Pattie Boyd - Pieces of Me

PATTIE BOYD

Pattie Boyd was born in Hampstead in 1945, and brought up in Kenya. She started a successful modelling career in 1962 and, thanks to a one-line part in A Hard Day's Night, met and later married George Harrison in 1966. Despite initially spurning the attentions of Eric Clapton, she finally divorced Harrison and married him in 1979. Clapton's alcoholism and infidelities put a huge strain on the marriage, and they too divorced in 1989. Pattie is now a successful photographer and lives in West Sussex. Her autobiography, written with Penny Junor, called Wonderful Today: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me, containing her own photographs, is out now (Hodder Headline).

Bronze Figure

This was a wedding gift from Eric in 1979. I adore her - she has an ivory face, is quite heavy in weight, and lives on a bedside table next to my bed. I've always had her with me as she makes me feel happy. She's holding a bunch of flowers. She's ready for the day.

Makeup Bag

A personal shopper at Selfridges produced this wonderful travel make-up case for me. I really enjoy the process of make-up, but I don't put such heavy eye make-up on these days, although I do wear lipstick, which I never used to in the 60s. When I was modelling we had to lug own very heavy bags from shoot to shoot, full of make-up, hair-pieces, hair brushes, gloves, and accessories of every kind.

Bracelet

This scrunched-up solid gold bracelet is four inches wide, paper thin and very light. I got it in Rajasthan a couple of years ago. When I first went there in the mid Sixties with George, it was so hot that, even arriving at night, it felt as if I was walking into an oven.

Rose

This, my favourite flower, is from a dark red rose plant, called 'Deep Secret', given to me eight years ago by my mother, who is 83 now. When I see the bush in the garden, it reminds me of her.

Perfume

I first smelt this Terre Hermes perfume at the airport before going to Pisa earlier this year, and had to have it. I don't even know whether it's for men or women - but it's quite woody and spicy, and not too heavy. The smell's like a new beginning, a new start. It's seize-the-day.

Meal

This year we've had some particularly cold August evenings in Sussex, and I've cooked Spanish chicken stew with rice, olives and lemon. You could call it a winter party piece. Normally in Summer I love putting together salads with grains, red and black rice - a favourite of George's. Eric went more for pastas.

B/W shot of George & Pattie

My favourite picture ever. It's so lovely. It was taken in our garden in 1965 or 66 by the New Yorker Henry Grossman, who always felt photography wasn't his career, and wanted to be an opera singer. When I phoned him recently, 40 years later, it was good to hear that he had become a singer, after all.

Bob Marley CD

I love Bob Marley. I remember seeing him with Eric at the Hammersmith Odeon in 1980. Afterwards, walking towards his dressing room, the door was open just a little bit, and all this smoke was coming out. You had to wade right through it to go inside and see him. Very funny.

Crystal with crown detail

This belongs in a temple in the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan and must be hundreds of years old. It's a beautiful piece of crystal about eight inches tall, with a crown detail at the top and bottom, two rows of turquoise beads and a yak's bone. Five years ago I went trekking with Penny Smith and Mike & Angie Rutherford, and found it at a market in Timpu.

Mapplethorpe Book

I love the process of capturing the flower before it blooms fully. Mapplethorpe's pictures are stunningly lit, although in his photos the flowers are dead, whereas the ones I take are alive, still on their stem.

Little Buddha

I like the idea of the Buddha lying down and having a rest, as you normally see him sitting up. A sleeping Buddha is a beautiful Buddha. Occasionally I still do meditation, but I'm not an exemplary student. George and I had lessons in Yoga in India, but it's not my thing now. I much prefer Pilates.

Camera

After my marriage with Eric ended in 1989, I lost my identity. It was only after 3 or 4 years that I managed to look at myself, assess my life and see what I had. And what I realized in the lost me was that, when I opened my eyes, I had not just this fantastic camera - a late 70s Hasselblad - but a huge legacy of photos I'd been taking over the years. Until that moment I hadn't thought anything of them, shoving these riches into boxes or envelopes. The Hasselblad is great for portraits, but for these pictures I used my new digital Canon.