Beryl Cook (1926-2008)

This scene is one I watched as we sat drinking coffee whilst waiting for the rain to stop on a sightseeing holiday in Venice. We are good tourists and like walking, so we followed the instructions in our very good guidebook and learned many, many things about the buildings and artists. Each new revelation, and gasp of amazement, would be followed by welcome refreshments in a nearby café, and in one of these I had the most gorgeous ice cream I've ever tasted. Dogs are very popular in Venice, most of them wearing plastic muzzles as a safeguard against rabies. This was approved of by me, being highly nervous of all the health hazards I imagine to be lying in wait for me on foreign shores' - B. Cook