I’m experimenting with very short pieces of creative writing, in the form of vignettes centred on a particular place. My challenge is: am I able to convey a sense of place with a few words and illustrations?

Bath is a very beautiful city. It has a lovely cathedral, a nice canal walk (although I didn’t like the sheer drop on the edge of it), and an open, airy feel.

However, what I remember most are two experiences.

First, returning the city centre from a conference at the university. I was in the back half of a “bendy bus’, which is in effect two buses joined together like train carriages. We used to have the wretched things in London. It always seemed to be that the back part of it swung around corners more violently than the front half.

On this occasion, I was in the back half, and the bus was quite obviously being driven by someone whose main job was a Formula One racing driver. It was the nearest thing to that ride called the Waltzer you’re likely to experience outside of the funfair. To give you an idea of what it was like, I‘ve drawn a picture:

The other thing that happened was that I was told off by a duck.

I was walking back to my hotel, head in the clouds, no doubt penning an article, when all of a sudden, as I passed a doorway, I heard a loud “QUACK!”.