Aoife Toplis Kelly and her mother, Fiona, viewing artefacts from the William Toplis exhibition in Sark.

MY REFERENCE a couple of weeks ago to the superb William Toplis exhibition at La Societe Serquiaise’s premises next to the island’s Visitor Centre led directly to me spending an enjoyable hour or so with two of the great artist’s direct descendants.

Fiona Toplis Kelly, her husband, David, and their daughter, Aoife, are regular visitors to the island and have contributed much to the show, including some of the original exhibits which made the event very much more than simply a display of Toplis’s work.

I have to say that my second visit was enhanced considerably by having Fiona adding so much in the way of detail to what was on show.

I particularly enjoyed watching her examining one of her great-grandfather’s little diaries and pointing out the minuscule writing to her daughter.

Fiona’s association with Sark started on her first visit at the age of five months. Her grandfather then lived at Le Clos Bourel which, for those familiar with the island, is on the left of the road leading to La Coupee.

‘Since then, there have been very few years when I haven’t visited,’ she told me.

Not surprisingly, there seems to be an artistic influence in the Toplis genes because Fiona studied the history of art as a student and as I chatted to the Kellys, the talent looked to be present in the youngest generation, from what I saw of her daughter’s drawings.

Both David and Fiona are extremely enthusiastic about plans to produce a reproduction of Toplis’s famous Book of Sark in which 21 of the artist’s pictures are used.

Only 500 were printed originally and Fiona is currently trying to find the whereabouts of as many of those as she can.

There has already been a significant response to the idea of reproducing the book and, if the project goes ahead, it is hoped that the publication will be available from about the middle of next year.

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As many will know, world power-boating was due to return to the Bailiwick yesterday and this gives me the opportunity to refer to John Guille – son of Sheila and Colin and grandson of Gee – who competes regularly and successfully in his chosen sport.Just like Olympic dressage rider Carl Hester – erroneously referred to recently as a possible Guernsey representative at the 2012 London Olympics (he lived and learned to ride in Sark) – John never fails to publicise his home island wherever he is competing.

As I said, the first race was scheduled for yesterday with another due tomorrow and again on Sunday with a 10.30am start for both.

Should the races go ahead, I’d reckon one of the best vantage points would be near the Pilcher Monument above Havre Gosselin as the course for both races takes the powerboats through the narrow passage between Sark and Brecqhou.

John Guille’s boat is numbered C-10 and called l’Esprit de Serq.

Sark’s annual Tourism Forum takes place in a month on 2 October at 5pm in the Island Hall.

It provides the yearly opportunity for residents – and not only those directly involved in the industry – to listen to what the Tourism Committee’s policies are for the coming year.

It’s hoped that representatives of Sark Shipping and Manche Iles will be present, so I anticipate that the discussion might well be somewhat lively.

• The email address for comment is fallesark@sark.net.