lives down on the island loop between the Thames and Castle Mill Stream, lazing in the green fringes of the parking lots and industrial units. Here, the waterways double back and disappear under a graffito brickface in the railway bridge, the leaning boards of ever-sodden rear gardens and overgrown banks. I’d like to kayak around these lonely side channels and forks, measuring all the forgotten turns and willow-canopied green pools. I could draw up a map of the watery lanes, go silent and unobserved as my soft-padding Ladro.
