Davies lives a mile and a half from the house in Muswell Hill where he was born, in Highgate village, a north London peak that lies above the modern-day smog. He says he stayed here because of the light. He sometimes does interviews on the park bench where he broke up with his first girlfriend, but today it is raining, so we meet at Café Rouge, in a back room, where his whispering voice can be caught on a tape recorder. As he [ . . . ]