'Lobsters, Watneys Ales and Donald Sproat Ltd sound like essential components in any traditional English scene - likewise a salesman in a suit and tie under a white surcoat. The evidence is of part-time work done on behalf of relatives in Billingsgate, and anticipated time off in the bar afterwards. What was still notable then - altough only just - was a sense of the stuff of life in tangible form, there to be picked up and pocketed. It is a tweed suit, for example, rough to the touch, as that hand on the knee recalls, and the twisted handle of the wicker basket also calls up the idea of contact, as - more fiercely - do the lobsters with their claws.' Ian Jeffrey