The World according to the British Empire 1937

My late grandfather would have been 41, my mother recently 6. No TV, they may have followed the Coronation of George VI and Queen Elizabeth on the wireless. It is one of a handful of dear memories of my grandfather whose stories of his experiences first as a machine gunner, then as a RAF Flight cadet and fledgling fighter pilot between 1915 and 1918 filled my early Sunday afternoons after a family Sunday Lunch.

The lamp brings me into my mother's era as she new Robert Welch and for a time lived in Chipping Campden; indeed for five years I lived down the road.

They sit on a piano, my daughter's.

I glance at these often when I'm at home, passing them many times a day. Out of shot there is a drawing by my mother of my late father's home in the Lake District. And of course the piano top has become home for an eclectic collection of family photos all showing parents, grandparents and children somewhere been the ages of 4 months and 8 years old.