There’s a rhythm to his brisk walk but it’s not a sassy swagger. His outfit is understated: blue jacket, grey trousers, so just a regular guy? But then there’s the flat cap: once a cliche of the down-to-earth Yorkshireman – along with whippets and racing pigeons – today it’s as likely to be an ironic touch.
Retro eyeglasses and a messenger bag complete the ensemble. He steadies the bag with his left hand as he walks amongst the shoppers on the precinct.
His innate rhythm and understated style make me think of jazz pianist and composer Thelonious Monk. Rather like Eric Morecambe, Monk insisted, “The piano ain’t got no wrong notes.”
But after an improvisation session that didn’t turn out well, he came to the conclusion:
“I’ve been making the wrong mistakes.”
My character, like Monk, seems like someone who’ll take things in his stride, accepting that occasionally we all need to make the right mistakes.
I’ve just started an Open University FutureLearn course, Start Writing Fiction, and our assignment for the first week has been to describe a character from our writer’s notebook (or, in my case, sketchbook), so I’ve chosen a man who I glimpsed crossing the precinct as I waited for an appointment last week.