Slime Man
Little Parliament Square, Edinburgh

Alan Miller

If you get the chance to visit Edinburgh for the festivals, go for a walk. Daydream. Just amble through and wander.

This is cathartic and therapeutic, in an entirely progressive way. If you do, you'll probably stumble across the Slime Man. This is my name for him, because he does not talk. But he looks like a cross between Wellington and Napoleon, painted in green-brown slime so that only his eyes are distinctive. He is perched alongside St Giles Cathedral in Little Parliament Square - where the wall and he appear to merge - and consistently has a large crowd watching him. He uses his face and eyes to portray the idiosyncracies and nuances of everyday life in a brilliantly comical way. An intelligent performer, a man out of his time amid the jugglers and others... Happy wandering.