by Phil Rickman
On healing and deliverance, many thanks this time to Peter Brooks (who provided much technical assistance and a timely copy of Is Spiritualism of the Devil? (1919) by Rev. F. Fielding Ould) and John Woolmer, whose penetrating book, Healing and Deliverance, I discovered thanks to its publisher Tony Collins of Monarch Books. Healing the Family Tree by Dr Kenneth McAll is published by Sheldon Press.
Recommended biographies of Sir Arthur are: Teller of Tales by Daniel Stashower (Penguin) – very strong on the spiritualist years – and The Doctor, The Detective and Arthur Conan Doyle by Martin Booth (Hodder and Stoughton).
Thanks, for technical assistance, to Tim Green and Julian Carey, of BBC Wales, John Mason, Pam Baker and Jane Froud of the Original Cloak and Dagger Company, deviser of murder-mystery weekends. To Prof. Bernard Knight for hangings. To editors (in order of appearance) John Jarrold, Peter Lavery and Nick Austin, for crucial tweaks. To Stefanie Bierwerth for smoothing paths.
Finally, the contribution over six solid weeks during the final rewrite by my wife, Carol – editor, director, inspired plot-doctor – was unparalleled and rescued this book from that familiar abyss. No one else could have done this with such perception and precision.
The background to this novel, with pictures of Stanner Rocks, Hergest, Kington Church, etc. can be found in Merrily’s Border (Logaston Press). The songs of Lol Robinson are available on two CDs, Songs from Lucy’s Cottage and A Message from the Morning, available through the website, www.philrickman.co.uk.
P.S. A short while ago, when the Hergest Pool was drained for cleaning, a large stone was found in the centre. Historian Alan Lloyd, who was quite interested to find out if there was anything underneath it, said no local farmer could be persuaded to use his tractor to find out.
Table of Contents
Under Stanner in the Summer
Part One
1: Without the Song
2: Game Afoot
3: What Consultants Are For
4: The Room Under the Witch’s-Hat Tower
5: Drink Problem
6: Beastie
7: The Healing of the Dead
8: At Home With the Vaughans
9: Ask Arthur
10: Serious Requiem
11: Welshies
12: Night Exercise
13: Real Personal
Part Two
FOURTEEN: Word to the Wise
15: Milk into Concrete
16: Responding to Images
17: Detestable to the Lord
18: Shock of the Proof
19: Nancy Boy
TWENTY: Not About Foxes
Part Three
21: Cwn Annwn
22: Whoop, Whoop
23: Showdown Time
24: Necessary Penance
25: Shifting Big Furniture
26: White High
27: Five Barrels
28: The Jane Police
29: Twist
30: The Huntress
31: Noise and Blood
32: Party Game
33: Time Nearly Up
34: The Butcher’s Counter
Part Four
35: Fresh Blood
36: First Snow Casualty
37: The Schizoid Border
38: Big White Bird
39: What Brigid Did
40: Extreme
41: Living on the Edge of a Chasm
42: Alleluia
43: Tough Ole Bat
44: Sanctuary
45: Fatalist
46: The Living Dark Heart
47: Losers
48: Apocryphal
49: Requiem
50: Free Coward
51: Of the Midnight
52: These Things Happened
53: No Smoke, No Mirrors
54: Reichenbach
55: Sky’s Come Down
56: Christmas Eve
