Drones

When Knottman was in his late teens he was keen to absorb every kind of literary culture in order, he hoped, to help him escape from the small world of Pudsey, West Yorkshire.

As part of that search he came across Drones. At that time these were feckless young men with strange accents and too much money who inhabited some kind of club off Piccadilly in London. Their antics were amusing and still are.

But now to the bulk of the population, and especially tothe young, the word means something very different.

In North Cheshire today Knottman's footpath was blocked by a quagmire of rich Cheshire soil churned up by a herd of cows. The alternative footpath took me into a large stream side meadow in crossing which he noted what seemed to be a large new species of dragonfly. But no. On nearer approach it was clearly being controlled by a friendly cove who told me he was testing out a new model for sale.

The most impressive feature was that it could stay absolutely still as it hovered and then could speed off at a considerable speed.