mostly david ephgrave

The strangest thing I saw whilst taking part in a charity dog walk in Stevenage today was two people carrying a full-size double mattress through Fairlands Valley Park. (I was ‘with dog’, by the way, and not in place of one.) It was an unusual sight for such a rural location. They appeared to be taking the idea of relaxing by the lake to the extreme. Any comfort they’d feel would soon be negated by lugging the mattress back to the car afterwards. Perhaps they were planning a spot of high-class dogging. If so, they had no hope of a quick getaway. If they were just carrying it home, it makes the situation even stranger. Wherever they were headed, it’s an unusual route to take. Fairlands Valley Park consists of 120 acres of parkland, about a mile and a half across. That’s hardly a shortcut. Even if it is, what seems a good idea at first would soon tire your arms as you crossed it. Was there really no better place to park?  They weren't inconspicuous. Watching two p...

Like most people, Guy Fawkes Night calls to mind memories of my childhood. I grew up in Stevenage: a much-maligned town, though when I was younger I wouldn’t hear a word said against it. I was an only child – and as a result, would spend a lot of time in my own company, entertaining myself. I was obsessed with magic into my mid-teens – and would often been found in my mum’s bedroom, practicing the latest trick I’d bought mail-order from Davenport’s Magic Shop in front of the only full-length mirror in the house. Any time not spent working on my sleight of hand was split evenly between Stevenage Indoor Market (looking for vinyl to add to my ever-growing record collection), or riding my BMX Panther around the town’s many cycle paths. Mine was a simple childhood. Our house was in the old town in the midst of a natural valley – and my mum’s bedroom window looked out on a view that impressed me. The garden backed onto an allotment with the railway line just behind it. Bey...