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7 March 1956 – 14 February 2019The author’s husband recalls her sure-footed wisdom, humour and humanity and the uplifting task of going through the notes and drafts she left behind
• Agnès Varda remembered by Jane Birkin• Read the Observer’s obituaries of 2019 in full
Andrea was 25 when we first met. She was witty, she was fun, she was beautiful. But she wasn’t particularly self-confident. She was working in a lowly job that she didn’t like, one of a string of jobs since she’d graduated, and she wasn’t really sure what she wanted to do. I was a graphic designer and soon after we got together I made a suggestion – why don’t you work with me? I’ll train you. I was only half serious. She probably quipped “Dunno, what are the hours?”, but she quickly agreed and so began our long partnership. We were partners in every sense, we lived, loved and worked closely together for the rest of her life.
Around this time she had her big epiphany, one that she often talked about in interviews. Still working part-time for a charity, she famously crossed the floor during a racism awareness course from the “white” side of the room, beckoned by her black colleagues. After a childhood of evasion and “passing-for-white”, this light-skinned young English woman of Caribbean heritage realised not only that she was black but just what that meant in terms of British history, British society, and her strangely unrepresented place in it. Continue reading...