The social pages

When I grew up, the newspapers generally supported an arts supplement that would frequently feature gallery and exhibition openings. Photos of well coiffed and suitably bejewelled patrons, flute of champagne or cigarette in one hand ,would sit cheek by jowl in glamorous company. These pages were poured over in case one was either AT the event or KNEW someone who attended. The famous heart transplant surgeon and his model wife (no.2, mind you) were the prize guests. Various minor european royals, the jet-set beautiful and the old money set were all there, jostling for attention. We never saw the paintings, just the beautiful people!

These days, the newspapers have dropped the arts supplements and the only way to get your face in the who's who arts magazine social pages is to pay someone to put it there. Sign of the times.

So, I raise my glass and toast: Here's to the beautiful people, the good souls who both came to the exhibition opening and continued to stream into the gallery both Saturday and Sunday. You all looked marvellous and frankly, I was delighted to see you all.

I was so confident that the visitor numbers would be slow over the weekend that I took a book to occupy the time and some lunch. Truth is, I touched neither and have never been more delighted to be less informed nor hungry!

Thank you for sharing your stories with me about what the work said and meant to you and thank you for listening to my stories too.

I am now decompressing after an eventful few weeks.

ps. the book, by the way, is called "Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking" . Frankly, I am fascinated but have yet to make much inroad. I keep having to google Soviet and Russian history. The lunch was not Soviet.