I was born in 1956 in Manoharpur, a small town in Bihar, north eastern India, 300 miles west of Calcutta. The youngest of eight children I came to England in 1957 with my parents and five siblings. Our Anglo-Indian family were driven out of India by increasing political hostility toward Europeans in India’s push for ‘swaraj’ (self rule). My family left in 1958 to settle in Middlesbrough in the north east of England. I am a racial and religious melting-pot. My grandparents were German, Portuguese and Indian with French and British heritage. My grandmother, a German Jewess, was sent to India to marry a Portuguese Catholic from Goa! I like to think this ‘confusion’ of backgrounds influences me both artistically and personally as I have no fixed style and never plan non-commissioned work. Once inspired I paint freely and quickly.