We went tonight to the launch of the beautiful book of portraits taken by Lucinda Douglas-Menzies whose work I know mainly for the care and precision she devotes to photographing work by Romilly. 

But I knew that she has another life as a portrait photographer because many of works have found their way into the NPG, which started acquiring them after her exhibition ‘Portraits of Luminaries’ in 1989. 

Since she worked for several years in the Chinese department at Sotheby’s, it is not surprising that some of the pictures are of luminaries of the art world: Sir Trenchard Cox, who I discover only died in 1995, long after he had retired from the V&A; Stephen Calloway in 1989; and the painter, Derek Hill in 1988.  Then, not surprisingly, there is also a strong representation of figures from Spitalfields, including Raphael Samuel, The Gentle Author and Marianna Kennedy.

Each portrait is differently composed, unpredictable, formally impressive and full of character.  I was nearing the end when there was a portrait of Romilly which I had not seen and is characteristically brilliant, the best that I have seen of her and demonstrating all of Lucinda’s skills, including empathy and speed of execution.

There’s an exhibition at the House of Anetta in Princelet Street for only a week.  And there are only 150 copies of her book so it’s already rara avis.