Irregular Rapping
Saturday and there's an irregular rapping at the door. Having worked from home before it was a pandemic lifestyle choice thrust upon the rest of the population, my ear is keenly attuned to the timbre and rhythm of the door knock. This isn't the insistent hammering of the harassed delivery van driver with the motor running and back doors open while stopped in the middle of the road. Neither is it the measured taps of the veteran postal person on their round. Like Pavlov's mutts I know which to spring up from my chair for and bound excitedly to the door. By now the postie could instruct me to sit, roll around and stay and I would comply knowing they will hand over my coveted impulse purchase from World Of Books.
Through the frosted glass of the hall door I see the outline of a figure, but no sign of the neon orange of the Hi-Vis tabard that is the tell-tale uniform of the cold caller. I consider turning back to the front room where my daughter is showing off her new phone. It looks like a Star Trek communicator and Phil and I have spent the last half hour indulging her by reverently ooh-ing every time she opens it at the hinge and ahh-ing every time she shuts it. More reverent ooh-ing is preferable to being asked if I have heard the Good News.
Recklessly I open the door. A man in an ankle length coat and tweed deerstalker leans towards me. I expect him to say, come along, Watson, the game is afoot and drag me to his hackney carriage. Sadly the Ruritarian ambassador has not been found poisoned in a locked room in Knightsbridge, or even a great glowing hound seen prowling Aldi car park. No, he's a representative of the Green Party.
He hands me a folded A4 sheet and informs me that it's a survey that will take a mere sixty seconds to fill in. If I leave it hanging out of my letterbox he will come by later collect it. Thanks, I say. He heads next door before I have time to ask if that's a wooden spatula he's carrying. Perhaps he is going to paddle Moriarty. Or perhaps I imagined it.
To take a break from reverent ooh-ing I recruit the family in filling out the survey. A series of questions require grading from Not Important to Very Important. Not surprisingly they skew towards green spaces, cycling and improving air quality. I grade these as Very Important and am accused of being a Yes Man. A Sheeple. Someone who bends to the party line and truckles from speaking truth to power. I protest that local councillors do not have their hands gripped on the levers of power, but am told true political change can never occur with go-along-to-get-alongs like myself. Under Which Other Issues Matter To You I put NHS funding (an area well outside the influence of local councillors) and to cement my people-pleasing reputation, cycle lanes. I expect great improvements to both in the coming days.
The rain has stopped for the first time in what seems like weeks. Phil and I go for a walk. I leave the survey dangling out of the letterbox as instructed. The river Severn is over its banks and the path around the racecourse is under water. All building work on the planned cycle bridge spanning the river from Gheluvelt Park has halted.
When we return I see the survey is no longer dangling from the letter box. I unlock the door. The rustling sound of envelopes being pushed across the floor tells us that the postie has been. Amongst the white envelopes is the survey that has been pushed back inside.
I can't help thinking a consulting detective would have known this would happen.
Interview
I was part of a round table on making graphic novels. You can read part one here.
Books
Books, books, get y'books 'ere. Christmas may be over but the relentless impulse to consume should not be forgotten. Sate your appetite for new reading material by buying these fine graphic novels from all the places fine graphic literature is sold (book shops, comic shops, online etc). And if you enjoyed them, please write a positive review online. We will be forever grateful.
Simon has made prints from both books and they are gorgeous. Drop by his store and snag one for yourself.
I have a patreon which I update regularly. Tuesdays and Saturdays I post sketches and behind the scenes stuff such as Punycorn colour pages. Thursdays I post a one page comic story.
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I still have books out in the world, Kerry and the Knight of the Forest & the awards nominated The Book Tour. Support my efforts through my store – digital comics – patreon or by leaving a positive review online