IMMOBILE HOME
Top: the last of Miss Shepherdâs vans in its distinctive yellow
livery seen just after her death. Right: the view from Bennettâs
gate towards his front door which could only be accessed by
âsqueezing oneself between the side of the van and the wall
scrutinised by Miss Shepherd through the vanâs grimy windowâ
WHEN I WROTE an account of Miss
Mary Shepherdâs residence in my Camden Town garden
I called it âThe Lady in the Vanâ. It should have more ac-
curately been called âThe Lady in the Vansâ as over the 15
years she stayed there were at least three incarnations.
Though stylistically different each of the vehicles ended
up looking the same as Miss Shepherd never happier
than when wielding a brush insisted on painting them
all yellow. It was a shade and a texture unknown to Far-
row & Ball â a lumpy yellow undercoat that might have
been grubby scrambled egg lumpier still on one occa-
sion she explained âBecause I got some madeira cake
in the tinâ. A Reliant Robin that she had acquired âto
keep my things inâ also received the âegg tempuraâ treat-
ment though it was saved from further excesses by a
bit of old stair carpet she kept on the roof.
Miss Shepherd liked yellow she said because it was
the papal colour. There was no area of her life â motoring
parking politics or interior decorating â that was not
imbued with her fervent Catholicism. She once had me
write to the Vatican to implore the College of Cardinals
to license a lighter crown for His Holiness to wear âmade
of cardboard or some light plastic material possiblyâ. r
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