many, many years ago, in the late 80's, i did a regular cartoon strip for the nursing times about life at the eponymous st opt-outs hospital. this was the period when margaret thatcher first introduced the internal market, created hospital trusts and allowed them to opt-out of local health authority control.

i was leafing through derek jarman's rather lovely sketchbooks the other day (the published version not the actual sketchbooks - good gallery here), thinking what lovely objects they were and, as is my wont, nursing a depressed, childish jealousy on account not having produced anything of a similar kind. which inspired me to dig around in some old bookshelves and gather together some of the notebooks i had made over the years. 

and yet... terrified as i am of flying, i look out the window and see dawn coming up over the rim of the world and think... is this not the most jaw-dropping sight imaginable? we're 37,000 ft up. in a flying machine. that is the curve of the planet out there. we are living in a science fiction movie. right now. we are living in an actual science fiction movie. and we're probably complaining about the crappiness of the inflight meal...

    'But you say she has only got one leg!'

    'She is as full of mischief as tho' she had ten'.

            Lady De Courcy and Mrs Proudie discussing La Signora, Barchester Towers.