It was my wife’s birthday in February, which is usually my cue to produce some sort of personalised card or image to commemorate the event. This year it was one of those ‘significant’ birthdays (you know, the ones that end in a zero) so I felt something a bit more elaborate might be in order.
The original idea was to produce an appropriate image accompanied by a few lines of whimsical verse. I do have form in this regard when it comes to personal projects, although poetry it ain’t. It might generously be described as the sort of material that Hilaire Belloc would immediately have consigned to the wastepaper basket while waiting for the muse to arrive. Or perhaps more accurately common doggerel.
Anyway, the few lines of verse quickly spiralled out of control and it became clear that no single image could provide an adequate illustration – a sequence would be required. What I’d inadvertently ended up writing was a short book.
Sure enough, the eventual ‘card’ was presented in the form of an A5 hardback book, which I had printed by one of those online photo-book print shops. It was well received in spite of being handed over almost a month later than originally intended. I added an apologetic extra couple of verses to the opening page by way of an explanation:
An overwrought story, related in verse
As a birthday card concept, I’ve come up with worse
It might take a few days to write one, it’s true
Did I bite off more than I could comfortably chew?
Sure enough the original deadline did fail
As the project grew ever more epic in scale
No matter, the work has at last been completed
(An exercise unlikely to be repeated)
And now the book’s in your possession I hope you’ll
Forgive me the gravely unpunctual schedule
But enough of formalities – prologue begone
Let the narrative commence; reader, read on…
Drawstring 