Memories of Beryl

Published: 15 July, 2010

• WE remember Beryl Bainbridge as a wonderfully witty artist.

We met her through our uncle, Mervyn Horder, a publisher who owned Duckworth.

When he retired he sold it to Colin Haycraft but remained very much part of the house.

Colin was married to Anna who had been at Liverpool College of Art with Beryl.

Both were extremely talented painters and both moved to Camden Town.

Anna painted portraits of local friends’ children, including ours. Beryl showed at various galleries but the exhibition we remember best was for Medical Aid for Vietnam.

One picture we really wanted to buy was A Little Known Sojourn of Napoleon in Camden Town, which showed him standing in Beryl’s house in Albert Street in characteristic pose.

Sadly it had already been sold but later we did buy a pair of her paintings which still make us smile.

Then both Anna and Beryl stopped painting and started writing, Anna under the pseudonym of Alice Thomas Ellis.

Of course, they were both published by Duckworth and the rest is history.

TED AND ROZ CULLINAN
NW1