“You have a ‘Jacques Biederer’ shot,”
I exclaimed with an admiring smile
… brushing my fingertips along
the edge of her dressing table
close to where the sepia photograph
was leaning inside a matchsticked
frame [Such as the kind Crafted
inside British Prisons]… “Lovely.”
“Yes, I first saw it in an old book
back in my late teens, and I have
been OBSESSED with it ever since.
The ‘Match-Work’ was done by
my last-but-one Ex in Exeter HMP
… yeah, that’s right, you were in
there with him, he saw you Kick-Off
and Smash Up the Reception Area
with a metal flask in a pillow case.
He reckoned around 10 Screws
carried you out of there upside
-down… and, that you were over
on the Hospital Wing for a fortnight
before Transferring to ‘The Main’
… he’s absolutely Terrified of you!”
“I love his photographs… Quirky
and Quaint… and quite Fascinating.
Anyway, tell ‘Her’ that I called by…
and that I’ll be ‘Holding Court’ later
at the back of The Anchor from 7pm.”
* The HMP Exeter Reception incident is explained in its entirety in the forthcoming novel Crazy Like Emotion