Monsters

Returning from Wales I stopped off for an hour between trains at Chester, which was enough time to visit the gargoyles on the cathedral.

Consulting Mike Harding's 'Little Book of Gargoyles' (incidentally a good choice for #LBB14 - extras, and *below) I find that the fine Chester collection of “screaming monsters” were re-cut by Victorian masons  as the originals had suffered so much from weathering and industrial pollution.

Back in Bradford I found a new photography exhibition had just opened at Impressions Gallery: " 'We Are Here, Because you Were There: Afghan Interpreters in the UK'  is a collaboration project by photographer and British Army veteran Andy Barnham and Professor Sara de Jong. It documents the experiences of Afghan interpreters who were employed by the British Army in Afghanistan, and recently resettled to the UK."  As the identities of the interpreters are still sensitive, the photographer has created striking pixilated portraits, which are contextualised with some personal stories and a timeline of British colonial and military actions in Afghanistan.

Still working my way home, an abrupt shift in culture saw me stop off at Valley Parade to see Bradford City earn a third successive league victory, this time over bottom of the table Sutton United.

Then back home finally, to be joined by 16yo, and then a surprise visit from 19yo who had popped back from uni for a gig in Leeds.

*For #LBB14 (theme kindly set by @Livresse, broadly, picture books) Mike Harding’s Little Book of Gargoyles is a pleasingly small volume that I will have picked up in the bookshop at York Minster, Durham Cathedral or suchlike at the turn of the century. Harding, better known as a folk singer and comic and for many years present of Folk on 2, has photographed gargoyles and grotesques around Britain, Ireland and Europe, and offers a little bit of text for context (see the page for Chester Cathedral in extras as an example). The book gives a really nice introduction to the topic, and its dinky nature (potential future LBB promp there?) has made it a resilient fixture on my bookshelves where many larger picture books have been sacrificed for space. Looking at it again I am reminded that I still haven’t been to Beverley to see the Minster, so that is an outing to plan at some point.

And a reminder that if you click on the #gargoyle tag you will find a wonderful virtual volume of images gathered by blippers over the years.