“Hellmouth discovered in Southwark”
Our offices were refurbished over Christmas. When we returned to work we found that, as part of the move, a cupboard had been shifted to one side revealing a small white notice board beneath. Blue-tacked to the board was a shabby piece of paper scrawled across with several sentences that we discerned to be written in Italian. Typing the text into the translation site ‘Babelfish’ we discovered that it was an extract from Dante’s Divine Comedy - the bit about "Abandon all hope - all ye who enter in" - a description of hell.
After we’d laughed at it’s absurdity I found myself asking what would possess someone to write something so sinister in another language and then hide it. What’s happened to them? And how long has their message been waiting? It’s a far cry from Dilbert cartoons, or a banner proclaiming ‘you don’t have to be mad to work her but…’
So, I find myself, eight weeks into a new job, working in a (basement) office that some unseen entity has likened to the fiery underworld.
Apart from that it’s relatively quiet - put a blog on ‘My Telegraph’:
