From 20 degrees to 4 and now flurries of snow. Why are we always surprised?  It's no wonder there is so much talk about the weather in this country. Grandson's plans for sailing days and camping in his grandfather's field will have to be put on hold. As I am in loco parentis this week that is as hard on me as it is on him! Not that he isn't good company, but I am rather used to my own company and hours of selfish me-time. Hey ho. 


We have just watched Hugo. The owners of our magical local shop 'Automata'  were on set during the making of this film to give advice on the finer points of automata. Michael started his working life as a watchmaker but kicked against the limits of horology, set out to find and restore the clever clockworks toys of the 18th and 19th century and eventually became internationally known in this esoteric field. His shop is currently displaying the head of the lifelike clockwork humanoid that plays a big part in the story. They also have the nursery animals that are wound up and set bobbing by ex-Harry Potter in 'The Woman in Black' in an attempt  to summon the ghost. 


I still think the most startling automaton in their collection is a life-sized French lady (she has to be French, judging by her chic, clothes) who sews, crosses and uncrosses her legs, and breathes. Quite disturbing.  


Sandy would like very much to work in the same trade. Not sure how we go about getting him an apprenticeship. In the meantime he is old enough to be left behind the counter in our, more mundane, store today allowing me to slip next door to the charity shop to browse for books. Yesterday I came away with a good haul. Three hardbacks, two of them first editions (I can't help it, I still get a kick out of 'firsts' even though most of them aren't worth much these days thanks to Amazon) I got a Susan Hill I haven't read, strange as it's her first; Mary Wesley's 'Part of the Furniture' which I have but I like to have her books on my shelves to reread; and a  handsome copy of 'Barchester Towers'.


I'm just coming to the end of a run of Phil Rickman novels. His Merrily Watkins tales have been republished in a much nicer format than erstwhile so I'm buying the set gradually. I don't often see first editions of them in a charity shop, in fact I very rarely see any of his novels on their shelves. When they do turn up they are ex-library with strained bindings. His earliest titles like 'December' and 'The Chalice' were long so very fat;  they were also printed on thick (cheap?) paper which picks up grease marks and doesn't wear well. He has found a better publisher now I think.  On earlier posts I have had remarks like 'Can't understand why he isn't better known'. Neither can I except that once I heard he was approached by a TV company who wanted to make a series from the Merrily books. They were proposing (and insisting?) on certain changes which Phil wouldn't allow  them to make so it never happened. Good for him. If he is doing well enough to have the whole series reprinted then he can't be doing too badly.


He is excellent at creating believable characters who I feel I might meet one day if I can be in the right place at the right time. He is equally brilliant at atmosphere, using buildings, landscape and weather  to greater effect than most writers because he also weaves in the ancient history of the landscapes, of the rocks that have seen warring nations and the petty but vicious squabbles of neighbours, the old apple orchard in which local fortunes have been made and lost, old murders and wrongs committed and hidden, the oast houses, the atrocities seen by the deserted wine press.... and that's only in one of the tales! He writes with feeling about the wrongs of the past and present day corruption in local politics as the countryside, the old paths, the old ways, traces of the earliest signs of human connection with the spiritual, are obliterated to line the pockets of the already rich.


It 's so long since I read the earliest ones it was almost like coming to them afresh. I've said a lot about his books already, how much I like them and why, so I won't repeat myself but last week I realised something else, they have quietly changed my attitude to the church and organised religion. Not that I believe all ministers of the church are as humble, questioning and  self-aware as Merrily but I hope some might be and her character has encouraged me to become interested the work of committed and conscientious priests. Merrily hasn't been asked to bless a civil marriage yet but perhaps that will come. I hear from a friend whose daughter is in a civil partnership that the Methodist priest they have in the family and a friend who is an advisor to - someone important in the C of E, shan't name names here - are both sitting firmly on the fence on this one. It must be so uncomfortable for them.