12 May Richard Buckle CBE Bryanston Square London 1983

I met Dickie through Patrick Procktor. He saw me on the Gallery programme I did with Patrick and Maggie Hambling and fell in love /fatuation with me, calling me ‘that genius boy’ as I got so many quizz questions right. He wrote me strange love letters ,in which he seemed to insult me as a form of affection, including one written when he was staying Rudolf Nureyev’s apartment in the Dakota Building New York and gave me a  Cecil Beaton print of Marianne Faithful.  He was a lovely man with a cruel sense of humour and he loved a barbed comment. His fine hair was soft as down.  When younger he served with the Scotts Guards and you can see the tight, precise dress presentation in this image. He became  a famous ballet critic and founded Ballet  Magazine, was ballet critic for  The Observer  and organised exhibitions on Diagilev and the Ballet Russes and the first Cecil  Beaton show at the NPG.
This picture was taken as we were leaving his London flat in Bryanston Square, where he stayed when up from his house in Wiltshire. I have lots of his letters and photos he sent me of his garden and with his mother…

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