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After the buffet at our family gathering, I settle down in my quiet corner to finish my drawing of the fence (see previous page). It isn't quiet for long: soon George is sitting on the old ash stump and asks if I'm going to draw him. The other children gather to see what's going on and to bicker about which of them is going to be next to sit on the 'log of fame' ('It's not a log, it's a stump,' one of them points out). I'm surrounded by children drawing, chasing each other and generally milling around my model. But I never pass up the chance of someone who volunteers to be drawn. Abbey and Caitlin request that I draw them as princesses while their brothers insist that I should draw the girls as monsters. It's difficult to get the balance just right with children isn't it? Like the rest of us, I expect. How they are Related
John is Rachel's younger brother (step-brother to be accurate, hope you're following all this!). Joanne, who has been taken for Rachel's sister but who in fact is not related to her at all, is the mother of Abbey and Sol.
George and Izzy have appeared in this diary on several occasions and
they have a page in my next book Rough Patch, featuring a drawing
of our pond (detail, right) which George drew two years ago,
aged 6. Richard Bell, richard@willowisland.co.uk |
Chris
and Jake are sons of Rachel (left,
who I chose as my model for Hattie in a book by Kay
McManus which I illustrated in 1987). Caitlin
and Lewis are Rachel's children by a
second marriage.
George
and Izzy, my great nephew and neice, share one set of
great/great, great grandparents with John but aren't genetically related
to any of the others.