In 'The Secret to a Good Life', Bob and Roberta Smith introduces his mother, Deirdre Borlase, and her encounters with the often sexist and classist art establishment of postwar Britain. Her story has led her son to ruminate on drawing, politics and the challenge art can pose to authority, as well as to reminisce on his experience of growing up in a household with two painters for parents. In the colourful signwriting style for which he is best known, Bob and Roberta Smith tells a poignant and political family story and answers the question what is the secret to a good life?