“If we were on the submissions panel for the Summer Exhibition it would be fabulous wouldn’t it? Just think of all the brightly coloured wonderful paintings we’d choose!” So Frances wrote to me yesterday. An excellent painter herself, she’s been collecting my paintings for a while now and loves to surround herself with art that gives her joy. “Yes,” I wrote back, “the happy ones, the wild, gorgeous, flamboyant ones. The subtle gentle colours too. All the ones that make he

When my great niece was due and her name-to-be much deliberated, I suggested to my niece she call her Bambelina Ballerina but for some mysterious reason she said "don't be silly Aunty Jenny" so it became instead the official name of Bambi (my horse) which she (Bambi) is very pleased with. My sister Penny has just emailed me with new details of our family tree and I love the names of our newly discovered ancestors, in particular Eliza Angelina (b.1860) and I wonder if Eliza An