Sheffield's Women of Steel

A portrait for mono Monday: it took around 50 years for the women who worked in Sheffield heavy industry in World War 2 to be celebrated publicly.

Here they are now, two nameless companions who stand in one of the city's central squares.

I passed them late this afternoon as I walked back from a bookshop in the city centre. The Christmas lights were on but the streets were sad and almost deserted.

Tonight's BBC news brought mention of a new mutation in the Covid virus. This is apparently thought to be unlikely to make the new vaccines ineffective. I am hanging on to that thought, pending further scientific investigation.