I AM fortunate to count among my friends Holme Valley landscape painter Jeffrey Beaumont.
We frequent the same bar and see each other on a regular basis. But it was unexpected to bump into him in Sainsbury's and perhaps the strange location caused him to behave the way he did.
“I'm glad I've seen you,” he said. “I wanted to ask you who has taken over from Denis Kilcommons and is doing his column in the Examiner?”
For a moment, I wondered if Jeff knew something I didn't, then I held his arm and explained slowly: “I am Denis Kilcommons. You are Jeff Beaumont.”
Poor old soul.
“Am I?” he said. “Oh, of course I am. I meant David Hammond. I have a couple of exhibitions coming up and I wanted to know who to contact.”
Jeff, who is immensely talented, can also be delightfully scatty and I like to think David, who was a feature writer and Examiner arts columnist for decades until he died earlier this year, was looking down from that great art gallery in the sky and having a chuckle.
For it is not the first time that readers have confused us. Over the years we were both mistaken for each other and have both been referred to as David Kilcommons or Denis Hammond. It's nice to think David is still about and at my shoulder.
