Ginger lads don’t do well in the heat. It’s a fact that I’m reminded of on every African trip or even in a barmy July in the U.K.
 

 
The Met Office put out a warning for a sustained 2 week heatwave but as most of the country basked in heat, some were dealing with far hotter conditions. In Sheffield, the home of British steel, molten crucibles of steel swing from chains, while men with arms like tree trunks weald iron presses to create monstrous castings that dwarf even their own significant frames.
 
I was visiting, The Forgemasters, a heavy engineering firm, which can produce anything from oil rigs to nuclear reactors. The company can trace it’s heritage back to the start of the steel industry in Sheffield in the 18th century.
 
Arriving for my press tour; laden in camera’s (3 of them…) I was issued with a thick, woolen protective suit to go over my clothes. News that day said that the temperature was at a 7-year high… Great! perfect day to go into something akin to hell.
 
As the press officer who was escorting me grew tired and I wasn’t far behind him, I saw the picture above, it was just there waiting to be taken, I did nothing clever, needed no filters, nor lights. It was just simply there.
 
Heaving myself back on the air conditioned, 16:05 to St Pancras, ecstatic with my picture (if not a bit smelly), I thought again of those tree-trunk men, a world away in the “cold” of the North.
 
Assignment for Bloomberg News