HUMANS OF FROME Traveller, author & artist, JIM DALES

“How did Jim Dales who started out as a trainee accountant in Cleethorpes, the sea-side town next to Grimsby in Lincolnshire, end up writing a novel about Rembrandt?   

“‘RHL, The Man in the Mirror’ revolves around an incident in the life of the 17th century Dutch artist, seen through the eyes of an assistant, collectors and the women in his life.

“Jim, a well known local painter, tells me that he showed little academic ability at grammar school. On leaving he took a job in local government before moving on to be a despatch clerk in a paper making factory, an underwhelming achievement but a decent career which would have maintained the status quo and seen him gainfully employed for the rest of his days.

“But that stable future was not meant to be when, to the chagrin of his father who had high hopes for him, he grew a beard and long hair and took himself off to art school to study industrial design.

“The principal, Peter Todd, who was to become a good friend, saw something in the young student who, before long, found himself hooked on painting. The rebellious streak continued when after two years, he failed to get a place on a degree course, and took off on a long tour of Europe.

“He lived the Hemingway existence for a few months in Madrid, then worked on a building site in Munich, continued his travels through Rome, the former Yugoslavia, and even made his way into Syria before he lost his nerve and turned back, hitchhiking through Lebanon, crossing the Mediterranean to Egypt and back along the coast of North Africa to Spain and Madrid.

“His mother, concerned that he might never come back, forged his signature on an application for Maidstone College of Art. When he eventually got home she cut his hair and packed him off for an interview where he was accepted.

“At Maidstone he met Caroline and when she graduated from the Royal Academy Schools they married and moved to Westmoreland.

“Jim taught foundation students and adults part-time at Lancaster College of Art. Four years later, still infused with the wanderlust, they moved lock, stock, barrel and two small sons to France where they lived the idyllic life of artists in the Dordogne.

“When their money ran out they came back to England. Jim taught painting part-time at Trowbridge College. On the day they moved into their near-derelict house in Chapmanslade the roof caved in.

“Undeterred, they set about rebuilding and incorporating a large studio. They also built a new business, ‘Inside Art Tours’ which Caroline ran employing Jim as a lecturer/guide taking adult groups to visit major collections of paintings in America, Russia, and Europe.

“It was during those years that the writer in Jim set to work, collecting anecdotes and stories as they travelled. ‘RHL, The Man in the Mirror’ took him four years to write. The novel charts Rembrandt’s rise to fame, his fall into bankruptcy and his dreadful mistreatment of his mistress. The novel was published by Yolk on June 15th this year.”