Wendy Beckett

Sister Wendy, a Carmelite nun who had lived largely in solitude, became an unlikely BBC star in the 1990s with series such as Sister Wendy's Grand Tour and The Story of Painting. Her method was simple and contagious: stand close, describe exactly what is there, the turn of a wrist, a patch of light, the expression on a minor figure's face, and then say plainly what it made her feel. She spoke without notes in long single takes. Her book The Story of Painting, made with the publisher Dorling Kindersley, is a friendly first art history.