I was in the same year as Michele Hanson at Haberdashers’ Aske’s school in the 1950s. We were both lucky enough to be part of a small and inspiring GCE art group. I remember her bold, confident drawings. A progressive and encouraging teacher presided over this peaceful retreat from the academic pressure elsewhere.
At the Cambridge literature festival a few years ago, Michele was speaking about her memoir, What the Grown-Ups Were Doing, and I approached her. At first she was taken aback, thinking I might be a woman she had written unkindly about in the book (I wasn’t) – her open nervousness was characteristic of her self-deprecatory style. I loved the book and it echoed my memories of 50s suburbia, school and art college.
