Weymouth...

The place names of Dorset sound like the morning register of boys at one of England’s minor public schools: Langton Herring. Minterne Magna, Hazelbury Bryan, Winterborne Stickland, Fifehead St Quintin, Tarrant Rushton, Sturminster Marshall, Compton Valence, Winterbourne Abbas, Melbury Osmond, Burton Bradstock… and Puddletown.

I spent yesterday afternoon shooting pix in Weymouth; the town is rather handsome, especially around the harbour. A middle-aged woman on a mobility scooter caught my eye. At some point in her life she’d given up all thoughts of ‘keeping up appearances’, and decided instead to transform herself into a gargoyle, a curiosity. Her face was bright red, and she had a pair of metal ‘fangs’ inserted into her top lip for the ever-popular ‘vampire’ look. She had a beard too, but at least it was neatly trimmed. In a world where women are judged by their looks, she’d really gone ‘out on a limb’.

HQ of the Poundbury Wealth Management company...