My mother, Rene Chaplin, who lit up the arts scene in the north-east for 70 years, has died aged 91. The tributes from her many friends spoke of her remarkable character: she was a "grand lass", "doughty person" and "most loyal of friends".
The only child of Andrew, a chauffeur turned pitman, and his wife, Annie, Rene was born in the Durham mining village of Ferryhill and attended Crag school there before working in Stapleton's general store and as a parlour maid for a surgeon. One Sunday she found herself listening to a young Methodist lay preacher whom she thought rather too pleased with himself. Thus my father, Sid, entered Rene's life. He was a sensitive young pitman who wanted to devote his life to literature.
After an uncertain start – when he asked her out, she slapped his face, under the mistaken impression he was sweet on another girl – the couple embarked on a remarkable journey. Sid became a successful all-round man of letters and Guardian columnist, while Rene became the person who made it all work. This went way beyond the domestic. A born storyteller herself, Rene made an immeasurable contribution to Sid's work. He always listened to "my first and most unerringly accurate critic".
So their journey progressed, from Ferryhill to London, when the collier became a reporter, then in 1957 to their adopted city of Newcastle, where my father's writing hit its peak and he and Rene became passionate supporters of the arts. She was a founder member of Live theatre, Newcastle, and vice-president of the city's People's theatre, as well as a keen but by no means uncritical patron of the Stone, Bede and Northumbria galleries.
My parents were both avid collectors and their home became a treasure trove of pictures, books and curios. At the age of 90, she became a published author with the brilliant memoir Educating Rene and to the very end she remained herself – clever, wise and astonishingly sharp of memory.
Sid died in 1986. Rene is survived by her children, Gillian, Chris and myself, five grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren,