Pre field trip thoughts

For the setting of my book the most immediately suitable setting that came to mind was the sprawling expanse of Temple Newsam on the outskirts of Leeds, that I spent basically all of my developing years wandering aimlessly. I have always had an affinity with the place as I grew up just outside the forest that leads up to the park itself. 

The main reason I wanted to explore this place from an illustrative point of view is because of all the history there. Not only history in a historical sense (I think that makes sense, I mean in the sense of it being real old and home to some historical figures and events) but in a personal sense, and not only for me but for tens of other people who all define my memories of it. I want my book to tell the story of what I remember of this place and what others remember, because the concept of assorted memories that are all separate to one another but anchored to the same place fascinates me.

I also find the idea of unreliable narration interesting, as I am certain I don't remember each time I went out into the woods, and I am even more certain that some things that happened there have only been exaggerated in my mind since then. I also want to look at the narrative from various developmental stages, as my perception of the place changed as I grew up, I once thought of it as an endless forest of secrets and hidden routes to nowhere, but returning more recently I know where the forest ends and becomes a motorway, I know where the land stops and becomes private with electric fences and anti climbing paint, I know where that one hellish spider infested tunnel leads to and various other restrictions that no child notices or cares about when exploring. 

In a sense of narrative, a big part of my work in this book will be associated with ideas of being lost and being found in several different ways, as I see these ideas (for me anyway) as two of the defining states of growing up; lost/found, innocence/experience. As Temple Newsam has always just been a staple of my life as much as school or the fridge, I have never truly considered it independently from an art-focused standpoint, so I'm excited to go and get lost again in familiarity with a fresh set of eyes.