Look up!

My dad was a very observant man, and a very interested man; wherever he went he would be looking at things, observing things,watching things, and he would often say as we wandered a long a fairly boring street ‘Look up!’ and quite often there would be things aloft, strange guttering, odd tiles, peculiar finials, unusual chimneys.

The idea of looking to find something out or the ordinary doesn’t just apply to looking up, of course, it’s more an attitude of having open eyes to the world around. As a writer I think I do observe things closely, focus on people or buildings or places, and tuck away little details for my writing – and i don’t mean I do it consciously, I just do it!

We were in London on a roasting hot day and having wandered along the south bank, we stopped beneath the Millennium Bridge in the shade waiting for ten minutes or so before it was time to rendezvous with the rest of our party and get the coach home. I was taking photos across the river of the wonderful views and then I looked up.

I wish I were an artist – what great paintings they would make!