Father’s Day 2023 with Colin Browne
We recently visited poet/filmmaker and father Colin Browne, along with his wife Marian Penner Bancroft, daughter Susanna Browne, and her dog Noodle. The day started in their beautiful backyard garden, followed by a visit to UBC and a bike ride around the neighborhood. Throughout the day Susanna had a chance to ask Colin a few questions about being a dad, and he was able to share some of his fondest family memories.
SUSANNA WEARS STUDIO NICHOLSON SIRA SHIRT. MARIAN WEARS DANTON DENIM DUNGAREE SHIRT DRESS.
What was your favourite book to read to me when I was little?
I love this question, and it makes me reflect on how we moved through many stages of looking and reading. Your first books had no words at all; the cardboard pages were filled with painted images of domestic and farm animals. Many were babies. After that, do you remember Meg and Mog? And Goodnight, Moon, of course. And the tales we read and reread about Piskies? If I must choose one author, it would be William Steig, and perhaps my favourite of all his books is Dr. De Soto, which I wouldn’t have been aware of at all had we not read stories together at bedtime.
You and I like to go for weekly lunches - if we could eat a meal together anywhere in the world, where would it be?
When you were six months old, we spent a few days in an old mas just outside the French market town of Pont-Saint-Esprit at the confluence of the Ardèche and the Rhone rivers. For lunch, on our first trip to the market, I was offered a plate on which a delicately cooked piece of fish and several freshly harvested, boiled vegetables—a potato, carrots, etc.—had been harmoniously arranged, topped with a glistening dollop of aïoli, a fragrant olive oil and garlic mayonnaise. It was the best thing I’d ever tasted. I haven’t thought about this moment for years, but your question prodded my memory, and since I think you’d love this simple, rural, dish, I’d go back to Pont-Saint-Esprit with you to see if we can find a version of the market aïoli that you, tucked into a carrier on my back, were too young to sample.
What do you like most about being a dad?
Having you for my daughter!
COLIN WEARS A.P.C. KERLOUAN JACKET, BEAMS PLUS POPOVER CHAMBRAY SHIRT, FILIPPA K TERRY CROPPED TROUSER, AND TRIPPEN CLOSED ALWAYS MULES. SUSANNA WEARS STUDIO NICHOLSON SIRA SHIRT, FILIPPA K FINE RIB TANK, MARNI WIDE-LEG SILK TROUSERS WITH BUCHI BLU PRINT, MOMA 1GS334 SLIDES, AND MARNI IK KIL CENOTE SUNGLASSES.
MARIAN WEARS NEIRAMI JACKET, SARAHWEAR LINEN TWILL BALLOON PANTS, CHURCH'S KELSEY SANDAL, AND HOLDS BLUE BLUE JAPAN INDIGO DIAMOND PATTERN STITCH 'SASHIKO' LARGE BAG. COLIN WEARS BEAMS PLUS COMFORT CROSS TRAVEL 3 BUTTON JACKET, MARNI LOGO POPLIN SHIRT, FILIPPA K TERRY CROPPED TROUSER, AND CAMPER BRUTUS SANDALS. SUSANNA WEARS FILIPPA K WOOL PINSTRIPE BLAZER, FILIPPA K KAY JEAN, MOMA 1CS425 BOOT, AND MARNI IK KIL CENOTE SUNGLASSES.
