Homage to Paolozzi

Call it serendipity, coincidence or good fortune but I can find no explanation for an extraordinary phone call I got this afternoon.
 
It was from a former gallery attendant at the Tate.
 
He is obsessed with Paolozzi. His home in Essex is a private museum to the man.
 
Somewhere on the internet he had discovered my phone number and read that I was doing a book on a Masterclass I did with this great sculptor. Well, the book is officially published on June 11th though I have already got advance copies.
 
However, my publisher (doesn’t that sound grand?)  Kennedy & Boyd asked me to hold off doing publicity on social media because it would not be available on Amazon until June 11.
 
This guy did not know this and rung me out of the blue to see how I was getting on with the book.
 
We had a long chat about Paolozzi.  He had visited him in hospital. While he was there a nurse walked in with a handful of mail and handed it to Paolozzi who asked this total stranger to open it.
 
 
 This trusting gesture was typical of Paolozzi. I recall during the Masterclass I did with him how one day he asked me to take something to the bank for him and he produced a tiny scrap of paper, which he carefully unfolded to reveal a German note.
I asked him how much it was worth. He shrugged. He had no idea.
The bank gave me £400.
 

N.B. This sculpture is something I made during the  Masterclass.