The great and the good of the art world paid tribute at the Courtauld Institute in London to one of its most inspiring teachers, the late prize-winning novelist Anita Brookner who died in March, aged 87. Among the luminaries were these two cheeky chappies (Neil MacGregor, former director of the British Museum, and Tate supremo Nicholas Serota). As one visitor quipped: “There is nothing like a life well lived to make us survivors cheerful.” Deborah Swallow, the director of the Courtauld Institute, commented in a statement: “For The Courtauld, and the many students and colleagues who were inspired by her, Anita was a brilliant art historian whose keen observation and acute language remain a model for emulation and whose personal kindness will never be forgotten.”