Hannah yet again. One afternoon when I found myself at a bit of a loose end, I was rummaging through the bric a brac in the shed. After I had finished playing with the vice I found myself taking a look In the cabinet under the workbench and, lo and behold, I came across a small cardboard box. Inside was this photo of mum posing stark naked! In fact 32 copies of the same photo. That was when mum happened to come out to fetch some laundry from the clothes line and caught me red-handed. She wasn’t angry. In fact, she seemed rather pleased that dad had kept the box. She said that the photo had caused quite a scandal, which was her intention. It had been taken when she was thinking about being an actress. No surprise, a lot of people admired the photo. The only trouble was that she couldn’t act.

I asked dad what he thought about using the photo for the cover of the Brown House. He said that it might well help sell a few copies. Mum thought that using the photo would be sheer sensationalism as it has absolutely nothing to do with the story. This was my brilliant solution.

I cut down four of the photographic prints and put them together like this.

I added four more photos and this is what the composition looked like. Dad thought that it made him think of the columns of a Roman temple against a black background and it looked a bit less like just a photo of a naked woman with a beautiful body.

When I showed this variation to dad, he said the image made him think of a golden gate. “That’s one gate that you’re always keen to open,” mum said. I think she was trying to be funny. She said that in her opinion. The cover still didn’t have much to do with the story, although, apparently there’s quite a bit of sexual intercourse towards the end.

This, as you saw, is the final version of the cover with the Minister of Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels added.

I’m very fond of this photo of the rocket powered bike, but alas, although it gets a mention or two in the book, it isn’t really important enough to be on the cover.

This photo must have been taken at the exact time that I caught dad kissing a girl. He protested saying the girl kissed him in the heat of the moment, but it didn’t look like he was exactly fighting her off, therefore there’s a bit more reason to put this photo on the cover of the book. Mum says no, insisting that the photo has little to do with the most important themes. ‘I suppose that depends on what you consider the most important themes,’ I replied, winning the argument conclusively yet still not getting my way.