A brush with Beethoven

After a colourful career in journalism spanning 65 years, former Sunday Telegraph editor Sir Peregrine Worsthorne is having his fine features recorded by the celebrated portrait painter Celia Montague.

"He's wearing a subtle shade of purple, a buttoned-up knitted waistcoat and a green jacket," says Celia. "The trouble is he was sitting in his conservatory in Buckinghamshire and it was getting hot so we had to cut short our last sitting."

Sir Perry is convinced he talks too much and started to put on Mozart and Beethoven so that she doesn't have to listen to some of his older tales but she is trying to convince him this is not a problem. "He's fascinating," says Celia. "One has to talk to keep lively and not get bored. On the other hand, one needs occasional periods of stillness."