In her most recent novel, Six Months of Dreaming, Cory was inspired by the chance find of fourteen necktie designs enclosed with a letter sent by Yutaka Kajikawa (an unknown young Japanese artist from Suita outside Osaka) to Lady Grace Drummond-Hay, who was visiting Japan on the first round-the-world Zeppelin flight in 1929. He hoped she would promote his ‘modern’ designs in the West. Although she did nothing for the young artist, Cory set out to imagine the story of what became of him.  She also took his designs and reworked them into wallpapers, fabrics and scarves so that, ninety-six years on, he was granted the prestigious exhibition in central London he had so hoped for.

In October 2025, Cory brought the book and exhibition back to Osaka as part of the Royal Society of Arts off-expo events at the British Pavilion, performing a one-woman show in a theatre in central Osaka entitled Homecoming – the Triumphal Return of Yutaka Kajikawa. During this book launch, Charlotte Cory will read extracts from her book and provide more insight into the project.

• After the talk, copies of  Six Months of Dreaming – The Limitedition Press will be on sale for £10.00. Both cash and cards will be accepted.

About The contributors

Charlotte Cory b. 1956 (Bristol, England) is a writer and artist who lives between Sancerre on the River Loire in central France and Greenwich on the River Thames to the east of London. Her work (comprising whole invented worlds) resides, likewise, between the visual and the verbal. Known for her novels, radio dramas and dazzling visual stories, her whimsical narratives are all characterised by an uncanny, darkly comic edge.

Two of her artworks are in the Royal Collection at Windsor, and her work has been exhibited many times at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibitions. Her story-telling wallpapers are much sought after (and are for sale at the Walpa Wallpaper Museum in Osaka and their store in Tokyo).