Commentary

What immediately impressed me on meeting the stone that sits on Beeley Moor was its size and weight. Even from a distance it was unmissable in all that heather and bog cotton: a stolid vertical fixed amongst horizontal lines. I spent a lot of time running my hands over the block's contours, its cracks and fissures, its mossy letters. There was one W that particularly impressed me in terms of how ornately it was carved into the rock.

When Amanda arrived we began to discuss the stone together. I told her about my love of the letter W in BAKEWELL. Amanda pointed out there were actually two hands on the BAKEWELL face - signaling in opposite directions. ‘Ghost’ fingers had been overlaid with a four-digit hand. This little detail tipped me into writing process.