Tuesday

Quite a busy week so far.

Apart from the country falling apart.

The husband of the woman who owns our studio is in hospital and has had a serious operation, so he’s going to be out of action for a while.

My Uncle died last night - he was a very important part of my extended family so there will be quite a bit of grief and sadness.

We have a new guy coming into the studio next week. He has a BAFTA, so we’ll all have to ‘up our game’

I’ve been forced to mute almost everyone I know on Facebook, they keep squabbling and throwing accusations and threats about - and that doesn’t include the football.

Last night a group ran a literary salon in the bar beneath my studio and I helped out - they basically forgot to advertise and there were 8 people in the audience to meet Anthony Penrose, son of Roland Penrose and Lee Miller, talking about his life and some books he has written. It was basically a slide show - ‘here is me with Max Ernst’ - here is me with ‘Jean Miro’, here is my mum cooking dinner for Picasso - that sort of thing, he was utterly lovely and amazing - he signed a couple of books for me and we had a chat afterwards - when I was at college in the late 80’s I kept taking the Penrose Annuals out of the library and later on bought a set for myself - and I knew all about his family and their achievements, and the times they lied it - he talked a lot about Spain and Miro and Franco and we had a brief conversation about my father in Spain at that time.

The mess with the Labour party rumbles on towards it’s inevitable car crash.  The stupidity of people around me is staggering. Even the Tories know we need a strong, effective opposition to balance the country - stop us veering towards the right and fascism, and prevent catastrophes like Brexit. People really don’t seem to understand that Corbyn is a disaster and the ‘burn the which’ mentality of his supporters is suicide.

Spoke at length to a client who is trying to decide on pulling out of Europe all together and another who has already scaled down their plans.

I’m not sure if I’m suffering from hay fever or I have a cold - it’s a vague grey area between the two that is confusing and annoying. 

Below, my signed and annoyed books by Anthony Penrose.