I managed not to tumble down the stairs and put my boot through a glowing oil painting

02 October 2025, The Tablet

Christopher Howse’s Notebook

I put my specs on to look at some etchings by Walter Sickert in that friendly gallery Piano Nobile, round the corner from St Francis, Pottery Lane in west London, and found myself negotiating a staircase as though I were wearing diver’s boots. It’s funny how spectacles change one’s gait, just as it’s hard to cross the road if deafened by a loud noise like a pneumatic drill.

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