I spent a year in the South of France restoring and extending a house in a 15th century village called Ramatuelle. During the first few months living and working in Ramatuelle, I spent many contented hours sketching the village, from all angles and perspectives. I arrived there a couple of months before Christmas, so it was cold and all the tourists had departed.

The village was beautiful and so very different from anything this Northern boy had experienced before. Open log fires in the evening, the wind and rain beating against the shutters; blues, classical and folk music on the record player, and of course, the cheap red wine! Never was much achieved in the evenings! It was the probably the most uncomplicated, idyllic year of my life.