the gentle author / the gentle developer / the liberty of norton folgate

horsemouth: orange t-shirt, white shorts, near the 'save norton folgate ' banner

so horsemouth is back from saving norton folgate from rapacious development - he has the badge and the book to prove it. there may even be photographs. unlike the early days of 'demonstrations' (where one was merely arrested, roughed up a little for attempting such things) horsemouth and his cohort received a book from the hands of the gentle author (though you did have to queue for it - what is it with the british and queueing?). basically horsemouth was there saving a village of the architecturally minded posh from being evicted to make way for productive (empty) office blocks. of course if the proposal was to knock it all down to create entirely social housing horsemouth would have to support that instead.

horsemouth was there with merv (being mutinous, he announced he was there to 'stick it to the man'), max, samanta, niall. at one point merv pronounced that what was needed was a queue disruptor, when questioned as to what this might be he suggested a capacitor. there was then some discussion of the strange afterlife of old television sets and the fact that they can still give you a belt long after they've been switched off thanks to the large capacitors they contain. 'from hell's heart I stab at thee'.

the book is a good pleasurable book of photographs and commentary on the history of the seaside towns and its people. on the way up he bumped into andy coram at his antiques shop (fuck it people go buy some antiques people) but did not make it back as he'd promised.

cross bones cemetery with john crow - photo by max reeves

instead horsemouth wandered down to the crossbones cemetery with max through the sun-fried (and tourist infested) streets. there horsemouth met john crow and others dedicated to keeping this outcast graveyard open but to do so meant to do a deal with 'the man' (ok the Bankside Open Spaces Trust). horsemouth was most impressed with the pyramid of broken masonry dug up on the site and decorated with clam shells (once the food of the poor). the clam shells shone white in the afternoon sunshine. they have something on wednesday and thursday there.

thereafter horsemouth and max adjourned to the pub (the george). strangely two and a half beers merely succeeded in anaesthatising horsemouth. he had two beers the day before remember. eventually horsemouth and max staggered up to rejoin their lives.