IMAGES OF ELSEWHERE
Book 1
THE SWORDSMAN’S REEL
`Far away is close at hand in images of elsewhere'. This graffiti from outside Paddington Station has haunted me for years. Every time the train pulled in or out of the station it was there, prodding me to take notice. Photographs, maps, travel books all kept niggling me. I didn't set out to write a trilogy, just the story of a boy, ejected from his home and going off in search of an unknown father. Slowly it grew; things I had read, objects in museums, with somehow Central Asia predominating. Perhaps because of my love of China. The book took ten years to write and was finished just short of my 70th birthday. Made redundant, I had felt exiled - and needed to reinvent myself. My hero, Per is forced to use his skills and self reliance, as I was, and not expect a magic wand to solve his problems. He also has to look within himself for answers and learn how to control himself if he is to save others and achieve his quest. When I read it now I am surprised by what I wrote. Attempts at main stream publication failed. `Lovely’ `Neat ideas’ but always: `not for us’. In the end, like Per, I had to go it alone (with a little help from my friends) And now, at eighty, this is the right time. There are plenty of young boys who don’t know their fathers, we all need to look within to find self mastery and we all need a good story that comes to a satisfactory conclusion as a result of the hero’s own effort. Not `One bound and he was out’ but achievement as a result of perseverance, ingenuity and courage. I have drawn on many philosophies and belief systems as Per uses his skills as a smith and a ropemaker to fulfil his quest. Book 2 and 3 THE ROPEMAN’S WALK and THE WEAVER’S CLEW complete the story in which he learns the unity of all things and realises that this is the thread which has run through all his experiences and that `In his end in his beginning.’ Angela Lanyon.
`A fascinating narrative’ Lionel Fanthorpe
The Swordsman’s Reel IBSN 978-07552-1300-9 9/99 Available from Amazon. or as ebook from www.authorsonline.co.uk
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