I was born in my parents' bedroom overlooking the River Cole (the midwife arrived after I did, and may have been a little worse for drink, but that's another story — my parents coped without her), and grew up (when I wasn't at school) on and around the river. My "patch" stretched from Trittiford Mill Pool (with its ducks and swans and moor-hens and coots, and mysterious islands that I never did reach except in my dreams) through the Dingles (which lay at the bottom of our garden, a treasure-house of trees to climb and hidden paths to follow and a river for paddling and catching sticklebacks) all the way up to Sarehole Mill (with its brooding mill-pond overhung by trees, and the recreation ground where summer fêtes were held come rain or shine). The Cole Valley in Hall Green fed my imagination, and taught me to look for the unexpected and interesting things that can be found anywhere, if you're only willing to look beyond the surface.
