one gets a reaction of love between two people. That's very important." Snowdon says it was his "wonderful uncle", Oliver Messel, the stage designer, who taught him how to look. "I used to stay with him in Venice and we would walk all night. Most people look down. He taught me to look up. You miss so much by not looking up." When Snowdon took his two children, Sarah [Chatto] and David [Lord Linley] to Venice, he applied the same rule. "I made them get up at five in the morning. I'm not a very good photographer but I do get up earlier than most. You're just more likely to see things happening." The phone goes and it is Sir Peter Blake, the pop artist, ringing to wish his friend a happy birthday. While they are talking, there is time to take in the accessories of Snowdon's seemingly circumscribed life: the walking frame, the stick, the stairlift. He has never once referred to his condition, only to his appetite for work. How are things? Blake must have asked him. "I'm having fun," says Snowdon. "Having fun."