So I decided the best way to solve that would be to dive straight in and do a full-blown story. I started in January 2006, after a visit to Mid Wales, where I set it.”

“I use two distinct styles in the story,” he continues. “The main plot is depicted by panoramic oil paintings, the mental state of the man on the journey - the sub-plot if you like - I’ve done in pen and ink drawings. It’s a graphic novel, in effect.”
I suggest that graphic novels aren’t taken seriously in this country, like they are in Italy and Spain and France. That people just think of Batman. “Not at all,” he says. “If you go to the North Laines in Brighton there are whole bookshops of such novels, on a wide variety of themes. I think people are more open minded than they used to be.” I also tell him I’ve never before seen this mix of pen and ink drawings and oil paintings in such a story before.
“Oh good,” he says.
“Have you?” I ask.
“No!”
He laughs. It’s original, alright.

He tells me he’s just about finished the book, and he’s now looking for a publisher, as we walk/slide to his shed/studio in the garden to take some photos. All the oil paintings are hung on the wall. They look pretty stunning. There are also portraits of local Lewes characters, a couple of whom I recognise. On my way back I get slightly lost trying to take a short cut through Nevill. I look in the sky for guidance. Sadly, there is none. AL