Jack turned away to let two blond Chelsea Girls squeeze by.
"I don't know what anyone else thinks, Jack, but I honestly think things just aren't as good as they were, say, thirty years ago, before I was born."
"Which is ironic, Eric."
"Naaa mate. All that irony: they're just taking the piss if you ask me."
"OK." On the telly Terry Accent was on the offensive. "Let me ask you this, as a professional....."
"Expert."
"Expert, Shirley, right. As a professional expert, it is your job to know what you're talking about, and tell us, as people reliant on you for information, about it. Yes? Therefore wouldn't it be safe to assume that a professional status is essential to the artist if they are to be listened to. Indeed I was talking to one of the gallery owners I met when I got this job, who, as it happens, is doing very nicely on the Easy-Listening club circuit at the moment. Now he told me, and I think this is a valid point, that an artist could not be taken seriously if, for instance they work in the real world for money,
4
