12 May Richard Buckle CBE Bryanston Square London 1983

I met Richard Buckle (known as Dickie Buckle) 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 quiz 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. He kindly  gave me a  Cecil Beaton print of Marianne Faithful, which was a one of the images that didn’t make the exhibition he curated at The NPG of Beaton’s work.  He was a lovely man with a cruel/twisted sense of humour and he loved a barbed comment. His fine hair was  as 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 hand written letters he sent me and photos  he sent me of himself in his garden wearing a rather stiff brown suit standing with his mother. He really was of a different generation and I was incredibly fond of him