Mark Lee

The Canal House

Harcourt/Harvest, 2004.

The house had two stories: one at street level, the other below the street that was supported by the bridge that curved over Regent's Canal. As we returned that day on the canal path, I looked up and saw the arched windows, all of them framed by intricate brickwork. To me, it looked like a Victorian chapel, something staid and industrial that had once blessed the coal barges pulled through London

Julia, 'an idealistic British doctor', is sharing the house with her lover, an American war correspondent, who feels he should be leaving for Kosovo where the situation has started to deteriorate. Julia too should be returning to her work with refugees, but has become fascinated by the wildlife in the park.

As spring approached, the swans broke the canal ice that formed overnight and swam about in their little patch of water...I liked to take the canal path to the bridge at Primrose Hill into Regent's Park...A boating lake was in one corner of the park with a little island at the centre. Gray herons were building nests in the island trees and I spent hours watching them. The herons were large, ungainly birds with white chest feathers. I watched them eat fish and fly around the park with their heads pulled back