In the late 1970's I was introduced toBooty Smith by Dr.Robert Short at a meeting of the Norfolk and Norwich Contemporary Art Society. I knew Booty had been a studio assistant to an American sculptor who had settled in North Norfolk. He invited me to the Winterton studio and took me to photograph what was left of the Great Star Temple. The slides I took were with a half frame camera and it is only now at the time of writing (November 2019) that I have been able to scan them. Smith allowed me access to Moncrieff's personal paers and in 1984 I was commissioned by the the Head of Graphic Design at the Norwich School of Art, to initiate a seroes of Lunchtime Lectures on Neglected Artists and Designers from the East Anglian region (The Wise Men from the East)..

Legal complications inherent in the Moncrieff Estate kept much of this material from public view. I am glad to be able to say that, with the tragic death of Booty Smith , and the subsequent destruction of the Moncrieff Papers in a sort of petulent auto-da-fe conducted by the residual estate, these scattered indications of a Neglected Master in my own collection, can now be made public. The Captions include wherever possible excerpts from Moncrieff's unpublished autobiography On the Margin.

I have made every effort to contact holders of the copyright of images to be found here. The Trustees of the Verwoert Academy of Fine and Decorative Art in Bloemfontein, Republic of South Africa (RSA hereafter) have supported my every effort. I am grateful for their award of the Boy Trekker Travelling Scholarship to enable me to complete my studies. Freda Freuhawk added to my awareness of the impact Moncrieff made on the "younger set" as he jovially called them in his pastoral episodes .

Dr.Chris Mullen July 2019