The problem with Picasso’s trousers … and Queen Camilla

  

On 20 April five authors gathered at Sunninghill Library (another was ‘present’ in a video) for the Amazing Books for Children Day (ABCD). Using the library as their base, the authors were to cross the street to St. Michael’s School (the village primary school) to inspire the children with a love of books.

 

They did so with the blessing of Queen Camilla, who had written to the children on 13^th March 2026: “I was delighted and impressed to hear about your “Amazing Books for Children Day” on 20^th April. I do hope that you will have a wonderful time, celebrating your love of reading.” They most certainly did have a wonderful time, although the volunteers of the library (and their spouses), who had been preparing for the day for over a year, the library staff, and the teachers of St. Michael’s had a very busy day indeed.

 

 

 

The idea for the day had begun at a dinner hosted in their home by our friends Alison and Neil Baverstock (Alison and I worked together many years ago, and she was until recently Professor of publishing at Kingston University; Neil is a retired brigadier of the army and until recently was the 23^rd Yeoman Usher of the House of Lords). One of the other dinner guests was Nicholas Allan, author and illustrator of children’s books, of which perhaps the most well-known is The Queen’s Knickers (apparently quite a favourite of the late Queen), which has now been supplemented by The King’s Pants.

The authors left to right: Nicholas Allan, Fiona Barker, David Barker, Tilly Rand-Bell, Ally Sherrick.

 

The other four authors who donated their time and expertise on ABCD were:

 

Tilia Rand-Bell (Greeny La-Roo and the Earth Crew) and Fiona Barker (A Swift Return and Do NOT Eat the Egg) who entranced younger readers with their explanation of how words and pictures work together to create amazing characters. 

 

Ally Sherrick (Rebel Heart) introduced pupils to the exciting exploits of Merriweather Price in the England of Oliver Cromwell.

 

And David Barker (Pax and The Missing Head, Pax and the Forgotten Pincher and Pax and the Secret Swarm) introduced students to the adventures of Pax and his school friends in the perilous city of New London.

 

Nicholas’s presentation was literally magical – he is a member of the magic circle. He asked a boy to write his initial on a piece of paper and then punctured the initial on the paper with the pencil only to reveal that there was no hole and the initial was legible. The next trick involved tearing two strips of paper in half repeatedly (good for testing times table: 4, 8, 16, 32, eventually 64 pieces); he then manipulated the pieces to form an intact pair of spotted underpants. Children were invited to smack a dummy blank book: the smacks caused black and white illustrations and text to appear, further smacks turned black and white to colour, and finally all the images and text disappeared when the book was smacked again. Next, Nicholas turned a five-pound note into ten pounds. And finally, he asked children and a teacher to shake a dice in a paper cup, look at the number, and then Nicholas guessed the number the child or teacher had in mind.

 

The book that most interested this former art publisher was Picasso’s Trousers. Nicholas started by asking the children (aged 7-8) who was the best artist of all time: one suggested Vincent Van Gogh (“No” said Nicholas). Another said Leonardo da Vinci: Nicholas responded that he was a very great artist who made important discoveries about perspective, but … the greatest was Pablo Picasso (my readers may or may not agree). The reason? Picasso changed our way of seeing because he realized that when we look at something our two eyes do not see exactly the same thing. Nicholas encouraged the children to experiment by looking at a finger first with one eye, then the other. Try it: your eyes do not see the finger identically.

 

As Nicholas told the story, every time Picasso tried something new he was told “No, no no Picasso.” Whether he was experimenting with colour, with how to portray a face, with fragmenting the image, and so on, he was told “No,” but he did it anyway. Finally, Picasso wanted trousers with horizontal stripes to match his shirt, but the tailor told him “No” because all striped trousers have vertical stripes. But yet again Picasso insisted.

 

Over lunch Nicholas told me, and a fellow ex-publisher and a copyright expert (Richard Balkwill, grandfather of Tilly Rand-Bell) about his negotiations with the Picasso estate. He described discussions with lawyers that lasted several years. Many demands were imposed concerning how Picasso’s works should be illustrated, but the story of his trousers seemed to be the principal sticking point. The lawyers doubted that the story is true, but Nicholas insists that it is. All of this is wearingly familiar to anybody who has had to deal with artists’ estates. The Mondrian estate is notoriously greedy (even though he has been out of copyright for some years now). The Matisse estate insists on approving colour proofs, although it is not clear to what extent the person checking them knows what the original colours were.

 

The children of St. Michael’s had prepared for the day by writing a short story. The authors were asked to judge a short list of five stories from each class and to announce two runners-up and a winner on the day. So the day ended on a note of enthusiasm for writing and reading.