September 1978 – in the days  when newspaper journalists could take a month-long sabbatical after a period of service, we spent ours in Italy with Graham (Sunday People), Tessa and their five-month-old son Oscar, and Richard Holledge (Sunday Mirror) and his wife Annie and their children Rosie, three, and five-month-old Genevieve. Ric (Daily Mirror) and I were parents to 22-month-old Gemma. We shared an ancient villa tucked high in the Tuscan hills outside Barga and settled into our own version of la dolce vita, punctuated with trips to Florence and drives over the Carrera mountains to sit on the beach in Viareggio. 
We were so young then, often struggling with childcare, but enjoying the most carefree times of our lives. Esther Papineau

Annie (Feinburgh) shares the memory.
…just a few memories, and Graham is very much part of those memories.  
I remember the month-long holiday in Tuscany, and Oscar and Genevieve being so little, and all the Italian ladies would adore the big bouncy boy, Oscar, while Gen was disregarded as a mere scrap of a ginger girl!  You were struggling with Oscar’s nights, while I was Mrs Smug with my bottles of milk, and a sleeping baby.  And then there was the ‘gite’  holiday, when Oscar took his first steps, after admiring Gen’s skill on her feet.  He then decided he’d try walking with his eyes closed, I seem to remember, this walking thing being such a doddle.  Once you’ve taken the first few steps, it all gets a bit boring!  And the ill-fated skiing holiday, which you weren’t too keen on…. and long before that, being with you the day before the night that Oscar was born, and Graham looking after us with strawberries and exotic delicacies.  Genevieve was born the very next day.  And then there were all the cricket afternoons, when we’d sit in the sun, ignoring the cricket (I speak for myself - I never quite knew what was going on), chatting with Esther, and all the kids would run around happily, and then back to Buckhurst Hill for more tea!  And no doubt wine.  Rosie has great memories of all those times.  
I have not forgotten you (Tessa), or Graham!  All those times were at such an intense time of life, when the future was stretching ahead and everything was still possible.