My bonkers brush with Boris

28 / 06 / 2019

Think the wannabe PM was bluffing about his bus-painting hobby? Artist who did his portrait reveals how HE turned the easel on HER.

"Like many people, I was startled this week by reports of Boris Johnson’s confession that he likes to spend time absorbed in handicraft, doing his bit for the environment by recycling empty wine boxes into model buses, peopled with happy faces.

Are we sure it’s not a joke? If given all we’ve seen is a doodle of a London bus, it is hard to imagine him crouched on the floor like a child cutting up wooden boxes, pouring out the stresses of the day.

Indeed, I have good reason to believe that I am right and that his model bus admission may have been an elaborate ruse. For I have seen Boris in the very act of creation. I know he loves painting; and, as a professional portrait and landscape painter, I can confirm that he is more skilled than you might think.

Portrait of Inspector Morse author Colin Dexter is at hotel

A portrait of Inspector Morse author Colin Dexter has been added to the collection of paintings at the Old Parsonage Hotel in Oxford. The painting by landscape artist Celia Montague is being added as Endeavour series nine - the last ever series - is about to be screened on ITV...

Elegant defender of lost causes

Daniel Johnson recalls the colourful life of Sir Peregrine Worsthorne. "Perry Worsthorne was my fairy godfather. By this I do not mean to allude to his exuberant manner and dandified dress — a taste which occasionally bordered on camp, but which he had in common with other colourful...