A neglected female artist – have we or have we not heard that phrase before?! This is Eleanor Best (1875-1957) and this 1941 painting is called Here is the News and it's at Newport Museum and Art Gallery. What a gem! A novel all on it's own. Look at the incredible detail. Making a comparison with Vermeer would not be far-fetched. Please please write to us if anyone knows who Eleanor Best was.

This is one of the best known circus paintings from the 1930s - The Trick Act, which is at Touchstones, Rochdale. There was recently a good piece about Laura Knight here.

The circus dinner service was of course based on Laura Knight's long love affair with the circus. Her interest began in the mid 1920s and in 1929 she joined the Mills and Carmo Company on tour for the summer season, in order to devote her time entirely to drawing scenes from daily life under the big top. The clowns in this painting were her friends Randy, Marba and Joe Bert. The painting was purchased from the artist by the Leicester Museum and Art Gallery in 1934, the year she designed the dinner service.

Every item in the dinner set was designed by Laura Knight and manufactured by Clarice Cliff, which makes the whole range doubly fascinating. Perhaps someone will one day write a play or novel imagining the relationship between the two women.

There were twelve dinner plates. Above is number 2 in the following list: 'The well of each plate is yellow, decorated with a circus ring scene. These comprise: (1) three dark haired females in white decorated leotards and pink tights juggling with green and orange bottles (dinner, soup dish); (2) a dark haired female in a pink and green dress perched on the end of a black spotted, green harnessed horse (dinner, dessert, soup dish); (3) man in evening dress dancing with a white dancing bear with a green muzzle and large pink bow tied around its head (dinner, dessert, soup dish); (4) three brightly dressed clowns, one viewed from the back, the other sideways and one three quarter (dinner, two dessert, soup dish); (5) two clowns one dressed as a pierrot holding a fish, the other top hatted holding a fishing line (dinner, soup dish); (6) man in evening dress with whip standing partially behind a pink harnessed rearing skewbald horse (dinner, dessert, soup dish); (7) three seals balancing green and purple balls on their noses (dinner, dessert, soup dish); (8) female in a brief green costume perched on the centre of a black spotted horse and facing sideways (dinner plate); (9) man from the back with short pink coat and a parasol balancing on the tightrope (dinner plate); (10) lion tamer in loose green trousers standing over a recumbent lion (dinner, dessert, soup dish); (11) three dark haired pink females with green shoes, sitting on trapeze swings (dinner, soup dish); (12) three men, one performing a handstand on a pile of orange and white blocks, one in a crab position and one bending backwards (dinner, two dessert, soup dish).'

To celebrate the Laura Knight exhibition which has just opened in Milton Keynes (it's on until 20 February 2022) this week we celebrate – a 1934 Laura Knight dinner service. It's at Manchester Art Gallery, and temporarily in Milton Keynes, and here is some of it in its full glory. Every piece has a circus scene on it. The set is made up of twelve dinner plates, nine dessert plates, ten side plates, ten soup bowls, four oval serving plates, two lidded tureens and a lidded sauceboat.

One of the most appealing things about cyclamen is that they have been a popular and beloved plant for so long. This is Persian Cyclamen 1880 by F E Hulme.