For Edward Burra, born 1905, now still to be a name with which to

conjure, one must either be of George Melly's fading generation and have

a taste for spiteful homosexual camperie in the whining cockney of

comedians, or - the cool and rational alternative - consider him

an English painter who may, beneath the dominant

mannerisms and all too evident sexual

anguish, have had something serious

to say, who may, perhaps, have

been a social realist of sorts.