enitharmon | Finding Frank

Ever since I moved up here I've been meaning to go up to Workington to pursue my quest for the enigma that was Frank Bentley.

Allegedly, he had a photographic business in Workington in the 70s and 80s. A perusal of the weddings in the local rag for that period produced a lot of names of local photographers, none of them Frank Bentley. Interesting... So I did what I intended to be the main business of the trip - visited the offices of the News & Star. The front office was very friendly and summoned a reporter called Gill, who was interested in the possible story. I left her a photo of Frank and my details, which she will run past her readership. I explained that Frank was also (allegedly) involved with Wasdale Mountain Rescue but I had previously drawn a blank there - but there are good reasons for supposing that Frank wasn't all he seemed. Not in a dishonest way, I think. He was never less than the perfect gentleman with me and never tried to con me in any way, and his stories were plausible. How could you make up a tale of being commissioned to photograph a consignment of frozen liver at Workington Docks?

This, I might add, was a very different Workington from the grubby and dismal Workington I recall from accompanying my grandparents there nearly forty years ago. Now that Whitehaven has become chichi, they are giving Workington the makeover too!