Model and quintessential image of the late 60’s Penelope Tree at Bailey’s House in Gloucester Avenue, London in 1968, aged 18 – the beginning of her affair and her career with Bailey. Members of Procol Harum lie about.
Bailey was shooting his book of the sixties people ‘Goodbye Baby and Amen.’ ‘If the Sixties was basically just a small group of people who knew each other, which is how I saw it,’ said Bailey, ‘they all collected in Gloucester Avenue over this period.’
When I conducted what the Sunday Times review calls an ‘electrifying’ lunch with former lover Penelope Tree and Bailey, there were some fundamental disputes such as the time and occasion of their first embrace: “When Tree questions his recollection of their affair Bailey responds: ‘Have you ever known me to be dishonest?’ ‘I’ve known you to change the subject,’ she replies.”
And later: Bailey:’ I tried to get you back’ Tree: ‘How come I didn’t know about it then?’
The women in Bailey’s life inevitably had different versions of the narrative.
Review of #LookAgain, #DavidBailey memoir in The Observer; The Sunday Times
Follow on Twitter @jamesfox01