My wife, Ann Clements, who has died aged 80, spent more than 30 years lecturing on the history of art to the local branches of what once was the National Association of Decorative and Fine Art Societies, and is now the Arts Society. The lectures entailed a huge amount of travel and frequent overnight stays with branch members, who invariably went on to become personal friends.
As a regular traveller from Surbiton, Surrey, Ann once arrived at the railway station in a milk float, having been offered a lift by the milkman; that trip ended with her being driven in a vintage Rolls-Royce by an elderly widowed “county” lady so small she could barely see over the bonnet. As the Rolls threaded through the twisting streets of a northern industrial town, Ann could not refrain from waving graciously to passers-by.
