Cute

A Sense of Belonging

I recently came across this beautiful painting by  Lesley Oldaker, called A Sense of Belonging.

Top left bra and pants.

I was recently at an auction preview in Essex when I spied a chest of drawers, ordinary enough, Victorian probably. When I looked closer all the drawers had tags on that gave a clue as to what had once been kept inside; "Top left bras and pants" then added underneath "Vests". There was even a tag that read " Nighties Boudoir Caps".

Well, it amused me.

Goodbye Soho Pam

I took this photo of Soho Pam (A.K.A. Pamela Jennings) back in the summer of 2009. Pam was a regular fixture on the streets of Soho and often tapped me up for a quid which I gave usually in exchange for a postcard bearing her likeness. 

The streets of Soho will be a duller place now that Pam has departed them for the last time.  

More on Pam: http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-politics/2013/01/penniless-exiles-soho

To all you young 'uns out there

Gordon Wilkins

Here are a few pictures to remember my uncle, Gordon Wilkins, who died 6 years ago this month. Gordon was a motoring journalist, television presenter and racing driver. To explain Gordon a little more see his obituary in The Times, below. 

From The Times
May 15, 2007

Gordon Wilkins
Motoring journalist who spent more than seven decades 
writing and broadcasting about cars
The doyen of British motoring journalists, Gordon Wilkins 
began his professional life in the 1930s, when he was just 
in his twenties, and he was still attending motor shows and 
filing stories into his nineties.

He combined writing with participation in motor sport that 
included disciplines as diverse as muddy trials and the 
24-hour Le Mans race. Fluent in French and German, he worked 
extensively throughout Europe.

Born and educated in Liverpool, Wilkins began in the 
advertising department of the weekly The Motor, and moved to 
the editorial side in 1933. He took up photography and 
demonstrated artistic skill, contributing hundreds of 
sketches, cartoons and illustrations to the magazine. He 
also took a course in engineering, to make himself competent 
to write technical articles.

A frequent visitor to Germany, he could claim to be the last 
survivor of those journalists who had attended the 1939 
launch of the Volkswagen. It was on the way back from that 
year's Berlin motor show that he and a colleague attempted 
to achieve 100 miles in the hour in a Lagonda V12.

"Sadly we couldn't quite make it, because Hitler hadn't made 
enough road," he once recounted. "It was almost in the bag 
until right at the end we ran out of autobahn. I tried my 
best, sliding around on horse droppings and passing farm 
carts. We achieved something over 98 miles in the hour."

Wilkins became involved in motor sport, joining a trials and 
rally team run by a Savile Row tailor. Its drivers were 
distinguished by their potent, modified Ford V8s and by 
being the best dressed of all the competitors. Wilkins 
really wanted to go racing, and was asked by a neighbour to 
share a Singer at Le Mans in 1939; they finished a 
respectable 18th overall.

The early war years were spent in the research department of 
the Bristol Aeroplane Company, before Wilkins moved in 1944 
to work with the former Bristol aero-engineer Sir Roy Fedden 
on the Fedden car, an unconventional design powered by a 
rear-mounted sleeve-valve radial engine. Wilkins was 
responsible for the styling of this visionary but misguided 
project, and recalled the car as being notably lethal to 
drive.

By 1947 the Fedden operation had folded, and Wilkins joined 
Autocar, where he ultimately became technical editor and was 
known for filing detailed and highly readable accounts of 
the motor industry outside Britain.

He continued to enjoy motor sport and in 1949 he drove one 
of Jowett's Javelin saloons in the Monte Carlo Rally, 
finishing 161st. In 1951 his factory-entered Jowett Jupiter 
was 10th overall and second in its class.

That year and in 1952 he also won his class at Le Mans in a 
lightweight Jupiter, and in his final sortie to Le Mans in 
1953 he co-drove an Austin Healey to 14th overall. In 1957 
he helped to secure various 24-hour and seven-day records in 
Italy, driving a special streamlined Fiat Abarth.

In 1953 Wilkins left Autocar to go freelance. He became one 
of the most prolific writers in his field, at one stage 
contributing to 27 magazines throughout the world. In the 
1960s and 1970s, he combined this work with compiling the 
Daily Express Motor Show Guide.

Between 1964 and 1973 Wilkins was anchorman for the 
WheelbaseTV programme, and he continued to be involved 
sporadically with television in later years. He also 
translated various motoring books from French and Italian.

From 1980 to 1992, when they moved to their final home in 
rural southern France, Wilkins and his wife, Joyce, who was 
very much his professional partner, were able to live in a 
palazzo in northern Italy, thanks to their friendship with 
an Italian count.

Affable, urbane and with an engaging modesty, Wilkins was 
aware that he had led a fortunate life; however, those who 
spent time with him soon came to appreciate that he had 
earned this through talent and hard work.

His wife predeceased him, and there were no children.

Gordon Wilkins, journalist and broadcaster, was born on 
October 6, 1912. He died on April 11, 2007, aged 94