In the psychological assessment which is sometimes part of the European Commission’s preventive-medicine programme for its staff, I was sometimes asked the question: “Have you moved house recently?”

Apparently it is accepted that few things are more stressful than what is involved in a change of residence. Certainly for us, during most of 1992, preparation for the move from our house at Avenue du Monoplan to an apartment near Place Dumon, the market square just one kilometre further out of town, down Avenue Orban, was an almost all-consuming challenge to our powers of organisation.

We bought the apartment, a penthouse duplex, when the basic construction of a small block in Rue Henrotte was up to the level of what would be our future living room floor. Some modification of the plans was still possible and we agreed to take a substantial floor area which would give us a smaller kitchen and large living and dining area, with three bedrooms and three bathrooms. We would have, in addition, a double garage – space for one car behind the other – one floor below ground level, and a cellar, one floor below that, accessible only by stairs. The eleven apartments in the block would be served by a central lift and stairs. There was a large ground floor area to be let for business purposes and the entry-hall stairs and other common areas were presented as spacious and finished to a high standard.

In the months leading up to our move in early 1993 we had to negotiate and schedule the finance for the new apartment, juggling it so that we could sell our house and move to our new home virtually simultaneously. At the same time, we tried to supervise the continuing construction and finishing of our apartment, where quality and time schedules were always at odds.

There were moments when we thought almost everything was conspiring against us, including the weather, which often interrupted the building work. When it came to moving day, gusts of frightening rain blew in as Patricia’s piano and other heavy furniture came up and over the fourth-floor balcony rail on one of those ladder-style lifts used by removers in Brussels.

Given all this activity, and my day-to-day professional work, it seems something of a miracle that we managed to have one of our best visits to the Edinburgh Festival in August – and that I found time to work on a declaration by the Quaker Council for European Affairs to mark the launching of a new inter-government conference on the future of the European Communities. Such miracles are always possible when the challenge is to do something you love doing and feel needs to be done – particularly if no one else seems prepared to take it on, or you think you can contribute something no one else will.

By the end of our Edinburgh Festival visit I felt I had become a real film expert. That summer’s festival offered a series of masterclasses sponsored by BBC 2 and with Anne and Patricia I went to the sessions by Freddie Francis and Christopher Challis on cinematography and Anne V. Coates on editing.

Anne Coates, then 67, was busy in Hollywood, working on Richard Attenborough’s “Chaplin”. Her hallmark, and this was true also of Francis and Challis, was a quiet confidence and authority. As we knew both “Lawrence of Arabia” and “The Elephant Man”, the films for which she is best known, it was a real privilege to listen to her views and to understand her preparedness to redo things until she felt she had got them right.

At 75, Freddie Francis was also still working as a director of cinematography. He was then the only cinematographer to have won Oscars for both colour and black and white movies. Patricia was particularly interested to see him as he had worked for Martin Scorsese on the remake of Cape Fear. I felt I got as much insight into film-making as I have ever had when I asked him if he had a preferred camera or other piece of technical equipment which he always used. “No,” he replied. “Whenever I am to work on a film I simply insist that the contract stipulates the use of Panavision.” As all equipment is hired, his reasoning was that Panavision could be relied upon to have the latest and most technically advanced gear available.

There it is. If I ever get the chance to make a another film I know it will have to be a team effort for which the best people and equipment available are hired. Every aspect of the enterprise will be equally important in quality terms: script, sound, cinematography, and editing.

Read more: 1993 – Poetry and Travel