I was invited to attend a book launch at the Old College building of the Dulwich Estate. The whole notion of the self-appointed fiefdom that the Dulwich Estate holds over its residents does not sit well with me and, frankly, I will be glad to escape its bureaucratic clutches when I move my house and studio out of West Dulwich next month. However none of this resident’s acerbity applied when attending the launch of The Dulwich Notebook by Mireille Gallinou, as it is a delightful celebration of all the good things about Dulwich, centring around its history, its topography and its local businesses.

Best of all – for me at least – was that I am featured in the book! Mireille brought her photographer Torla Evans to my studio months ago, so I knew I would be in the book in some form. However I’d forgotten that they also took pictures in the rest of my house and garden as the author was particularly interested in the 1960s architecture of my estate, and as I flicked through the pages I was excited to see lots of pictures of me, my work, my studio and my house! I was also thrilled for Mireille that what I had understood was to be a brief Book-of-Days-style notebook had actually turned into quite a weighty well-researched tome that will hold much interest for anyone living in or around the area.