Richard Bundy & Anna Phoebe / From the Edge / Clay Pipe Music – By Patrick Syms

Pukka prose by Patrick Syms. When I was three my family moved to Ramsgate. More specifically, to a farmhouse that overlooked Pegwell Bay. The end of our garden was steps away from the cliff edge. It would have been hard to live closer to the coast. At Little Cliffsend Farm there was no electricity, no mains sewers and no bathroom. No fridge, either. None of this was due to neglect or malfunction. It was how it was advertised. The only concession to 1970’s modernity was a tall gas cylinder sentried outside the front door. Indoors was a bubble of an earlier time, when expectations were lower, comfort was defined by different amenities and postwar economic development was speculative fiction because what war? Though there was no bathroom at the farmhouse, there was a loo and – mercifully – it was indoors. There was a bath, although it was in the kitchen, covered by a removable board that converted it to a work top. Lighting and heating were powered by the gas cylinder. Sewage was…