Light Perpetual

by Francis Spufford

  I’m grateful to friends who read and commented, especially Alan Jacobs, Kim Stanley Robinson, Adam Roberts and Elizabeth Knox; I’m grateful to all those at Goldsmiths from whom I have learned, colleagues and students alike, and most particularly Maura Dooley and Ardu Vakil. The book was written in Hot Numbers, Cambridge, and the Samovar Tea House, Ely. The world convulsed, idiocy ruled in high places, pandemics gathered strength, and my black coffees kept on coming.

  Once the book was done, my agent Clare Alexander applied her usual blend of sensitivity and ruthlessness to its fortunes; Alex Bowler at Faber edited it with a tactful hand; and Silvia Crompton again made the copy-editing process … surprisingly enjoyable. (Ellipsis, not dash.)

  At the Pelican Club in 1964, the Tearaways are singing ‘Mockingbird’ by Charlie Foxx and Inez Foxx, lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, used by permission. The choir at Bexford Assemblies of Salvation church sing ‘Safe in His Arms’ by Milton Brunson (1986), and the LA Mass Choir’s ‘That’s When You Bless Me’ (1989), used by permission. In 1979, Alec is quoting from the dedication to W. H. Auden’s The Orators (1932), used by permission of Faber & Faber. In 1994, Alec and Vicky sing lines from ‘Nellie the Elephant’ by Ralph Butler and Peter Hart (1956), lyrics used by permission, and Alec reads to Vicky from the very great Mister Magnolia, by Quentin Blake, excerpt used by kind permission.

  The book would have been finished sooner had I not taken a detour through the back of a wardrobe. Since I couldn’t, as it turned out, thank in print those who helped me with that, let me make my bow here to all of the Friends of Moonwit: AJ, EK, JM, CA, CJ, AM, MM, RW, FC, SP, SA, AR, JB, JP, AR, MWT, CF, WH, PNH, TNH, JL, AC, FCB. You know who you are.

  About the Author

  Francis Spufford’s debut novel, Golden Hill, won the Costa First Novel Award, the RSL Ondaatje Prize and the Desmond Elliott Prize, and was shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction, the Rathbones Folio Prize, the Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award and the British Book Awards Debut Novel of the Year. Spufford is also the author of five highly praised works of non-fiction, most frequently described by reviewers as either ‘bizarre’ or ‘brilliant’, and usually as both. In 2007, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He teaches writing at Goldsmiths College, University of London, and lives near Cambridge.

  By the Same Author

  I MAY BE SOME TIME

  THE CHILD THAT BOOKS BUILT

  BACKROOM BOYS

  RED PLENTY

  UNAPOLOGETIC

  GOLDEN HILL

  TRUE STORIES & OTHER ESSAYS

  Copyright

  First published in 2021

  by Faber & Faber Ltd

  Bloomsbury House

  74–77 Great Russell Street

  London WC1B 3DA

  This ebook edition first published in 2021

  All rights reserved

  © Francis Spufford, 2020

  Cover photo © Francesc Melcion

  The right of Francis Spufford to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with Section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

  This is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental

  This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly

  ISBN 978–0–571–33650–0