Last of Seven

The writings which comprise my memoirs were-started over twenty years .ago when I was still painting. Verse can express, emotions of love, joy and sadness in a manner divorced from most painters'' subject matter. This, I find, is especially so nowadays in the prevalence of the abstract -- with most practitioners'' work having many human verities absent -- not only in Europe but world-wide. This change in thinking has been enormous and is -one that is seen most clearly in the visual arts. Now that circumstances make painting impossible for me, writing has moved into first place. Even so, as with painting, progress has been slow. But writing is so very different from painting -- so many thoughts and imaginative images, often distantly or subtly related, can imbue a poem with a lasting mystery, or a glimpse into a lovely insubstantial world. This volume completes my Trilogy -- My Life, My Painting and finally My Writing. Although they have emerged as separate books, the writing of Part III was essential to complete the narrative as I conceived it -- there has been a great deal to think about, much to ponder over. It is my intention that readers should see my work and life as constituting one narrative even though Part I and Part II are published in two separate volumes. Bringing these memoirs to a satisfactory conclusion has been difficult, yet I think it is in this final Part II that the reader will at last find a brief summary of my work, my life and my thinking.