In the beginning there was the road. But before the road, there was the river.

Gillian Tindall – The Fields Beneath

Her fishlike eyes adjust to the dimness of the church’s interior. The walls, she notices, are alive with colour. The colours dance and shimmer and she is drawn towards the nearest wall. As she approaches, trailing a faint spoor of weed and river water along the floor of the church, the colours first separate and then coalesce into what she discerns is a picture. Dragging her river wet body along first one wall and then across to another she sees that there are three pictures that stand out from the others. One is of the Apostles’ Creed, another illustrates the Seven Deadly Sins and the third, a stylised skeleton figure, represents Death. Its eyeless sockets stare out at Julie, drinking in her mortality.

Picture of River Gwenfro, Wrexham ©Bobby Seal

Extract from Swimming Against the Stream ©Bobby Seal