The remains of an altar, p.43
The Remains of an Altar, page 43
Also The Malvern Hills, An Ancient Landscape by Mark Bowden with contributions by David Field and Helen Winton; The Malverns by Pamela Hurle; The Old Straight Track by Alfred Watkins; Alfred Watkins, A Herefordshire Man by Ron Shoesmith; The Human Chord by Algernon Blackwood; the revised Who Dares Wins by Tony Geraghty; Bravo Two Zero and Immediate Action by Andy McNab; Freefall by Tom Read; The Music of the Spheres by Jamie James; Sacred Sounds by Ted Andrews; Ray Simpson’s Celtic Worship Through the Year; The Inner Teachings of the Golden Dawn by R.G. Torrens; and Not the Least (that’s the title), The Story of Little Malvern by Ronald Bryer.
Wychehill, by the way, is not the same place as either the Wyche or Lower Wyche areas of Malvern. However, an interesting ghost-road situation did arise a few years ago not too far away in the Herefordshire village of Stoke Lacy, scene of several unexplained road accidents. In this case, drivers said they felt as if something had taken over the steering. You couldn’t make it up; sometimes you don’t have to.
Thanks, as ever, to Krys and Geoff Boswell who preserve the website, www.philrickman.co.uk, against all kinds of negative forces, and Terry Smith who organises the T-shirts. In America, Rick and Claire Kleffel, Jani Sue Muhlestein, Marla Williams and Andy Ryan, Trudy Williams and Kevin Bowman, Jerry Handspicker and Rob Wilder.
And, on the publishing side: Anthony Cheetham, Nic Cheetham, Rosie de Courcy, Nick Austin and, of course, the lovely and phenomenal Carol who worked double shifts on this extremely taxing novel for about six weeks before we managed to pull it into shape.
Final note. Noctilucent clouds were visible in the northern sky over the Welsh border counties on at least one night towards the end of June, 2006. The aforementioned Paul Devereux (no relation to Preston – different spelling) explained what they were.
I’d seen them around midnight and wished I’d been at Whiteleafed Oak.
Table of Contents
THE REMAINS OF AN ALTAR
PART ONE
1 On the Bald Hill
2 Uncle Alfie
3 For the Views
4 A Very Public Ghost
5 Between the Lines
6 The Sunset Chair
7 The Dead of Ledwardine
8 Dead to the World
9 Mutated
10 Firewall
11 Idyll Chipped
12 Nearness
13 Another Sphere of Existence
14 A Dim and Bleary Light
15 Only Me
16 Animation
17 Isolated
18 What Remains of Reason
19 Unload It
20 Accidents Happens
21 Playing Purgatory
22 Power of Place
PART TWO
23 Freelancing
24 Lord of Dread
25 Village Idiot
26 Weight of the Ancestors
27 Bugger-All
28 Curse Came Down
29 Stoolie
30 In Their Proper Place
PART THREE
31 On the Line
32 A Polka for the Loonies
33 A Result, Anyway
34 Don’t Do Sorry
35 Three Choirs
36 The Dream
37 Spiritual Malnutrition
38 Local Democracy
39 Temple of Sound
40 Netherworld
41 Protect the Memory
42 All the Time in the Worlds
43 The One Per Cent
PART FOUR
44 The Plant-Hire Code
45 Of Great Renown
46 Black Vapour Trails
47 A Perfect Universe
48 Neighbours
49 The Lesson
50 In the Country, After Dark
51 The Blade
52 Remembering the Hurt
53 Unseeingness
54 Snaps Batons
55 Build a Cathedral
56 Tennis Courts
57 Difficult Times in Old England
58 Mr Phoebus and the Whiteleafed Oak
59 Life-Force
60 Into the Pit
61 Trying to be a Priest
62 Seventeen
63 A List
64 Helium
Credits Plus
Phil Rickman, The Remains of an Altar
