Leigh Lawson has embraced acting and poetry with the same determination that sustained Marie Lloyd, the music-hall queen whose memorabilia he collects, as Carla Passino discovers

The piece I’d never part with

Dear Simon, I was particularly interested in Sylvia Lee’s item on Cope’s Pools in Yesterday Remembered (Pools Party, December). I worked at the company’s offices in Edmonton, north London in 1966-67.

Ushering in the New Year are the Decorative Fair, brimming with good-quality antiques, and the London Art Fair, with its tradition of tipping artists in the early stages of their career

Three auction lovers share the thrill of finding a bargain

“You can’t live here. There are no shops,” my friend Jen stated. We were sitting in the van belonging to the pub I lived in, the Golden Cross, Slough, waiting for my parents who had an interview for t