TALES FROM BELLA'S WORLD...

Father’s Day. A day to think about fathers. My father was the most exciting man I’ve ever met. I didnt grow up with him and I always had that slight formality - like...

My son flew 5.351 miles back from California on his US college Spring Break to meet his father James's new puppy called Dash.  We had a family dog, a Border terrier named Joey...

I came late to Sonic Youth, after they split. I read Kim Gordon's memoir 'Girl in a Band' and was immediately interested in everything that interested her. I became fascinated by her look,...

When I was a child I kept a pet rat. It wasn't much bigger than a mouse and mostly lived on my shoulder. I would go for walks with it nestling under my...

When I was growing up in the 70’s, Yoko Ono seemed to be viewed by society – or at least by much of the media – as an enemy of the state. How...

  I had tears in my eyes when I read an interview with Camila Batmanghelidjh. It moved me the way she spoke about the young people she worked with through her charity Kids Company, her...

My father hated having his photograph taken. He said the flash made him go temporarily blind. In the past, he was known to have occasionally attacked any fool that tried it on. Then...

Last night I delivered a black Highwayman style coat to Eric Cantona. It was the final piece of his stage outfit for his concert tour for his new album of cool songs, written...

During these dark times, my great friend Karma and I stabilize ourselves by talking on the phone about what we call ‘the beauty alongside’. These conversations are often about creative stuff we are...

I am a very un-intrepid traveller. I put it down to my childhood, journeying to Morocco in a van, with nowhere to live when we got there - and no money. Now I...

Those of us lucky enough to have crossed paths with Kate Moss know about ‘being Mossed’. It usually involves a chance encounter where Kate takes control and somehow, out of nowhere, you are...

The first Christmas I remember mattering, was when I lived in Morocco aged six to eight years old. I woke up to a stocking with a punnet of raspberries nestling at the top....

I keep this Post It taped to the inside of my door in case I need it. It is from a book of ‘Freudian Slips’ sticky notes that I bought from the Freud...

When I was 8 I developed a recurring nightmare. In the dream, I was sitting in a train compartment, the enclosed ones with room for 6 or 8 people. I was alone, seated...

During lockdown I saw this image on the Instagram feed of conceptual artist Jeremy Deller. It was a poster by his friend the legendary graphic artist Scott King - and it was for...

The artist Sarah Lucas has a retrospective opening at Tate Britain next week. For her fans, of which I am a die hard, we know this show will be both gratifying and mindblowing....

Here is Nico looking demure and alluring. I saw her perform in the late 70’s at the Music Machine in Camden Town. The venue was full of punk rockers, I found myself standing...

The late writer and actress Zoe Tamerlis Lund with her husband Robert Lund. She wrote Bad Lieutenant for director Abel Ferrara, he told me all about her one evening last year in a...

Me holding Green Bunny by Tyrone Smith, the New Zealand artist who’s estate we have been working with for the last 3 years. This photo was taken last week by Tyrone’s brother, the...

When I was a child in the late 1960’s my mother took us to live in⁠ Morocco for a couple of years. We didn’t have a lot of possessions but I was allowed...

Last week I went to the archives of the National Portrait Gallery to look at some of the 47 sketch books our family donated after my father's  death in 2011. Sarah, Tanya and Carys,...

Few people have the ability to leave those they encounter with the feeling that they have been gifted a unique and treasurable exchange, never to be forgotten. Shane MacGowan had this power. Shane was no...

I remember what I was wearing when I first met Martin Amis. My then husband, the writer James Fox, was a great friend of Amis’ and of his new wife the writer Isabel...

I take a sketchbook everywhere I go. When I hear a good word I'll draw it, even in the middle of a rock concert. A word needs to be drawn in order to...

When I was 8 I developed a recurring nightmare. In the dream, I was sitting in a train compartment, the enclosed ones with room for 6 or 8 people. I was alone, seated...

When I was a child in the late 1960’s my mother took us to live in Morocco for a couple of years. We didn’t have a lot of possessions but I was allowed...

The Bella Freud Autumn-Winter 2022 (AW22) collection evokes an inquisitive and daring youthful spirit. Bella says: “It is important in fashion that you don't relax into being repetitive.”

The first time I met Susie, I was assisting on a shoot that she was modelling in for Elle magazine, in the late 80's. I saw her getting changed in the back of...

I first saw Anita Pallenberg on the front page of the Sun when I was twelve years old. I was entranced by her glamour and spent my frugal pocket money on a copy...

Once, when I was in Paris for work some years ago, I arranged to have breakfast with my friend Christian Louboutin. We ambled down the Rue de Rivoli and wandered into a smart-looking...