One Friday evening, way back in the early 1970s, my father and I were making our weekly visit to the town library when I came across a book documenting the illustrations painted by Norman Rockwell. It was a big colourful coffee-table book, and I was usually encouraged to leave those alone, but this time Dad was just as keen as I was to borrow it because 'Norman Rockwell is the greatest illustrator in the world.' He was not wrong and I have remained a loyal fan of Mr Rockwell ever since. I always meant to track down a copy of the book to have for myself, and while I was looking for it online recently, I came across this great lump of a biography that I didn't even know existed. As Christmas was just around the corner, one of my dear sons offered to buy it for me as a present and I can honestly say I have loved every page of it. In fact I loved it so much that I re-organised all our bookshelves so that my art section is now at nose level in the dining room. N...