In this new monthly blog series we shine the spotlight on some of the independent creative businesses behind some of our product ranges in the British Library Shop (both online and at our St Pancras, London site). This week we meet Philip and Justine, the husband and wife team based in Berkshire, and founders of Literati & Light. Together they make hand-crafted scented candles inspired by works of literature.

Literati & Light aims to share the fragrances of the greatest stories ever told. The couple create literature-inspired scents in their hand-crafted candles and reed diffusers.

“We like to think of our products as scented stories. The inspiration might come from a particular scene in a literary text – like Dorian Gray’s hedonistic experiments with frankincense, ambergris and violets – or the olfactory landscape of a text – such as our rain, heather and paper Wuthering Heights fragrance.” Justine Shaw, Literati & Light.

Their products are made using eco-friendly ingredients and materials sourced from British suppliers wherever possible. Their packaging is largely made from recycled material and is recyclable after use. Their business started in 2016 on a memorable car journey from London to Brighton, where Justine was studying for a PhD in Modernist Literature at the University of Sussex.

“During the journey, I told my husband how I missed working with my hands and wanted to create a side hustle that would let my creative juices flow. Having previously worked as a professional candlemaker I knew I wanted to work with fragrance, but I was keen to make something that told a story too. While ruminating out loud, my eye fell on the battered copy of Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse poking out of my bag and a lightbulb went off.” Justine Shaw.

By the time the couple got to Brighton, they had the first six fragrances planned and they launched their first collection just a few weeks later. Philip and Justine continue to research, design and produce their candles together in the garden workshop in their Berkshire home.

One of the products stocked in the British Library Shop is their Magical Lands Collection of hand-poured soy and beeswax candles inspired by Wonderland, Rivendell and Narnia. For the Wonderland fragrance, they took the perfumed roses of the Red Queen’s garden, the sweet vanilla and fragrant black tea of the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party, and sumptuous strawberry notes to capture the sticky scent of the stolen strawberry tarts. The Narnia candle has an enticing hint of Turkish Delight backed by a landscape of rich pine oil and crisp snow.

As with so many independent makers and creators, Covid-19 has impacted Literati & Light, who usually host regular candle-making workshops.

“We have certainly missed having the chance to talk scented stories with readers and the opportunity to mingle with and be inspired by like-minded folk at literary festivals. However, we have been touched by the beautiful and thoughtful gift messages that people have asked us to include in packages for loved ones at home and abroad this year.” Justine Shaw.

Literati & Light are currently making miniature versions of their existing scents and are planning new scented stories. Beyond fragrance, Literati & Light are looking to branch out into other literary-inspired items, so 2021 will be a year of designing and innovating in their workshop. Justine offers this advice for anyone starting out with their own small business:

“I would say to walk before you run. We have grown our business slowly whilst both working other jobs and this has allowed us the freedom to play and innovate without the financial pressure of needing success for survival. We have also been fortunate to meet, collaborate with and be inspired by some wonderful creators and makers along the way so I would also say find your tribe and follow your nose – you never know where it might lead!” Justine Shaw.

“We could not be more delighted to be stocked in the British Library Shop. The fact that the shop’s profits from the sale of our products will go towards the Library’s mission to make the country’s intellectual heritage accessible to everyone is a source of endless pride to us.” - Justine Shaw.

Browse the British Library Shop’s Literati & Light range
Visit the Literati & Light website
Follow Literati & Light on Instagram

In this new series of posts Jo from our Digital Engagement team talks to our wonderful Library staff who work tirelessly to manage our collection and make it accessible for everyone. They discuss what they do, how they got into their role and unearth a few lesser known facts about the Library. This week she speaks to Nicole Ioffredi, Print Room Coordinator and Cataloguer.

Nicole is a Print Room Coordinator and Cataloguer working in the Visual Arts Department. She looks after South Asian prints, photos and drawings, as well as some British artworks.

Her job involves coordinating appointments for readers to access our collection items. She recently helped a reader find 19th century photos of a building in India to help gauge original designs and steer a preservation project.

The cataloguing aspect of her role involves documenting photos, prints and drawings, recording details to enable readers to search and find items or to help with the preparation of loans. She meticulously catalogues inscriptions, dates and the condition of collection items.

“Often albums have been catalogued but not individual photos. I manually review each photo and help place conservation bids for fragile items and put in digitisation requests to preserve them.”

How has Covid-19 changed the way you work?

During the pandemic Nicole has been working more from photos of items rather than handling the physical items themselves.

Her ‘business as normal’ routine sees her invigilating reader appointments in the reading room in the morning while the afternoon is spent mostly cataloguing and retrieving items for the following day.

With the reading room closure, due to Covid-19, she is spending most of her time cataloguing and helping readers source information online. She’s working on a detailed spreadsheet that can be ingested into the database with new location information of collection items. But after months of closure, Nicole is really missing meeting our readers:

“I really love observing readers’ emotional connection with specific items, especially when they’re researching their own family history.”

How did you get into this field?

Originally from Canada, Nicole has been living in the UK for five years and has been at the Library since October 2019. Following a Bachelor’s Degree in Art History and World Religions at McGill University in Montreal, Nicole went on to work in UK-based auction houses before completing an MA in Museums and Heritage Studies at SOAS.

“As an undergrad I became interested in South Asian arts, it was my dream to work with prints and drawings. I hope to travel to the region when I can.”

Her tip for those interested in this area of work is to get hands-on experience with collection items whilst studying and volunteering to get a foot in the door.

What is your favourite object in the collection?

A model of a lion, standing on a wooden base, a halter round his neck. Artist(s): Gangaram Cintamani Tambat (fl.1790s).

Nicole enjoys stumbling across unexpected items in the collection. She particularly remembers coming across a wax model of a lion (pictured above and available as a Sketchfab 3D model too). You can find out more about the lion on our Asian and African Studies blog. Her personal preference is for natural history drawings and has a particular soft spot for some Indian drawings of fish (pictured below). Dating from the 1790s, these are some of the earliest natural history drawings of Indian fish drawn from life in the collection. Browse the collection.

NHD36 18.5 by 12 inches. 72 ff. in water-colour depicting Indian fishes. 1794 watermark.

NHD36 18.5 by 12 inches. 72 ff. in water-colour depicting Indian fishes. 1794 watermark.

What do you love about the Library?

When she began working at the British Library in 2019, Nicole was surprised by the scale of our multiple basement stores and impressed by the mechanical system used to retrieve collection items, though she notes it has been eerily quiet in recent months. What she appreciates most is the accessibility of the Library.

“It’s so different to a museum where much of the artefacts are locked away. Here, anyone can visit and make appointments to see items from this incredible collection.”

What is your favourite British Library exhibition or project?

With her personal interest in South Asian art and religion, Nicole enjoyed our Buddhism exhibition which just happened to be on when she joined the Library. She’s also interested in the International Dunhuang Project, a multilingual resource and a ground-breaking international collaboration to make information and images of all manuscripts, paintings, textiles and artefacts from Dunhuang and archaeological sites of the Eastern Silk Road freely available online.

Do you have any book recommendations for our readers?

Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion, a collection of personal essays from the 1960s - “One of the essays about going home really struck me when I first moved to London.”

It has been an extraordinary year so we wanted to take a moment to wish all of you a happy festive season. 

The British Library is a charity that opens up a world of ideas and inspiration for everyone. This birdsong (robin, recorded in Scotland on 26 April 1984 by Richard Margoschis, shelfmark WS2105 C1) is one of almost 250,000 rare recordings preserved for future generations through Unlocking Our Sound Heritage.

With thanks to The National Lottery Heritage Fund, the Foyle Foundation, the Garfield Weston Foundation and many other generous contributions from trusts and individuals.

Image from ‘The Sherborne Missal’, Illuminated manuscript, c.1399 – 1407, Add MS 74236 – acquired and digitised by the Library with generous support from the National Heritage Memorial Fund, The Headley Trust and Mercers’ Charitable Foundation.