The Good Bohemian: The Letters of Ida John edited by Rebecca John and Michael Holroyd, reviewed by Frances Spalding
‘When you come,’ writes Ida John to her husband, Augustus, ‘mind the debris in the hall, as we’ve had a gas explosion.’ Minor calamities of this kind were scarcely noticeable in the John family household, for there was just too much going on: painting, music, visitors, high emotion, the endless washing and drying of clothes and children, of which there was an ever-burgeoning number. At times harassed by them, Augustus John mostly enjoyed children, writing happily from a fishing village near Boulogne where they holidayed one summer, ‘Multitudes of children teem in the gutters together with the debris of centuries.’ It is said that, over time, his own offspring amounted to twelve in all, but this number must be inexact: in later life, he developed the habit of patting the head of every child he passed in Fitzroy Street, in case he or she happened to be one...
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