DEAD MAN IN DEDHAM

My mate Richard and I went walking in ‘Constable Country’ – Manningtree, Flatford, Dedham, that kind of thing – about 7 miles round trip with stops for coffee and a beer.

 

I didn’t imagine the landscape would look exactly like a Constable painting

 

and that was just as well

 

 

On the walk we discussed

 

the political situation in Brazil

the Atacama desert

Richard’s experience with a dodgy scout master

smoothies for breakfast

Keith Waterhouse and Billy Liar

Sheffield Wednesday

the consolations of fandom

our shared indifference to the coronation and the local elections

who would be our head of state if chosen by the electorate – my guess was Judy Dench

muscular Christianity

notions of agency in children’s fiction

JK Rowling

‘magic’ in the bible

LS Lowry

the only time I’ve ever been thrown out of a pub when I was 18 for snagging –

Constable said, 'Landscape is my mistress - 'tis to her I look for fame.' It seems an odd thing to me, to look to your mistress for fame.