Sunday Times international best-selling author and Cicestrian Kate Mosse CBE, patron of the 2024 Festival of Flowers, discusses her role as patron of the upcoming Festival of Flowers at Chichester Cathedral.
With childhood memories and a deep appreciation for Chichester's rich heritage, Kate eagerly anticipates the festival's 'creation' theme, seeing it as a celebration of tradition and creativity in the heart of the city.
Kate said: 'I wanted to get involved because even though I'm not a flower arranger myself. I love cut flowers, I love arrangements and I've always come as a punter, if you like, to the previous festivals, and the Cathedral is very much a part of my life. So it's been a complete pleasure.'
Read the full interview below:
When I've been thinking about the Festival and what I'm looking forward to most, I think it's because the theme is 'creation'. And from past years, I know that the imagination of the arrangers - they're artists, all of them - the way that they interpret what that means, particularly in this extraordinary space of the Cathedral, is going to be mind-blowing, I suspect. And there are certain tombs, there are certain parts of the Cathedral that I have a great affection for. So looking forward to seeing those in particular. The Arundel tomb, which, of course, inspired Philip Larkin's famous poem when he came here in the 1950s, is a particular favourite of mine. But everywhere there will be stories, I suppose. And as a writer myself, the idea of telling stories through flowers is completely intoxicating.
Quite often I'm asked by journalists who don't live here what my favourite thing about living in Chichester is. And I suppose that it has the atmosphere of a huge city, a world capital if you like, in terms of the art galleries, the museums, of course, the theatre, the concert halls, the beautiful buildings, the Roman remains, as well as the Georgian town halls and those things that, history is everywhere in Chichester.
It’s inspired me for the writing I do, both my non-fiction and my fiction, which is inspired by place and by history. And I think it's that, that you can just be having a cup of coffee, you can be shopping, and then you can turn down into the cloisters, and you are aware that you're walking where thousands of people have walked for many, many hundreds of years. So as far as I'm concerned, Chi has everything.
Growing up in Chichester, I was always aware that we came from a faith family, if you like. My grandfather was the very first vicar of Aldwick. My aunt was one of the women who founded the Movement for the Ordination of Women. My godmother was an Anglican Nun. And although we lived in Fishbourne, we came to the Cathedral a lot for the big services. But it feels particularly pertinent and poignant, I suppose, for me to be the Patron of the Festival of Flowers in 2024, that is the anniversary of the ordination of the first women as priests in the Anglican Church - and my aunt was one of them.