WELSH REFRESH

Ah hears the rattlin ay boatils in thir crates so ah goes tae the windae n pills back the curtain. It's Terry's juice lorry n ah kin hear um giein it the patter. Jist when ah think aboot shoutin oot the windae or gaun doon fir a blether, ah see thit eh's talkin tae Maggie Orr n this other lassie. That's just brutal; so ah dinnae think ah'll bother. No that ah've nowt against Maggie, she's awright, but ah hud this shutin match wi her auld man the other week.

The tosser eywis comes back pished wi ehs wife fae the boozer, n they huv a big fight in the street. It keeps muh Ma awake. Ma auld man'll no dae nowt, so ah goes tae the door n hus a word.

HENRIETTA MORAES

In light of the recent sale of Francis Bacon's portrait of Henrietta Moraes (left, 1963), I would strongly recommend anyone interested in the foibles of Britain's most successful post-war artists to read Moraes' self-penned book 'Henrietta'. She paints a picture at odds with the prevalent representation of late fifties/sixties London dominated by pictures of grubby children frolicking in East End terraces and leggy blondes on Carnaby Street.

As well as describing sitting for Bacon and Freud (Girl in a Blanket, 1953), Moraes evokes the world of Soho's eccentric denizens such as photographer John Deakin and the fantastically named Muriel Belcher (landlady of The Colony Room).