the proliferation of animals, painted, sculpted, photographed and stuffed,

I had an ongoing correspondence as a child with an unfortunate secretary in Margaret Thatcher’s office, tasked with replying to letters like mine brimming with dubious advice on how to punish perpetrators of animal cruelty.

A surfeit of time spent on damp British riverbanks as a child might account for my growing wanderlust as a teenager, yearning for the intoxicating combination of all things opulent and eastern and led me to study Egyptology at university where I was lucky enough to be taught by the brilliant Harry Smith who excavated the Sacred Animal Necropolis at Saqqara…

The pictures and textiles in our den have all been gathered to create my own oriental dream; Islamic textiles, extravagantly shaped turban incensers, Tibetan temple trumpets, paintings of Bashi Bazouks and maps of the pilgrimage to Mecca. A glorious striped kelim which I bought 20 years ago from Peter Hinwood unites the disparate things in this room and makes them all sing.

Most famously, her little black dress recalls the typical uniform worn by French housemaids at the time.

One of his examples is kissing the picture of a loved one. This is not based on a belief that it will have an effect on the person represented, he says; we do it because it satisfies us

Finally, Demeter was allowed to be reunited with her daughter though only temporarily and only once a year in Spring.