when it arrives.

*[NB As ever, this course assumes no prior knowledge, so it doesn’t matter whether you’ve attended previous courses.]

Secondly, on to our news.

As some of you know, we’ve been ridiculously busy bunnies recently, each of us working at full tilt to do all we can develop our fledgling business into something which will allow us to keep on doing what we love doing.

We don’t expect everybody to be interested in what’s going on behind the scenes - do please feel free to ignore what follows! But as so many of you have been so wonderfully supportive, encouraging, and generous with incredibly useful advice and suggestions, we wanted to give you an update.

In addition to the obvious things, as I hinted a few months ago, I’ve been wrestling with intimidatingly fiendish red tape and often kafka-esque bureaucracy in several areas for some time.

But I’m delighted to be able to report that my struggles have not been in vain!

Excitingly, we were referred to the New Enterprise track via Universal Credit, which offers support for new start-up businesses. It won’t surprise anyone who reads a newspaper to know that both UC and New Enterprise are rather inundated just now ( ! ), but over the half-term break, things suddenly kicked into action.

As a result, we’re utterly chuffed to announce that we have just* been accepted onto the Business Development & Growth Plan, which opens up all sorts of possibilities and support. Most importantly, we now have a business mentor, who will be advising us. For a whole twelve months! I’ve had enough contact with him already to know that he’s lovely, and I can’t wait to start working with him.

*[Literally just. The Actual Official Mail arrived as I was proof-reading this post - hurrah!]

It won’t, I’m sure, surprise you to learn that I’ve also been working on other things while this has been in the pipeline.

The quieter period of course delivery over summer allowed us to step back and take stock of where things stood after the Lockdown Flurry of Activity as a new business.

In my more confident moments, I like to think that we were swans, elegantly gliding above the water surface whilst paddling frantically below, but I’m under no illusions. We all know that the frantic paddling was often all-too-visible. Thank you for bearing with us at such times!

But look at us now, getting all professional….

We’ve now got a lovely accountant - following a recommendation from a long-standing Denizen of Wright History (for which thank you - you know who you are!) - and have therefore got the immediately intimidating accounting things tamed. As a result of that, Wright History is now Officially A Thing with HMRC.*

*[NB Don’t worry. All of Robert’s freelance activity has been declared. But it’s exciting for us to now have it as an actual partnership business.]

We also now have An Official Business Bank Account.*

*[Alas, it’s in my name rather than Wright History, but it is nevertheless a business account. That’s progress, right?]

I’ve amended the details on the response form for registration, but if you accidentally use the account we’ve had until now, don’t worry - the old account is still live. I’ll be checking both accounts in the transition period.

Additionally, encouraged by comments from many of you (for which thank you!), I’ve started sketching out a course for April or summer. As soon as I can step back from the day-to-day practicalities, watch this space….

I’ve also finally been able to work on my own long-delayed website (which has a very different focus to Wright History, so don’t worry - no obligation to ask!). I shall still be on Wright History website duty for the foreseeable, I hasten to add, but over the next few months we’ll be trying to work out where I should be spending most of my time.

Finally, we’d both like to thank you for your support during what has been a rather knife-edge time at Wrightington Towers. Whether with suggestions, advice, and thoughtful encouragement, via our ‘virtual tip-jar’ at Ko-fi, or by ‘paying what you think it’s worth and can easily afford’ (as mooted last month), your generosity has made a very real difference as we are attempting to glide as elegantly below the water as above it. Thank you.

So. That’s our news.

Exciting times.

Onwards and upwards…!