Gerald was spending his days painting from the model at the RA, where his visiting tutors included Stanley Spencer, Carel Weight and John Minton, but he also took a keen interest in the children’s books Elizabeth would bring home. Elizabeth joined him in London to work as a primary school teacher, and the two married later that year. His talents were recognised in the form of a scholarship to study at the Royal Academy Schools in 1955. Gerald liked the idea and began a Saturday morning drawing class, before enrolling full-time at Lowestoft College of Art, where he met Elizabeth Pretty, a fellow student. As Henley took a keen interest in art, he took Gerald to see an exhibition of cartoons in London, where a woman, overhearing the boy’s enthusiastic interest, recommended he consider art school. Gerald had failed his 11-plus and had gained no qualifications at secondary modern school. Henley remained in Hong Kong, returning to Suffolk as Gerald was leaving school. On their release, the children were sent to live in Lowestoft with Henley’s mother. They were there for four years, living on bowls of congee that were often full of maggots. Gerald, Dawn and Rachel were taken to the Stanley internment camp for civilians while Henley was interned at a military camp. The childhood idyll was brutally curtailed when the Japanese swept into Hong Kong, and by 1942 the family was broken up. As well as collaborations with Elizabeth, Gerald Rose illustrated books for other authors such as Ted Hughes, in Nessie the Mannerless Monster
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