Sir David Goodall is credited with being the architect, on the British side, of the 1985 AngloIrish Agreement. Indeed, when Margaret Thatcher realised how innovative the measure she had signed really was, she was reported to be less than pleased. Goodall had been expected to reach the top of the diplomatic profession: in Foreign Office terms this would mean being ambassador to Washington or Paris. Instead, Mrs Thatcher told him he had done such a good job in Northern Ireland he was being sent somewhere appropriately "very green and very wet". It turned out to be India.
Sir David was British High Commissioner in India from 1987 to 1991 and to mark the 50th anniversary this year of Indian independence, he has produced a beautiful little book of 51 of his paintings of buildings and landscapes with a page of text linking each illustration with India's history, religions and folklore.
Sir David, who now lives in Yorkshire and is chairman of the executive committee of the British Irish Association and chairman of the Leonard Cheshire Foundation, visited almost every state of the Indian union, carrying his watercolours with him. He has had a number of one-man exhibitions. An old Ampleforth boy and great friend of Ireland over the years, Sir David has connections in Wexford and spoke there once about the 1798 Rebellion. The proceeds from Remembering India go to the Cheshire Homes India.