in the spring of 1954, the chinese government invited various western delegations to visit china for the fifth anniversary celebrations of the "liberation" of october 1949. members of the hastily assembled "cultural delegation" included stanley spencer, leonard hawkes, rex warner, hugh casson and a. j. ayer. spencer told zhou enlai that "i feel at home in china because i feel that cookham is somewhere near, only just around the corner." towards the end of 1955, a large retrospective of spencer's work was held at the tate and he began a series of large paintings centred on the work "christ preaching at cookham regatta", which were intended for the church-house.