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I had made no preparation for leaving Christie’s; I had told very few outside the firm of my intention; I had made no overtures and had no inkling of another job; I had not done what most leavers did – taken a copy of the catalogue subscription list, an invaluable record of names, addresses, telephone numbers and interest all over Britain, America and Europe. A cleverer man than I would have prepared his ground and not left the firm so precipitately. I had no money, having recently bought a large, ugly and near derelict house in Barnes, inconveniently south of the narrowest and most fragile bridge over the Thames, had been defrauded by an incompetent builder who had set fire to it, and was burdened with mortgage repayments that must monthly be settled
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