The day Terry was left in the shade by George

“I had been sent armed with one 2H pencil, a synthetic rubber and a ruler,” he writes in the book.

“The first thing I was expected to draw was a bucket, a scrubbing brush and a bar of carbolic soap on the enormous sheet of paper provided. I had never seen such a large sheet.

“I had been used to drawing on scraps and off-cuts of wallpaper. It was hopeless trying to shade with a 2H pencil. I couldn’t fail to fail and I did.”

He had more bad luck when he took his paintings to Hibbert Brothers on Norfolk Street, the art suppliers and dealers who could have given his career a boost.

“They liked them but said they had just taken on this artist called George Cunningham. I was on my own.”