Engineering giant

I travel on his railway line to get to work in Bristol, I use his station and, if I was tall enough to look across the city centre, I would be able to see one of the world's most famous bridges - designed by him. Oh, and his SS Great Britain ship is just down the road.

Meet Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the legendary civil engineer who, not so long ago, was second in a poll of the 100 greatest Britons. Not sure who was first, but no one has come knocking at my door.

Anyway, this is a statue erected to the man himself in the Temple quarter. I walk past it some days when I'm varying my route to the office.

The only trouble is, as much as admire Brunel, I'm not sure about this representation of him. I can't easily put my finger on what it is that bothers me, but the statue seems inconsequential in some way and there's an air of foppishness about it.

Brunel was all about massive, majestic engineering projects and that's absent from this work.

Maybe they could have remembered the man in some other way?