A New Jerusalem

I took my daughter to London this week for a post-GCSE day out, squeezing in a few one-on-one memories for her before her brother finishes the end of term and wants to come along too. One thing I’ve realised about taking teenagers to places you think you know is that there is usually a lot more to it. I used to live in London but at the time I didn’t get to All The Places. Does anyone? One place I didn’t get to as a young adult, inexplicably, was Camden Market.

The internet tells me that teenagers love Camden Market, so off we tubed. The internet was right. It was delightful. Having sampled the delights there for as long as we both felt comfortable, we then trotted back along the towpath towards King’s Cross and discovered lots of nature and architecture we would otherwise have missed.

Now it’s one thing to pop out for a few hours to invest time in family and allow the brain to whirr away in the background in the Work in Progress. However, every once in a while, you may get a subtle pointer that perhaps you really ought to Get Back To It. A feeling. A sign, even.

If you are trying to avoid signs, I recommend not trying to read all the graffiti on London towpaths. It can feel awkward if you are inclined to take it personally.

The book is not far off being published now. It’s all about the edits at the moment and chasing loose ends.

Editing is not the experience I imagined it would be. One thing I’ve realised about publishing, like London, is that there is usually a lot more to it. I got caught out the other week while checking over some visuals I’d prepared. I had been using icons from Microsoft. I used this one to represent Jerusalem:

Unfortunately, it turns out you cannot just use Microsoft icons in books you publish. It makes Bill Gates cry and is most unreasonable.

I had used rather a lot of icons.

However, conveniently for me there was a General Election in my country, and I intended to stay up late on Election night to see who won. I armed myself with snacks, lists of constituencies and a printout of all the icons I had unwittingly used Without Proper Permissions.

And so it came to pass that I drew myself a new Jerusalem. I’ll let you have a sneak peek.

Not too grand, but ideal for the purpose. It’s only going to be quite small. There are quite a few other reimagined icons in the book as well. To see the rest, you’ll just have to get hold of a copy when it comes out. More on that next time…

Lucy Robinson’s book, ‘Telling the Big Story’ will be out with Kevin Mayhew later this year. It is currently in the editing process. Lucy is a part-time biblical tutor for Spurgeon’s College. Images own/Microsoft.