Psalms for the City: Original poetry inspired by the places we call home

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Another reason “being creative” is intimidating is because we live in a society that thinks the people who are creative – the ones who do great things and have great ideas – are sort of “those people over there”. They’re geniuses. The therapist said: “Imagine yourself, aged about four or five. Imagine that little boy coming into the room now… What would you say to him?” And suddenly, finally, I could see what a terrible thing it was to speak – or think – of myself that way. How cruel, how brutal it was. And I stopped doing it.

Other people seem to find it comforting to know the answer. That to me reduces it. Being okay with things being not okay is a really powerful thing.” Open and honest, these are modern day psalms that chart John-Paul’s discovery that the extraordinary places welcomed the ordinary, and that when we’re looking closely, the ordinary places can become extraordinary. I just happened to by browsing near the door that day, when a sales rep from a different publisher came in, carrying a folder full of book covers in plastic sleeves. He propped the folder on a heaped table of books, flipping through at speed, while the shop manager shook his head grimly.Best of all, I wrote a book – about finding peace in the places we call home – and I illustrated it too: 50 full-colour drawings, plus the cover – showing the view from my hospital window. Can you imagine how good that feels? I wanted to make art for a living. Forty years passed. And now I do.

So I urge you to think about being obvious. Just turn to that neighbour again and say something obvious. Relax. Something obvious: whatever. Publishing lunch, from left: Me, Peanut (schnauzer), Elizabeth (editor), Emily (publicity) and Mike (marketing). Picture by my agent, Jaime Marshall And I went, Yep, I’m sure I can do that. And I put it away. Then this morning I looked at it and it said, “Where did great ideas come from?” And I really haven’t the faintest idea. I got in a bit of a funk and a panic. I felt like, Oh, God. Oh yeah, huge pressure. I mean, this is being filmed, isn’t it?After facing two deaths in two months, and two loved ones having major health scares, Mr Flintoff said he “lost confidence” in himself to cope with his “savagely cruel, self critical thoughts”. Mr Flintoff, a former journalist, had never seen drawing as anything more than a hobby, but his psychiatrist recommended he keep drawing as a way to express his thoughts. The editor who commissioned my next book, Elizabeth N., asked if I might record a short video about it, to share at an internal sales meeting. Emily B. is doing a brilliant job securing publicity for my book. She got me a commission to write 800 words for the Guardian.

It’s for a slot called “A Moment That Changed Me”. Here (below) is the copy I filed. Naturally, the piece as it eventually appears – if it eventually appears!– may be quite different. But I thought you might like to see the words just as I sent them.And we’re over here. This idea of a genius comes from the Enlightenment. If you think about so called primitive societies, where everyone’s really creative, it’s often because they believe that they’re doing the work on behalf of God – they’re sort of transmitting something. So there’s a lovely story, a true story, about people who live in Greenland and carve walrus tusks. And they don’t blame themselves if it comes out badly. They say “God put a not very interesting thing inside that tusk.” It’s not their fault. They’re relaxed, detached. They’re transmitting for God. But a series of traumatic events, followed by a loss of work, then lost confidence in myself resulted in a breakdown at the end of 2017. I admitted myself to psychiatric hospital, with depression and anxiety. For a short time I was put on what nobody officially calls suicide watch. I was convinced there was nothing in life to look forward to. I like the idea that the grotty area behind some bins on an unremarkable street might be the space where something cosmic is, was and ever shall be taking place”, says John-Paul.

Good ideas come from that sort of experience. When you’re free and relaxed, they come forward like nobody’s business. Starting with an excursion from North London to Westminster Abbey, Participants will be invited to ‘walk’ with John-Paul all over the UK’s capital, and draw meaningful images onto the city, revealing the hidden treasure of London, the magic of the most seemingly nondescript areas. Mr Flintoff drew around 250 pictures in hospital including the view from the window of his hospital room and pictures of his thoughts about what he had imagined doing to himself. After being discharged, despite not being a religious man, Mr Flintoff found solace in going on walks to churches, and his drawings took a biblical turn. Okay, thank you. Wow, what a lot of happiness comes from saying something really obvious. Maybe I should leave at this point. This happened at school. It was the end of the day. Teachers sat around the hall, behind tables, waiting to help us chose our A Levels.I would hate to do that job, and if by making a short video I can help the sales team feel motivated to mention this book – well, I’m delighted. I started planting daffodils after my nephew took his own life and now hundreds of others will be able to do the same’ However, Mr Flintoff also finds solace in his bafflement at some of the biblical stories that inspire his drawings. “What I love about religion is being allowed to be baffled by it. I don't have to know the answer.