From a bus passing Parkgate, Wirral looking west across the Dee to Wales
I like this view. It’s not much to look at: a wide muddy estuary, a wide River Dee is there but out of sight, and the outline of the North Wales mountains. It is desolate yet majestic in its beauty – calming to the eye. Mist obscures details as does the bus windows. When my 5-year-old grandson observed mist through a window in Manchester yesterday, he asked me why the sky was dusty. Marvellous. This view in the photograph was taken as the number 22 from Chester to Hoylake passed through Parkgate on the Wirral. Parkgate is where Handel set off from in 1742 for the first performance in Ireland of his Messiah. In a tiny way I too passed through Parkgate today on an artist’s mission. In my case I carried a bag of books for the unique bookshop, Linghams, in nearby Heswall. Unlike most independent bookshops, this one is well-stocked and there’s an unrushed family atmosphere.
Immediately, I relaxed. The contents of the adult fiction shelves displayed those fine examples of the Man-Booker although even there I spotted the works of Margaret Atwood, who insists Oryx and Crake (2003) is not science fiction in spite of its futuristic setting and human GM fun and games. Then I found a section for science fiction and fantasy. Marvellous. There sat the works of authors I have sat next to at book signings such as Ian M Banks (RIP) and Joseph D’ Lacey with his republished sanguineous Meat which I reviewed favourably here. I was at home in a bookshop. Handshakes and information exchanges later, Linghams took copies of Exit, Pursued by a Bee, ARIA: Left Luggage and ARIA: Returning Left Luggage.
If you live in the Northwest of England then visit quaint Heswall and pop into Linghams. Their website is at http://www.linghamsbooksellers.co.uk/
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