Fifteen Minutes

A Cuckoo Marans rooster with smooth dark slate-grey plumage in a pale yellow seersucker jacket over a white shirt and a straw boater with a black band, seated upright on a weathered teak garden bench like a gentleman, folded wing feathers in his lap and scaled grey rooster legs reaching down to the dry golden grass, a tall purple buddleia beside him with a few small white and blue butterflies, climbing roses on an old brick wall behind

Four Whites and a Gatekeeper

He gave his fifteen minutes in July, as asked, from this bench: four whites, a gatekeeper and something blue that would not keep still. The national figures are out this week, and somewhere among them, he trusts, is the blue one.

16 September 2026