Music and words from Prospect Cottage with Ben Whishaw

Today we wanted to share with you a beautiful film recently shot at the cottage.

Strange Concord: Music and Words from Prospect Cottage features acclaimed actor Ben Whishaw reading from Derek Jarman's diaries, interspersed with music by John Zorn and Henryk Górecki.

In this spellbinding 70-minute film, Jarman's thoughts, memories, observations and experiences as related in his 1989-90 Modern Nature journals are read inside and outside the cottage, punctuated by music composed over the same period of time: Zorn's The Dead Man: 13 Specimen for String Quartet and Górecki's Good Night, Op 63.

The film is introduced by Alastair Upton, director of Creative Folkestone, Kent's leading arts organisation and the new custodians of Prospect Cottage. It was shot as part of their recent Autumn Reads event, an online festival exploring Jarman's diaries, and you can watch some of the other events too on their YouTube channel - including the Observer's Allan Jenkins on the role that gardening can play in mental wellbeing and writer Hisham Matar on the relationship between art and life.

We hope you enjoy the film.

Thank you for supporting #SaveProspectCottage. As you know, rewards for this campaign faced significant delays due to the timing of the campaign's end during lockdown and while our suppliers have been working with reduced workforce and capacity due to furlough and social distancing. Thank you once again for your continued patience.

We're working closely with the artists to finesse your rewards and send them out to you. For those of you awaiting Howard Sooley's prints and book, here's a behind-the-scenes peek at Howard signing copies of Derek Jarman's Garden. As the weather turns colder we hope they'll bring a dash of spring and summer into your days!