my aunt I

The happiest moments of my childhood were probably spent with my maternal aunt, until she became reclusive through infirmity, was great value. She never married, having had unfortunate relationships with men but was quite an extrovert and an eccentric.

In my early teens, she took me to the theatre and bought me Babyshams. She also took me on a holiday with her ‘gentleman friend’ (who she’d been engaged to in her youth) and his son from one of his several marriages. She was also inclined to confide snippets of her youthful indiscretions which always entertained me.

She had a knack for bumping into minor celebrities and was brazen enough to converse. On a train journey, she managed to coax Percy Edwards into going through his repertoire of birdsongs. Whilst visiting Devon, she met and conversed with one of the Dimbleby brothers. On a subsequent visit, she did the same with Bamber Gascoigne and asked him whether he was there to visit the former. He said, ‘Yes I am, actually, do you know him?’

In later years, I met up with her when she was visiting an exhibition at the Royal Academy with her Art Evening Class. She was looking a little like a bag lady and I cringed as I followed her around with her poking her finger at the paintings with comments like, ‘That bit looks a little like a pussy cat’ and ‘Look at all the paint on that, it’s so expensive, you know!’ Painfully embarrassing at the time but very funny in retrospect.