Angel Cake

''My old lady turned out to be an absolute fright. Serves me right, I suppose. She wears bold theatrical make-up on a shrivelled face; bright scarlet lipstick which bleeds into the deep folds of her crinkled lips and orangey pink powder which wobbles on the hairs of her chin... She wouldn''t let me in at first.'' Alicia Queripel, a retired actress, lives alone with her memories in Shepard''s Bush....