We were coming to the end of an uneventful family holiday. On the morning of our last full day away I bounced out of the big shared family bed and asked my little sister (aged 12) whether she would like me to take her out for the day. I offered to go online to see which attractions would be open in Edinburgh. I’d just find the MacBook to check.

The rest of the family groaned from under the bedclothes. They instructed me to return to bed and go back to sleep: it wasn’t even 06:00am.

When it really was time to get up my father announced that he had a present for me. The large picture depicted a semi-naked red-haired mermaid seated on a rock combing her hair. Cut-outs in the canvas revealed a second set of underwater scenes behind the main painting. The idea was that you could change the mermaid’s marine environment by altering the position of the second canvas beneath the first.

I was delighted with this latest work of my father. My only concern was whether or not we would have the wall space at home to accommodate it.