Having been writing around/about the spring of 1985 (and all points in between then and now) for a while, first with my novel The Fountain in the Forest, and latterly with Volumes two (completed) and three (in progress), I found this photogaph of me right then, aged nearly 21, on the edge of the moors outside Otley, West Yorkshire.
Spring in Yorkshire: warm enough for a picnic, cold enough for a donkey jacket!
I lived in Leeds at the time. The photo is by my good friend and housemate Debbie, who had darkroom access via her Fine Art course at what was then Leeds Poly.
In that spring of 1985 – having already done a Foundation Course at the former West Surrey College of Art and Design (now the University for the Creative Arts) in my hometown of Farnham – I was working my way towards going back to study Fine Art myself, although that wasn’t as straightforward as it might have been. Which is partly why I was living in Leeds.
Access to education, especially higher education, is an issue that is really important to me. And it’s a theme I’ve found myself returning to in my fiction, so more on that later maybe – but it will need a longer piece than I can write now, today. In the meantime, thanks to Debbie for taking such a good photo – I’m lucky to have it!
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