What with one thing and another I am getting some religion shovelled into me recently. I've read Phil Rickman's new book 'To Dream of the Dead' twice now and can say it has lived up to my hopes and expectations. All his books have a different - slant is the only word I can think of just for the minute. The central characters have remained the same, advancing and retreating through the episodes, dancing from front to back stage, rounding, filling out, acquiring solidity as they go. I've felt myself settling into the area ever since 'Wine of Angels' when Merrily, female vicar, arrived with her teenage daughter Jane to take up her ministry in the small Herefordshire town of Ledwardine. Jane was at that point embarassed by her mother's choice of career and angered by the intrusion of God into their lives when she needed her mother to herself. In defiance, and largely as a result of meeting with a woman steeped in earth mysteries, she heads toward paganism and Wicca. After a few salutory experiences she stops short of becoming a practicing Wiccan but she never loses her pagan sensitivities toward the land. The tensions between Christian Merrily and her daughter express quite eloquently, in my opinion, the relationship between the old and new religions in the 'real' world. Merrily comes to understand Jane better as she takes on another role as Deliverance Minister (the new name the Anglican church gives exorcists.) She feels the energies Jane speaks of, sometimes called by other names. In the meantime Jane finds a justification and outlet for her feeling of connection wih the earth through the discovery of ley lines and the work of Alfred Watkins.
Watkins was a real character, an amateur self-taught archaeologist who in June 1921 visited Blackwardine in Herefordshire where he had the idea that there was a system of straight lines crossing the landscape dating from Neolithic times. His findings and conclusions were not generally accepted by the archaeologists of his day but their reasons - that neolithic man was not sophisticated enough to have devised such a complex system - look more and more ill-founded as these sites continue to come to light so thinking on their purpose is beginning to change.
Watkins summarised his findings in 'Early British Trackways' in 1922 then in 'The Old Straight Track' 1925. When writing he omitted most of what he himself must surely have believed about the spiritual importance of the tracks for the people who created them. Arguably he did that in order to make his findings acceptable in the prevailing ethos of his times. I tried reading the second book. Reducing his findings to a strictly pragmatic account, avoiding any spiritual connotations, he has produced a dry and disappointingly boring text.
The folk-lore and legend of the Black Mountains and this beautiful Welsh/English border land, beloved by Elgar, form a back-drop for several (most?) of Rickman's stories. I've visited that part of the world twice now and it holds great magnetisim for me. If things were different I would go to live there. I think my father's family may have come from Herefordshire though I have absolutely no proof of that.
It was also through Phil Rickman that I first heard of Nick Drake, the sad, introverted young song writer/ poet who died of an overdose of anti-depressants without ever realising how meaningful and how acclaimed the few haunting recordings he made would become. One of the most interesting and likeable central characters is Lol, a damaged and troubled sensitive, who was once also a singer/songwriter and greatly influenced by Nick Drake. His career looked ready for take-off when he was framed for something he didn't do, disowned by his puritanical parents and generally reviled so that h descended into a breakdown which lead to him being sectioned. In the 'Wine of Angels' he meets Merrily and eventually they become lovers. Lol regains his strength and sense of self-worth supported by her friendship, whilst in turn supporting her (and Jane) through many chapters of angst.
It may be apparent by now that I am fully absorbed into this - Rickmanverse.
3 comments:
The one thing that amazes me about Phil Rickman is the fact that he hasn't gotten more critical acclaim: Everyone I introduce to his stories seems to love him and are instantly hooked. But yet we are still stuck in a publishing world that seems to only let the talent they want sit atop the book world
thank you for your insight into the Merrily books. I have also become a fan of Phil Rickman having seen a display of his books in the local library 3 months ago. His use of simile to describe the most mundane things gives his stories colour and zing. I like the way he keeps me glued to the pages by suddenly taking me from one strand of the story to another, just when an answer to a particular mystery seems about to be revealed.
I work as a Natural Health Practitioner in South Africa, and I've found Phil Rickman's books surprisingly helpful in clearing my mind of New Age nonsense. I've introduced them to friends and clients - who all report back that they find themselves in the dilemmas his characters face. He's a real gift. Why, for goodness sake, is he not more well known? Highly recommended, Margaret Holton, www.innertuition.co.za
Post a Comment