The Artist Elias

A Shewing Stone - Now on Kindle

2012-01-10T11:47:00.001Z

My poetry pamphlet, A Shewing Stone, is now available as a Kindle eBook. Unlike the physical edition, this is not signed or numbered, and doesn't have any onion skin involved. However, it will be the only version available on Amazon for the forseeable future. (If you want a copy of the signed, limited paperbound edition, I suggest coming along to the Illicit Ink reading on 18th Jan!)

Poetry Reading 18.01.12.

2012-01-09T20:58:00.001Z

I'll be appearing at Illicit Ink's Happy Verse Day on January 18th. It's a poetry reading, so expect some seasonal verse. More info here.

A Shewing Stone Now Online

2011-12-05T17:55:00.001Z

My poetry pamphlet A Shewing Stone is now up on the Mutus Liber website, although, as it's a limited edition, we haven't yet decided on how people can buy it online. But you can go and have a look at it here.

Tarkovsky Review

2011-11-23T16:56:00.001Z

A review of the reissue of Andrei Tarkovsky can be found here.

Reading at the West Port Book Festival

2011-10-12T13:42:00.002+01:00

I'll be reading at the West Port Book Festival in Edinburgh, tomorrow night (13 October) at 2100. The venue is the Traverse Theatre Bar. See you there!

A Shewing Stone: poems

2011-10-06T20:57:00.001+01:00

My first poetry pamphlet, A Shewing Stone, is out now from Mutus Liber, published to coincide with my winning of the 2011 Wigtown Poetry Prize. The book is currently only available from me, but I think it should be on the Mutus website soon.

Wigtown Poetry Prize

2011-10-02T22:49:00.001+01:00

I think I can now reveal the reason for my visit to Wigtown: I have won the 2011 Wigtown Poetry Prize. This was completely unexpected (so much so that I had even forgotten which poem I had entered when they emailed me to notify me that I'd won). We had been planning to go to the Wigtown Book Festival anyway, so to have go in an official capacity - as an author (I was given an Author Pass, which got me into David Vann's reading free) made the whole experience twice as good. You can read my winning poem by clicking the link above.

Reading in Wigtown, 1.10.11.

2011-09-11T17:18:00.000+01:00

I'll be reading at the Wigtown Book Festival on its penultimate day, 1 October 2011 at 1630. More details to follow.

Reading in Edinburgh 16th August

2011-08-11T20:05:00.000+01:00

I'll be appearing at Havers & Blethers Spoken Word show next Tuesday, 16th August. Show starts at 1900. The venue is the good old Captain's Bar in South College Street.

More info here. And here.

The Knights Templar - New Edition (2011)

2011-08-01T15:24:00.000+01:00

The latest edition of The Knights Templar is now available. Just to quell any possible excitement, this "new" edition is exactly the same as the previous edition, the 2009 paperback, save for the fact that this new version doesn't have flaps or the map printed on the endpapers. Blame the recession/the Tories for this latest bit of cheap-skatery. It also has a new ISBN: 978-184243-5632. When I last checked, it wasn't on Amazon, but will no doubt be there soon, and should eventually supercede the 2009 edition. Happy Lunasagh!

Tarkovsky Reviewed in Total Film

2011-07-11T16:57:00.000+01:00

The reissue of Andrei Tarkovsky (Kamera Books) is reviewed in the August edition of Total Film, out today. They have given it a good review, calling the book 'An ideal intro to the austere auteur.'

There is also an extract from the book in Little White Lies magazine issue 36 out this week.

Vicious Imagery: Things I've learned about the craft of writing

2011-06-07T18:50:00.001+01:00

A few insightful things about writing from my MA Creative Writing instructor, David Bishop:

Vicious Imagery: Things I've learned about the craft of writing: "Over the past two and a half years I've helped develop and deliver an innovative new MA in creative writing at Edinburgh Napier University. ..."

The Return of the Manichaeans

2011-06-07T11:32:00.000+01:00

The Gnostic, issue 4, is out now, featuring a reprint of my Manichaean sci-fi story "Deep Field".

John Burnside Interview/New Novel

2011-06-05T18:43:00.002+01:00

John Burnside has a new novel, A Summer of Drowning, out next week. Whilst checking for the publication date, I came across this new interview from The Scotsman.

From what he says, his next novel will be tackling banking scum and the need to do something about them, which is encouraging. The new one, however, is about evil spirits in the arctic (no, not oil companies - hopefully they'll be dealt with in the next book:-)).

I also found two older interviews, this one from 2001, and then there's this rather good interview from 2009.

Short Article on Tarkovsky

2011-05-16T17:27:00.001+01:00

A new, short piece, "Why Tarkovsky Matters" is published in this month's issue (May-June 2011) of the Curzon Cinemas magine. The magazine can be picked up at any Curzon, or you can read it online here.

Tarkovsky's films have been reissued on DVD in the UK, and the second edtion of my book is also out now. (See below.)

Tarkovsky - New (and better) edition out now in UK

2011-05-13T20:38:00.001+01:00

My book on Andrei Tarkovsky is now out in my deeply dishevelled and Tory-ruined homeland. It will be out in the US and Canada in July.

This is a much nicer edition that the original 2006 edition - better paper, better binding, better cover and also has colour photos in the middle. And a few new snippets of research.

Buy a copy here, and enrich your life:

May Day Reading

2011-04-30T13:58:00.010+01:00

I am reading tomorrow night - 1st of May - at The Faerie Court in Edinburgh's Cowgate. The theme for the evening is, apparently, all things faerie and weird. The gig starts at 2000. More info here.

Easter Message

2011-04-24T22:04:00.001+01:00

The Gnostic view of the resurrection, as we might expect, differs markedly from the orthodox position. The Nicene Creed states that Jesus ‘suffered and was buried, and the third day he rose again’. This resurrection is bodily, which will one day be experienced by all, as the Creed states ‘we look for the resurrection of the dead’. The Gnostic text known as the Treatise on the Resurrection, however, regards the Resurrection as something that is not physical at all, something ‘which is better than the flesh’. As with Paul’s interpretation of the resurrection in I Corinthians 15, which was written to offer the only true understanding of it, so the Nag Hammadi Treatise was likewise written to a Gnostic who did not know what to believe. The anonymous author tells his recipient, a man named Rheginos, that the resurrection is a neces- sary experience for the Gnostic believer to undergo, but it is a raising from the death of ordinary consciousness to the life of gnosis:

"What, then, is the resurrection?... It is the truth which stands firm. It is the revelation of what is, and the transformation of things, and a transition into newness."

The Gospel of Philip is quite explicit about what the resurrection actually is:

"Those who say that the Lord died first and then rose up are in error, for he rose up first and then died. If one does not first attain the resurrection he will not die."

The idea is reiterated later in the gospel, making it clear that the resurrection happens before death, not after it:

"Those who say they will die first and then rise are in error. If they do not first receive the resurrection while they live, when they die they will receive nothing."

from The Gnostics: The First Christian Heretics

Good Friday Sermon

2011-04-22T13:13:00.001+01:00

Following the Round Dance comes a section [in the Acts of John] known as the Revelation of the Mystery of the Cross.When Jesus is crucified, the disciples ‘fled all ways’, with John hiding in a cave on the Mount of Olives.While he is there, Jesus appears to him and shows him a cross made of light around which a multitude stands. The cross is the Word which unites all things and only when people hearken to it will all the light particles scattered within humanity be gathered back together again and be taken up. Jesus also tells John that he is not ‘he who is upon the cross’ at Calvary, reflecting the common Gnostic belief that Jesus was a divine being, not a human one.

Furthermore, Jesus informs John that:

‘You hear that I suffered, yet I suffered not; that I suffered not, yet I did suffer; that I was pierced, yet I was not wounded; hanged, and I was not hanged, that blood flowed from me, yet it did not flow.’

The Nag Hammadi Apocalypse of Peter takes the image of a Christ who does not suffer during the crucifixion one stage further, portraying Jesus as ‘glad and laughing on the tree’. Jesus explains to Peter that:

‘He whom you saw on the tree, glad and laughing, this is the living Jesus. But this one into whose hands and feet they drive the nails is his fleshly part, which is the substitute being put to shame, the one who came into being in his likeness. But look at him, and look at me.'

The idea of a fleshy Jesus being crucified while the real Jesus laughs would be more than enough to have the Church Fathers reaching for their smelling salts; it completely subverts orthodox doctrine. Subversion, however, was not the Gnostic intention. Rather, they held that the crucifixion – like the rest of Jesus’ ministry and teaching – can only really be understood through paradox, poetry and startling images. The concept of the laughing Jesus is perhaps best understood this way.

Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy point out that, while the world is full of beauty, it is also full of suffering and
death. The way to free oneself is through gnosis (which they term ‘lucid living’), which in turn enables one to both rise above suffering and empathise with those who are experiencing it:

'…when we live lucidly we find ourselves loving all and suffering willingly with all. This is the state of gnosis symbolised by the sublime figure of the laughing Jesus.'

from The Gnostics: The First Christian Heretics

The Garden of Gethsemane: A Load of Old Song & Dance

2011-04-22T13:03:00.000+01:00

The Acts of John, a Greek version of which was discovered at
Oxyrhynchus in the 1890s, could have been composed some time
in the second century,with some traditions holding that the Gnostic
chronicler Leucius Charinus was its author, although this attribution
isn’t certain. Leucius was said to have been a young disciple of
the aged St John, from whom he received secret teachings and
stories about Jesus. The Acts of John is an account of the activities
of the apostle in Asia Minor some time after the crucifixion, its most
celebrated passage being the so-called ‘Round Dance of the Cross’.
This scene takes the form of a sermon delivered by John to a crowd
of people, probably in Ephesus, where much of the Acts of John
takes place. John recounts the events of the night before Jesus was
arrested. In canonical accounts, Jesus prays in the Garden of
Gethsemane, but in the Acts of John, he instead commands them
to dance and respond with an ‘Amen’ to his praises to God:

He then began to sing a hymn, and to say:
‘Glory be to you, Father!’
And we circling him said, ‘Amen’
‘Glory be to you,Word! Glory be to you, Grace!’
‘Amen’ […]
We praise you, O Father.We give thanks to you, light, in whom
darkness does not abide.’
‘Amen.’

As the disciples continue to respond to Jesus, he begins to dance and
instructs them to do the same:

‘The whole universe takes part in the dancing.’
‘Amen’
‘He who does not dance, does not know what is being done.’
‘Amen’

Jesus’ hymn now becomes a series of paradoxes, stating that he will
flee and stay, adorn and be adorned, unite and be united.The hymn
ends with some beautiful mystical statements:

‘I am a lamp to you who see me.’
‘Amen.’
‘I am a mirror to you who perceive.’
‘Amen.’
‘I am a door to you who knock on me.’
‘Amen.’
‘I am a way to you, wayfarer.’
‘Amen.’

Jesus then encourages the disciples to understand the dance by
seeing him within themselves, which echoes the Gospel of Philip’s
statement that those who have achieved gnosis are ‘no longer a
Christian, but Christ,’ and also the Gospel of Thomas, in which
Jesus declares:

‘Whoever drinks from my mouth will become like me.
I myself shall become that person,
and the hidden things will be revealed to that one.'

The similarity with the mystery schools is made explicit in the very
next line, in which Jesus enjoins the disciples to ‘keep silence about
my mysteries!’ Jesus explains that, through the mystery of the
suffering that he is about to undergo, the disciples will have the
chance to become moved and, in doing so, will be ‘moved to become
wise…Learn suffering and you shall have the power not to suffer.’

from The Gnostics: The First Christian Heretics

Haarlem Globetotter

2011-04-17T09:10:00.000+01:00

I have just made a journey to Holland, from Scotland. This is the first time I’ve actually done this (other than to change planes at Schipol). I have been in Haarlem for a couple of days now shooting a documentary. I can see St Bavo’s Church – featured in Ruisdael’s astounding painting of the bleaching grounds (no reproduction can do this painting justice) – from my hotel window.

My thoughts have once again returned to the unfinished novel, as this is the nearest I have yet gotten to tracing Alexander Seton’s first journey, which more or less begins Elias. He left Scotland in early 1602 for Holland, although it is not known where he landed. (Certainly not at Schipol!) We know that he was in the northern town of Enkhuizen by March, and then went on to Amsterdam.

Regardless of his itinerary, having had this story percolate for so long, one almost gets a sense of déjà-vu being here – even seeing road signs saying ‘Alkmaar’ and ‘Den Haag’ (both of which feature in the story) are enough to give me goosebumps. So – a period of actual research here seems to be in order. It would probably help get the damn thing finished at last. (A trip to Enkhuizen a few years ago was very helpful in this respect.)

It also makes me think about why I find the Dutch landscape so evocative. Something as "mystical" as "past life experience"?!? Or have I simply been looking at paintings for so long that I feel I’ve been here before? (I’ve certainly “visited” St Bavo’s many times at the National Gallery in London, although Friday afternoon was my first physical visit.) And also why some stories, once they have us, never really let us go. I think these are the ones we are meant to write. I hope those prove to not be famous last words...

Jacob van Ruisdael, A View of Haarlem with Bleaching Grounds (1665)

Anniversaries

2011-03-13T12:56:00.000Z

In a rare attempt to get this blog back on track, i.e. bring it back to talking about the novel whose writing it's supposed to be charting, I note that today is the 409th anniversary of Alexander Seton's transmutation in Enkhuizen, a pivotal moment in what had been Part I of Elias. This has become one of the main dates in my alchemical calendar, a sort of Hermetic Rite of Spring (although whether 13 March 1602 would have marked the coming of spring is debatable, given that Northern Europe was still in the grip of the so-called Little Ice Age, which saw much severer winters between about 1550 and 1850). Nevertheless, today has become a significant anniversary, and I can look back on the book's progress and wonder why, unlike Seton, have not been able to pull off my magnum opus.

Writing a novel part-time is not advisable; there are too many distractions. And, of course, the need to earn money. Since I began Elias, I have written 4 non-fiction books, am working on a 5th, revised my first two books (published in 2001, before Elias was begun), contributed to two others, made 3 feature-length films, shot 4 documentaries for other people, made two shorts and appeared in 4 TV programmes. And at one point, I even had the strength of mind and purpose to lose 4 stone. (Sadly 3 went back on, which I now have to lose again.) So, I have not exactly been navel-gazing for the last few years, which is some solace I supppose for what has become a very frustrating enterprise, and I have to admit to wondering whether I should carry on with Elias at all.

A recent conversation with a gentleman from Angus has put things into perspective. I showed him the outline for all 4 parts (that number again!), and he felt that I had enough material for at least two novels, with Part I - Seton's narrative - being a separate novel. I must admit, it has always felt slightly apart from the other sections, mainly because most of the action is seen through the eyes of an alchemist, whereas in the later parts, the alchemists are supporting characters - catalysts for change in the various protagonists. I think JR (the man from Angus, and no relation to Dallas or William Gaddis) is right - Seton deserves a novel all to himself. Which means I now have to rework Parts II-IV. But I'll deal with that challenge when I come to it: I've always felt that, if I can sort out Part I, the rest will fall into shape organically. Or, as Lindsay Clarke advised, symphonically. So, it seems I will carry on, at least to the end of Part I. And then I will have to judge the lay of the land.

But today at 4pm, raise a glass of aquae vitae for the great Alexander Seton.

Books in the West Reading - 28/02/11

2011-02-15T22:03:00.001Z

There will be another Music for Another World reading at Books in the West in West Kilbride on the last day of this month. And please note, this is not a leap year. More info here. The World Tour continues!

Thanks to everyone who came to the Glasgow gig - a fine time was had by all.

Edinburgh Reading 13th February 2010

2011-02-10T12:47:00.001Z

I have come over all romantic and will be appearing at Love Sick, an 'anti-Valentine's' reading on Sunday 13th February. This Sunday, in fact. The venue is the Cabaret Voltaire in the Cowgate in Edinburgh's Old Town. More info can be found here. I will be reading a new story, a kind of anti-Barbara Cartland historical romance. But inspired by a true story.

Let's Get Lyrical

2011-02-03T10:19:00.000Z

My contribution to the Let's Get Lyrical campaign, run by Edinburgh City of Literature, is now online. It's a short exegsis of 'Who Are You' and can be read here.

Reading in Glasgow 10 February

2011-01-21T19:53:00.002Z

I'll be reading in Glasgow on 10 February at the Universal Bar along with fellow Music for Another World contributors.

More info here.

Voices of Gnosticism Out Now

2011-01-11T19:16:00.006Z

Voices of Gnosticism, featuring interviews with Elaine Pagels, Marvin Meyer and Bart Ehrman, amongst others, is out now. It was edited by Miguel Conner, and is endorsed by yours truly. Buy one by clicking on the image below. (Also availble on the hideous Kindle thing here.)

I am also availavble to open Gnostic supermarkets, golf courses, boutiques that sell marital aids, etc.

Temple Antiquities

2011-01-09T22:36:00.005Z

Temple Antiquities: The Templar Papers II, edited by Oddvar Olsen, and for which I wrote a foreword, is out now. You can buy a copy by clicking on the link below.

I've also updated my Amazon Store, to include a few explanatory notes about which editions to buy, which to avoid and even what appears to be a Spanish translation of Alchemy and Alchemists that I didn't know existed. It still seems the author is always the last to know (in other worlds, the publishing world holds authors in continual contempt).

Music for Another World: Reading in Glasgow

2010-11-27T22:08:00.001Z

There will be a reading to promote Music for Another World in Glasgow. It was going to take place next Thursday, 2nd December, but that has been cancelled and it will now take place in January. I don't know the date or the venue yet, but will post them as soon as Mark (the book's editor and publisher) gets them sorted.

Meanwhile, if you are in Edinburgh and fancy a free glass of wine, come along to the City of Literature's monthly salon at the Wash Bar, Tuesday 30th November at 1800. See you there!

Music for Another World - Interzone Review

2010-11-13T15:12:00.000Z

Music for Another World, which features my story "Deep Field", has been given an outstanding review in the current (Nov/Dec 2010) issue of Interzone. The collection is hailed as "an exceptional anthology. Ten of the nineteen stories are astonishing; eight are simply impressive." I'm assuming my own humble offering is in the "impressive" category, but that's good enough to be going on with. Click on the book title to buy a copy.

Deep Field Reading Online

2010-10-16T13:58:00.000+01:00

Video clips of Thursday's launch of the sci-fi anthology Music for Another World are now online, including clips of me reading from my Manichaean space opera 'Deep Field'. Click on the link above.

You can also buy the book here.

Sci-Fi Gig Tonight

2010-10-14T12:52:00.002+01:00

I'm reading tonight at the Meadows Bar in Edinburgh as part of the launch of the SF anthology Music for Another World. Starts at 7pm.

For more info, click the above link. See you there!

Radio Appearance 2 Oct 10

2010-10-01T19:14:00.000+01:00

I'm on Aeon Byte, the Gnostic radio show, tomorrow, 2 October. You can listen in online here. I'll be discussing the new, revised edition of The Gnostics: The First Christian Heretics, and waxing lyrical about the great David Lindsay.

Tarkovsky: New Edition

2010-09-27T19:16:00.000+01:00

This is the cover of the new edition of Andrei Tarkovsky, not due in a Waterstone's near you in February 2011. The book will have an updated bibliography and filmography, but that's it as far as changes go. I think I got it more or less right with the first edition and, as the saying goes, 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it'.

New Waves will be published at some point before the end of time. (Probably a few minutes before the univsere ends).

Gnostic Radio

2010-09-17T17:37:00.001+01:00

I'll be on Aeon Byte, the Gnostic radio show, in a few weeks. You'll be able to catch it here. I'll post the date of the TX when I know it - we're recording the interview next week, Papal visits permitting. The topic under discussion will be the new edition of The Gnostics, and sundry related matters.

Updates from the Vale of Pewsey

2010-09-01T11:56:00.001+01:00

I am currently in that decidedly odd part of England known as the Vale of Pewsey. Difficult not to be here and feel that one really ought to be writing about the English landscape...

Anyway, a few titbits of news: I am on BBC Radio Norfolk on Sunday morning at 0845, where I'll be discussing the just published new edition of The Gnostics and trying not to slurp my coffee audibly. I presume the interview will be available on Listen Again for a few days thereafter.

Book news: New Waves in Cinema will now finally appear in April next year. Before that, in February we hope, there will be a new edition of my Tarkovsky book.

Edinburgh Readings

2010-08-09T18:37:00.000+01:00

I'm reading tonight at the Roxy in Edinburgh, 1900 start, and also on Wednesday at the Captain's Bar as part of the Havers and Blethers Festival. More info here:

Short Story Published

2010-08-05T17:57:00.000+01:00

My gnostic sci-fi story, Deep Field, is out now in the anthology Music For Another World. You can avail yourself of a copy here.

Story Published

2010-06-21T13:38:00.000+01:00

A quick missive to let you know that my short story 'Deep Field' will be included in the forthcoming anthology, Music for Another World. The book is being published by Edinburgh-based outfit Mutation Press, and will be available in September. The stories in the book are all SF/fantasy, with the theme of music. My contribution features Beethoven, Bruckner, early Pink Floyd and Einstürzende Neubaten. It also was inspired by a section in my earlier book The Gnostics: The First Christian Heretics.

Reading in Glasgow 14 May

2010-05-10T23:15:00.001+01:00

I'll be reading at 'Reading Allowed' in Glasgow this Friday evening. Come along - all welcome.

Venue: Tchai Ovna Teahouse (West End)

42 Otago Lane
Glasgow
G11 9PB
0141-357-4524
Friday 14th May 2010, 8.00 pm

Featuring (apart from myself):

David Manderson
Sandy Morton
Iain Heggie
Tracy Patrick
John Savage
Kathryn Daly

plus guests

Live music by Jim Gilbert of Wing and a Prayer

Gnostics: New Edition, New Cover

2010-05-08T14:17:00.000+01:00

The Gnostics: The First Christian Heretics will be out in its new revised, paperback edition in June. The cover has received a revamp, and now looks like this:

eBook Store

2010-04-17T14:00:00.000+01:00

Most of my books are now available as eBooks. Go here to find out more, peruse and purchase.

NB: The versions of The Knights Templar and The Gnostics available as eBooks are not the revised versions, but the original versions.

The Gnostics - New Edition Coming May 2010

2010-04-11T18:27:00.002+01:00

The new edition of The Gnostics is now out in May, as I'm still proofing it. Mention was made on Radio 4 this afternoon of two of the groups mentioned in the book, the Mandaeans and the Yezidis. The latter only feature in the new, improved 2010 edition. (As do David Lindsay, alchemists and troubadours.)

Amazon Author Page Now Up

2010-03-15T12:41:00.002Z

Those kind multinationalists, Amazon, have now put up an Author Page for me. Very nice of them. Needless to say, it's a tad incomplete... They have (as of today, the 42nd anniversary of the release of Lady Madonna/The Inner Light) included the hardback of Alchemy and Alchemists which, as far as I know, is still in print and supercedes the two earlier paperback editions; the US edition of The Knights Templar, which should be avoided at all costs (horrible edition) - buy the new UK paperback version instead (even more Dan Brown-busting revelations from the Vatican Secret Archive!); and the first edition of The Gnostics, which is now more or less out of print. However, I've just finished a new edition, which is out in paperback in April or May.

Click on the link (the title of this post) to view their handiwork.

For those who give a damn, a more comprehensive Amazon page can be found here.

Patrick Harpur Courses

2010-02-08T12:40:00.003Z

I am currently revising The Gnostics for its paperback edition, due out in April or May. The book will remain largely unchanged, the main additions being a discussion of one of the great gnostic books of the 20th century, A Voyage to Arcturus, and possibly some addtional material on the Yezidis and Rosicrucians.

In the meantime, you should busy yourself with attending one of Patrick Harpur's courses on the Mythic Imagination, which are starting around now. I wish I could go, but doubt if I will be able to get away from our dualist friends... More info on the courses can be found here.

Going to Jerusalem

2010-01-04T13:39:00.003Z

The Trial of the Knights Templar is repeated on UK Channel 5 this Wednesday 6th January (aka Epiphany) at 2100.

The weekend Telegraph's TV listings began its description of the programme with the words 'Author Sean Martin visits Jerusalem'.... Well, that's news to me! Maybe I did do some of my scenes in Jerusalem, but was tricked into believing that I was actually in central France. The author is the last person to know, after all...

I shall not be watching it, mainly due to the fact that I no longer have a TV. I shall probably be performing the once a year rite that is listening to Bach's Epiphany Mass actually at Epiphany instead (although I may programme the CD player to skip the sermon!).

New Year's Resolutions - Bovine Avoidance

2009-12-28T18:03:00.002Z

I've just come back from a week in Northumberland. We stayed near Lindisfarne and, in such northern climes, my thoughts naturally turned to the simplicity of Celtic Christianity - the uncomplicated life, the closeness to nature - and to Basil Bunting. Here is the great man's advice to aspiring poets:

I SUGGEST

1. Compose aloud; poetry is a sound.
2. Vary rhythm enough to stir the emotion you want but not so as to lose impetus.
3. Use spoken words and syntax.
4. Fear adjectives; they bleed nouns. Hate the passive.
5. Jettison ornament gaily but keep shape

Put your poem away till you forget it, then:

6. Cut out every word you dare.
7. Do it again a week later, and again.

Never explain - your reader is as smart as you.

We could all do to remember such advice in the coming year; and maybe take time out to visit places like Holy Island, and get away from the bull that seems to be endemic in our culture.

Happy New Year.

The Black Death Audiobook

2009-12-17T22:30:00.004Z

My book The Black Death has just been released as an audiobook. It's available on Audible here. No one told me that this was out - it seems the author is usually the last person to know!

The Templars' Lost Treasure

2009-12-17T21:11:00.002Z

A bit more info about The Templars' Lost Treasure - including a photo of three out of work actors wearing costumes - can be found here.

For those who may miss it, you can sleep easy: it's being repeated almost immediately! (And I kid you not.)

Deus lo volt, indeed...

The Return of the Philosopher's Secret Fire

2009-12-15T21:44:00.010Z

Just a quick plug for a book I love: Patrick Harpur's The Philosopher's Secret Fire: A History of the Imagination has just been republished by the good people down at The Squeeze Press.

It will make your Christmas a far more profound affair than may have otherwise been the case!

The Templars' Lost Treasure

2009-11-30T23:19:00.003Z

I will be appearing in a National Geographic documentary entitled The Templars' Lost Treaure, which will air on 21 December 2009 at 2100 in the UK. Apparently it will then be repeated over the Christmas period.

All I can tell you at the moment is that it is a French programme that has been recut for the UK, with myself and Helen Nicholson being inserted as the English-speaking experts/voices of sanity.

I'm not sure whether to add zut alors! or merde! at this point. But anyway, the interview - conducted in St Pancras Old Church - was fun to do. I'll post more info when I have some.

The churchyard, incidentally, was used by the Beatles for the photos that appear on the inside cover of the Red and Blue Albums.

New Templar Documentary

2009-11-10T11:43:00.002Z

I am being wheeled out again in front of the cameras to hold forth on our old chums, the KT. This one's for a major broadcaster - I've been warned to not say the name - and will go out sometime before Xmas. More into when the Bishop allows...

Meanwhile, the Channel 5 programme, Secrets of the Cross: Trial of the Knights Templar, is now out on DVD. Avail yourself of a copy forthwith at yon vendor. (Click on 'Templar Documentaries' in the menu on the left.)

Radio 4 Appearance

2009-10-10T19:06:00.002+01:00

I was featured in a Radio 4 programme yesterday together with fellow Westonian Nick Harding. Weston's New Pier recounts the story of... Weston's new pier, after the last one burnt down in the July of last year. The programme is still up on the Radio 4 site, and can be listened to again here if you missed it. Nick and I appear about halfway through. I attempt a Watney's Red Barrel rant about sunburnt holidaymakers eating saveloy and chips on the Beach Lawns, but I think Eric Idle would have done a better job...

Reading in Glasgow

2009-10-05T10:41:00.002+01:00

I'm making a long overdue return to the world of readings this Friday, when I will be appearing at “Reading Allowed” at the Tchai Ovna Teahouse in Glasgow's West End. Also on the bill will be
David Manderson, Alan Riach (who is launching his latest collection), Janet Paisley, Donny O’Rourke, Dave Dick and Lynsey Calderwood. Live music will be provided by Wing and a Prayer. Kick off at 2000, all welcome.

Knights Templar in Paperback - Now Available

2009-09-09T11:39:00.002+01:00

The new paperback edition of The Knights Templar: The History & Myths of the Legendary Military Order is now available. You can get a copy here.

The book is revised, mainly in the final chapter on Templar myths and mysteries, plus I've also added a new Afterword which details some of the new research on them. Interestingly, this research - undertaken by academics - seems to suggest that some of the myths about the Order might have some substance to them... 'No smoke without fire,' as the old saying goes.

Templar Documentaries Now on DVD

2009-08-16T15:34:00.003+01:00

The first two Templar documentaries I did, The Templar Code: Crusade of Secrecy (History Channel) and Secrets of the Code (an independent feature documentary, narrated by Susan Sarandon) are now available on DVD here.

They're both NTSC (i.e. North American) discs, so you'll need a multi-region DVD player to watch them.

Goings on in Stone Circles

2009-08-04T11:08:00.003+01:00

On Saturday, I found myself taking part in a Druid ceremony in a stone circle to celebrate Lughnasa (AKA Lammas - see the 891 Filmhouse Blog for a tad more info). During the ceremony, we played a game to symbolise the war and trade we presume ancient Britons to have indulged in. This basically took the form of running across the field, trying not to get tagged by the opposing side. I was sadly tagged, at which point I had to freeze on the spot. (I was one of 3 people from our side to get caught.) At this point, the rest of my side had to ransome me and the 2 others - and I can happily report that the ransome paid was a bottle of Old Peculier! Very apt, methinks.

On similarly pagan/heretical lines, I will be turning my quill to revamping The Gnostics soon, as a new edition is due out at Yule (AKA Christmas, the 12 Days of Consumer Overkill), and I would like to put in the few things that I actually forgot to put into the first edition. I'll put up an Amazon link to the new edition once one appears.

Until then, may your God go with you, as Dave Allen used to say.

New Editions A Go-Go

2009-07-17T23:26:00.006+01:00

The Knights Templar will be out around the middle/end of next month in its first UK paperback edition. This is a newly updated version of the book, which essentially means I've been tinkering with the last chapter again, and have also added a new Afterword.

In further developments that I have heard about on the grapevine - i.e. I found out on the net, not via my publishers - that The Gnostics is also receiving the paperback treatment in December. I'm not sure at the moment whether this will be an updated edition or not.

And while on the subject, there are distant rumours of a new edition of Andrei Tarkovsky planned for 2010-ish. (Further distant rumours suggest that I have in fact finished New Waves in Cinema at last. These rumours are sadly unfounded...)

In the meantime, you can always investigate the works of the great UFOlogist John Keel, who has just Left the Building. Recommended titles: The Mothman Prophecies, Our Haunted Planet and Operation Trojan Horse, while Patrick Harpur has some interesting things to say about him in Daimonic Reality.

The Templars & the Shroud

2009-05-11T12:48:00.002+01:00

New Evidence links our old friends the Templars with the Turin Shroud. Go here to read all about it.

The new edition of my book on the Templars new edition of my book on the Templars is due out in September, as is the new Dan Brown novel. Surely a coincidence? Or are the Illuminati still at work and moving behind the scenes?

John Michell, 1933-2009

2009-04-27T13:18:00.006+01:00

The great John Michell has left the building. Cancer. He was 76. More here and here.

I met him once, back in February 1988 (I think it was) at Gothic Image in Glastonbury. It was the launch party for Dimensions of Paradise, I seem to recall. And if there's one book that re-enchanted my relationship to the English countryside, it was his The New View over Atlantis.

So, if you're in Glastonbury today, head over to Beckett's and raise a toast to the great man. Otherwise, stop and be silent for a moment. Better still, go for a walk in the woods and think about eternity. I hope John is in some celestial tavern, talking alignments with Stukely over an ale or two.

Templars in Scotland

2009-04-25T20:00:00.003+01:00

Yes, the Templars were all over Scotland, Hugues de Payen married a Sinclair, they all escaped in 1307-12, the fleet landed there, they helped win the Battle of Bannockburn and it is also the part of the world where I finished the revised version of the book, which is due out in June. The book contains a number of new earth-shattering revelations, including a recent photo of Lord Lucan at Rosslyn Chapel (applying a bit of Brasso to the Holy Grail with Jim Morrison supplying the bread and wine)... Yes folks, it's all true. And none of it. But at least the book is done and coming to a website near you soon.

On another note, today is the 627th anniversary of Nicholas Flamel's second successful transmutation. I wish he were here now to help me transmute the MS of my latest book into something coherent and finished...

Amazon Store Launched

2009-01-27T23:14:00.003Z

A quick plug for my newly-launched Amazon store, on which you can purchase the various tomes I have authored so far. You can find it here. I may expand it to include books I like and want to plug, such as Mercurius, The Chymical Wedding, or anything by Messrs Ford, Carver, or Burnside. But for now, it's just me.

And please raise a glass - preferrably a good Greek red - in Sir John Tavener's direction tomorrow, January 28th - it's the great man's birthday:-) I received his Piano Music and Ex Maria Virgine
for Xmas, and they are superb releases indeed.

The Knights Templar - Paperback Edition

2009-01-07T12:09:00.009Z

The Knights Templar will receive its first UK paperback publication in June.

A paperback edition has been available in the US for some time, but this UK version will be a superior tome in every way, in that it will retain its cover - de Molay in all his finery - and will also be a revised edition, with further sections being added to the final chapter, including A Very Interesting Fact that I have recently come across... (Well, possibly more than one!)

By June, I should also have finished my next book, the long-gestating New Waves in Cinema which, by the time of publication next year, will probably end up being called Old Waves in Praxinoscopes.

Templar Audiobook

2008-12-12T20:59:00.004Z

The Knights Templar: The History and Myths of the Legendary Military Order is now available as an unabridged audio book. Of course, being the author, I was the last to hear about this... But never mind! It sounds good, and is available from both Audible (US) and (UK).

Incidentally, the book will receive its first UK paperback publication next June. More details hither. (Or is should it be yonder?)

Very blustery night here - thinking of repairing to the pub (as they have an open fire)... It's too cold to write, dammit! And it's an astrologically significant night, to boot.

The Return of Mercurius

2008-10-08T22:48:00.008+01:00

A quick plug for a great book: Patrick Harpur's near legendary, and long out-of-print, novel Mercurius: The Marriage of Heaven and Earth has just been republished by Glastonbury's Squeeze Press (an imprint of the Wooden Books empire, I believe). This is one of the best novels about alchemy ever written.

I can also highly recommend his two mind-bending works of non-fiction, Daimonic Reality: A Field Guide to the Otherworld and The Philosopher's Secret Fire : A History of the Imagination Life changing books, honestly.

Speaking of my own secret fire, well, it's guttering, but will no doubt be shining brightly again soon with a few well-aimed gusts of the alchemical bellows...

TV Appearance 23/09/08

2008-09-22T23:38:00.005+01:00

I'm appearing in a programme on British TV tomorrow, Tuesday 23rd September. The Trial of the Templars is on Channel 5 at 2000, and is repeated on Sunday 28th at 1100. I did 6 interviews for the programme, but whether they've used all of them remains to be seen. Apparently certain things have been cut, such as the footage of the Chinon carvings, which is a pity as they're fascinating things to study. Also appearing are Barbara Frale and Alain Demurger. John the Baptist demanded too high a fee, and hence will not be appearing in the programme.

Memento Mori

2008-09-16T03:36:00.002+01:00

Friday: David Foster Wallace. Monday: Richard Wright. 'Say goodnight to the folks, Gracie.' (B. Fawlty)

A Year Off

2008-08-30T17:42:00.003+01:00

In a post that will generally buck the trend of this blog, I can report that I have spent all of August - well, most of it - in a farmhouse in upstate New York working on Elias. This is the first concerted bit of work I've done on it in a year, and I'm very pleased with the results. It feels good to be back on the case again. More needs to be done, as ever, but I'm hoping I could have a draft of The Cosmopolite (the first narrative) finished by Christmas.

When I wasn't working on Elias, I was working on my next delve into the world of film studies, New Waves in Cinema, which is also shaping up after 18 months of peripatetic work. The book will now be out next September (which means it's over a year late - a personal best!). The main development this week has been in terms of chapters - what goes, what stays, and where to put the Germans (I've decided that the chapter on the New German Cinema will make a good last chapter before the Conclusion, which will talk about Kiarostami and Lars von Trier).

On top of all this is a rumoured follow-up of sorts to my Templar book, which will be a lavishly illustrated account of their rival order the Teutonic Knights. More news on that front - generally Baltic and pagan - as and when.

The Templars is still doing brisk business, and 23 September will see me on TV again, in a programme called Secrets of the Cross. It'll be on UK Channel 5 at 8 pm, and it will see your humble author holding forth about our old chums and what they got up to - or not. One of the highlights of the shoot was visiting Chinon castle, where de Molay and other leading Templars were held in 1308. Some of the imprisoned brethren carved mysterious symbols into the dungeon walls which have never been adequately explained. Perhaps the best evidence that some of them were indeed straying from the straight and narrow of church orthodoxy... Or perhaps they were just pre-empting postmodernism.

Cathars and Amazons

2008-07-01T14:04:00.003+01:00

For those of you who speak German or live in Germany, the illustrated German edition of Cathars is now on Amazon.de. Click here to pre-order. The rather nice cover is not yet on the site, but will be soon.

In due course, the French edition should appear on Amazon.fr; not sure about the Dutch and Spanish editions, as Amazon don't have sites there. (For buying a copy of the former, I recommend the bookshop at Schipol, one of my favourite airports. I can further recommend perusing said new purchase in the Grand Cafe, a few minutes' walk away. Another favourite haunt of mine when changing planes...)

The English edition will probably appear on Amazon.com first, probably sometime next spring.

Ernest Scribbler Strikes Again

2008-06-27T12:34:00.005+01:00

No, it's not the Funniest Joke in the World, but rather a just-published piece of writing that I've done for the BFI release of Bill Douglas Trilogy [1972]

These films were made between 1972 and 1978, and are amongst the best - and most underrated - British films ever made. Bill is the great forgotten poet of British cinema, a cinema that sadly seems embarrassed by poetry and films in which there is a complete lack of sentiment, a refusal to pander to dumb Hollywood narratives or TV platitudes. In short, these films are at times painful to watch - but also remarkably tender at the same time. Bill has been compared to such European masters as Bresson and Dreyer, but for me, he is the cinematic equivalent of Ted Hughes. These films, like Ted's poetry, have an overwhelming physical force that is almost completely unique; there is certainly almost nothing to compare it with in British cinema (Terence Davies is the name that crops up most, although I think TD's films are very different.)

The BFI have done a great job: great transfers of the three films, plus some good extras. And the booklet features newly commissioned essays, including a brief one by myself (on Stephen Archibald, Jamie from the Trilogy, who had, if anything, an even worse life than Bill did himself).

Do yourself a huge, poetic favour and buy a copy from the link below. Films really don't get any better than these. (Well, not forgetting Bill's final film, Comrades!)

Templars Announce Reunion Tour of France

2008-06-16T14:15:00.003+01:00

No updates for a while, as I've been busy with my two film projects, Folie à Deux and Lanterna Magicka. Plus I've also just come back from la belle France - belle that is, apart from their appalling non-vegetarian friendly cuisine and smug, lying waiters - where I have been appearing in a new documentary that will air on Channel 5 in September. Secrets of the Cross will be a four episode series, featuring programmes on Mary Magdalene, the so-called 'Jesus Tomb' in Jerusalem, Pontius Pilate and our old friends the Knights Templar. This is the one I will be in, and sees me holding forth in such belle locations as Troyes, Chinon and La Rochelle. It was a great trip, made all the more so by the fact that we were allowed into the dungeons at Chinon to see the mysterious carvings made my imprisoned Templars in 1308. Very strange indeed - they're either the C14th equivalent of naive art, or they're something esoteric; definitely not standard Christian iconography. (Chinon, incidentally, is Rabelais' hometown, what he called his 'old cow country'.)

My next book, the one after New Waves in Cinema, which I am still working on when the Man from Porlock is not hammering at the door with more trivial merde to distract me, is going to be on the Templars' chums, the Teutonic Knights. I hope this will be an excuse to get some nice pagan illustrations in the book - the TKs crusaded against pagans in the Baltic - preferrably either from Marketa Lazarova or the pagan episode of Andrei Rublev.

Anniversaries

2008-03-13T23:37:00.003Z

It's 13th March again. Comes round quicker than ever, or so it seems. It is, of course, the anniversary - the 406th to be precise - of the fabled Enkhuizen transmutation, which features in Part I of Elias. It's come to be something of an important date for me, along with two other dates from the novel, 26th August and 27th December, both of which appear in Part IV, in the narrative concerning Dr Helvetius. Time may pass, but the secrets of the Art remain intact; at least that is the feeling I get more strongly the more I work on this, which makes it all the harder to find the time to settle down and actually spend some quality time with the project; furthermore, any ETA at the end of the beast is purely hypothetical. When will it be finished? Can it be finished? Mercurius is still toying with your humble author, it would seem, and will probably continue to do so for a little while yet. But at least observing the anniversaries makes me still feel some deep, unspoken connection to the Royal Art.

The Cathars - New Edition

2008-01-28T20:32:00.000Z

My book The Cathars: The Most Successful Heresy of the Middle Ages is being reissued in an illustrated edition. It will appear sometime next year in the States, and possibly the UK too. Before that, hopefully around this August/September, the illustrated version will appear in French, German, Dutch and Spanish. The publisher will be Taschen.

Meanwhile, your author is being visited by Gentlemen from Porlock, meaning that his next effort, New Waves in Cinema, is being constantly delayed, interrupted and generally buggered around with. Hopefully I can get the beast slayed by the end of next month. Or the month after that.

No novel-writing news to speak of, although I hope to spend a week with Lindsay and various hand-picked lost souls in Devon in September for an intensive session on Elias. Ideally, progress will have been made by then, and hopefully more than just 'oh dear, he's signed his name again', if I may quote the scriptures.

New Podcast

2008-01-04T10:40:00.000Z

A new podcast, featuring myself and Gordon Strong, is available as of today from Geoff Ward's Mysterious West page at the Western Daily Press. Scroll down and look for 'Week 42'. The interview was recorded in the middle of last month, and features your author holding forth on a short film he is currently making about Gordon, and also talks about the usual (Gnostics, Cathars and a few other pet obsessions).

Richard Leigh 1943-2007

2007-11-29T15:53:00.000Z

Sad news: Richard Leigh, co-author of The Holy Blood & the Holy Grail and all-round Dan Brown nemesis, has passed away. Apparently he had been suffering from diabetes, and resolutely refused to have anything to do with doctors (given the greed of the pharmaceutical industry, I can't say I blame him). Richard was good enough to meet me when I was writing The Knights Templar and offer me sage advice on some of the more arcane elements in the Templar story; it was a meeting I have fond memories of, and had even hoped to interview Richard in a documentary about the Templars that never quite happened. (He was enthusiastic about the idea of the film, and agreed at once to the interview.)

You can read The Independent's obituary here.

I'm sure Richard would want well-wishers to donate to the Vancouver Institute for Lycanthropic Children. Or, failing that, the Pushkin Trust, of which he was a trustee.

Gnostics Interview

2007-11-13T17:17:00.000Z

I have just recorded a second interview for the US radio show Coffee Cigarettes and Gnosis, discussing The Gnostics: The First Christian Heretics, which has just been published in the States. The show goes live this Saturday, 17 November. For anyone who missed the first interview, on the Cathars, you can purchase a download of the show here.

I am currently not writing a novel, no surprises there, perhaps, as we approach the third anniversary of this blog, but am writing a book on new wave cinema for Kamera Books and editing the text of The Cathars down for an illustrated edition, which is due out next summer. I am also struggling to get a feature film completed before men in white coats come and take me to the nearest funny farm. As excuses go for not completing Elias, I think that's a pretty good one. Or a pretty bad one, depending on your point of view.

In the Virtual Alexandria

2007-11-04T00:54:00.000Z

The US radio show Coffee, Cigarettes and Gnosis interviews me this week on the Cathars. Go here, scroll down to the eye, and click on the musical note to hear the show.

US Radio Interview

2007-10-20T20:19:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I recorded an interview for the US Radio show, Coffee, Cigarettes and Gnosis. The original intention was for me to talk about two of my books, The Cathars and The Gnostics (the latter of which has just been published in the States). However, I talked for so long about the Cathars that they've decided to do a separate interview in a few weeks' time about Gnosticism. The Cathar interview should be online next weekend. Failing that, the weekend after. I hope it's been possible to make something coherent out of my ramblings... At any rate, I landed a few punches in favour of the Good Christians against what they called the Church of Satan.

The Unconscious Novel

2007-10-07T14:18:00.000+01:00

Yesterday Lindsay's group met again. This is only the second time I've been there this year, but I think I've only missed one or two meets, as our regular schedule has been interrupted by various factors, one of which is Lindsay's struggle to complete his new novel, Sun at Midnight. Well, I say 'new', but he's been working on it since about the time Alice's Masque came out (and that was 1994). He told us that, when he'd begun the book, he'd had a dream where he was told that the book was already written, and all he had to do was write it down. He then proceeded to do this, while at the same time working on other projects (radio plays, the Celtic Stories, the Troy novels and of course the marvellous Parzival and the Stone from Heaven). However, he became stuck on one important aspect of the back story, and only this summer did the answer present itself. In relating this to us, he reminded us that we should never underestimate the power or the role of the unconscious in our work; it always knows best, and we should listen to it. If something doesn't feel right, it must be addressed, it must be worked on.

This is precisely the problem I'm having with Elias, especially since asking a close friend for advice over the summer. Her advice was to make the character of the new housekeeper - in what may or may not become the Prologue - a more interesting character, perhaps a dyer. I thought this was a great idea, as it would mean that this character becomes at once much more interesting and dynamic. But I also felt that it would entail a major rethink of the Prologue, and had a bit of a meltdown. On the way up the M4 to see Lindsay and the gang yesterday, I realised that these supposed big changes were not so big at all. In fact, I really can't see what I was so mortified about to start with.

Despite this, the gut feeling remains that Elias is worth doing; moreover, it's something I have to do. Even in the last month, when I've been working on the fairy novel, thoughts about Elias have been popping up here and there. On a recent trip to New York City, for instance, I suddenly felt that NYC would have to appear in the book, from its earliest incarnation as New Amsterdam (which will make an appearance in the Starkey narrative) to its ceding to the British and change of name in 1667 (towards the end of the novel, when Helvetius is about to publish his account of meeting Elias and the subsequent attempt at performing a transmutation).

So: trust your gut (even if it's slightly larger than one would presently like!). That reminds me, the gut has been called 'the second brain'... but perhaps that's something I'll leave for another time.

As a postscript to this one, however, I can report that the fairy novel got the thumbs up - with a few caveats. Also, we discussed Patrick Harpur, whom Lindsay knows. The tremendously exciting news is that Patrick's long out-of-print masterpiece on alchemy, Mercurius, is finally being re-issued next month. All hail.

Fairies (Not Pink)

2007-09-01T01:02:00.000+01:00

This time last week I woke up with the overwhelming urge to turn an old screenplay of mine into a novel. The script is called The Fortune, and came close a few years ago to getting produced. It's about a property developer who falls in love with a fairy.... with disastrous consequences. I've always been able to see this story very cleary - the bright neon of London vs. the twilight of the countryside - plus it's also a very tight plot (featuring magic, madness, murder and ritual masturbation, no less). That, and conversations with my sister, who has had some amazing insights into what the story is actually about, has convinced me that I may need to divert my alchemical intentions and get on with The Fortune for the time being. Given that the script is 20,000 words long, I've already got a third/quarter already written, plus I think it would work well as a fantasty novel - hence eminently marketable. And, of course, there's the famous wanking-in-the-woods scene... (Not based on the author's own experience, I hasten to add, actually being inspired from something I read in Barbara G. Walker's Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets. Or possibly it's sequel, I forget.)

Fires

2007-07-17T12:45:00.000+01:00

I have four poems in the latest issue of Fires (issue 28, June 2007). On another note, I make a fleeting appearance in Adam Thorpe's new novel. Not actually in the novel itself, but in the acknowledgments at the end. (Guess why!)

On far less exciting fronts, my next book will be New Waves in Cinema, due out next June from Kamera Books. I'm still doing the reading for it, and wondering what to leave out, as there have been rather a lot of new waves, and only 40,000 words to tell the story in.

And the news for parrotts: no work on Elias has been done of late. No parrots were involved. The Parrot Society of the UK cannot say for sure when Mr Martin will complete all or even part of his novel. They recommend Between Each Breath and Is This the Way You Said? by Mr Thorpe instead.

Medicine Show #2

2007-06-18T01:18:00.000+01:00

Just back - well, a few weeks have elapsed in real time, but in inner time, it's only a few days ago - from my second boot camp with Lindsay and Adam. The first was of course 18 months ago at Lumb Bank, whereas this one was at Tŷ Newydd in North Wales, AKA 'the Welsh Arvon.' (It's actually Lloyd George's last house, and he's buried down the lane in a tomb overlooking the river. A very peaceful spot.)

Unlike the legendary 'Slash & Burn' tactics of Lumb Bank, I actually wrote several thousand words at Tŷ Newydd. This was partially deliberate: I thought that if I cut any more of the novel, I'd become a permanent fixture on Michael Bentine's Potty Time. So I skipped a few classes - with teachers' approval - and, lashing myself to my desk in best Turner-on-deck-in-a-storm fashion, proceeded to labour away at the Beast.

The great thing about working with Adam and Lindsay is that they are perfect foils for one another, both in terms of teaching and also in their respective critical perspectives. Adam gave me some great broad-stroke comments about the piece (i.e. most of the first half of Part I), while Lindsay, as ever, had to split hairs. But, to his eternal credit, they were the right hairs to split, my homework for the last night being to cut the opening section down by 2/3.

I then spent an hour reworking the opening paragraph, hoping I could walk down the lane to the river via Lloyd George, paying my respects en route of course (it would be quite nice to have a Liberal PM again, methinks...) and then commune with the water in the way I did at Lumb Bank. However, I spent so long on that paragraph, and then reworking the following section, that I had no time to get down to the river, and had to hotfoot it to the evening meal. What was interesting, though, about this bit of slave labour, was that I'd never before spent so long on one paragraph, and somehow wrote it by feeling. Another way of saying that was that I was trying to make the language as vital as possible, using as few words as possible. Everything passive had to go: this had to be concrete images, feelings; a sense of place and forward movement; a sense of magic and wonder latent behind the ordinary.

Other highlights of the week included the drive there and back, through Snowdonia, which I' never seen before (fucking spectacular, if you'll pardon mon Français); the great pub in the village, to which Steve and I repaired nightly, joined on the Thursday by the Minor Wizard and Harry Potter themselves. (These two latter reprobates being Lindsay's and Adam's alter egos, as determined for them by students: one evening over supper, Adam admitted that former students had dubbed him Harry Potter, whom they thought he looked like, at which point one of our group thought that Lindsay looked liked 'a minor wizard.' Lindsay didn't think much of being thought minor!)

On BBC Radio Bristol on Sunday

2007-04-25T11:24:00.000+01:00

I'm appearing on the Trevor Fry show, Sunday Starts, on BBC Radio Bristol this coming Sunday 29 April, between the ungodly hours of 0730 and 0800. (This means I will have to wait until 0900 for breakfast, but at least means I will be up in time to take my Mother and her flower arranging gang to the airport for 1130.) I will be discussing The Gnostics along with Trevor Fry and a local vicar, who is apparently sympathetic to the cause, which is a relief, as I was expecting the Enemy. You can listen online here.

On another note, The Gnostics has had a good review in the May issue of the FT. (That's the Fortean, not Financial, Times. A far worthier publication, in my opinion.)

And finally, something alchemical: today is the 625th annivesary of Nicholas and Perenelle Flamel's second successful transmutation, which happened in Paris on this day in 1382, at five in the afternoon. So, as the cocktail hour approaches, raise a glass of elixir in their direction.

Review of The Gnostics

2007-03-15T15:36:00.000Z

My new book, The Gnostics: The First Christian Heretics, has just had a good review in the UK Independent here.

On another note, today is the 70th anniversary of H.P. Lovecraft's death. Here's hoping the Old Ones return soon to clean up town...

Journal of the Plague Year

2007-02-23T10:53:00.001Z

It's back to my old ways, I'm afraid, in that this is another post not about the novel. Or at least partially so. I'm currently being distracted from the great work by revising an old tome on the Black Death, originally published in November 2001. (Note that Amazon still show an early version of the cover that was never used, showing part of Bruegel's Triumph of Death. It was my suggestion that this image be used, which was later overruled by the forces of Middle England and New Labour etc etc.) The revised edition is due to be delivered at the end of this month, with it being published in Jesusland in May, and over here in Old Blighty in June. The current version of the cover can be seen here. Note that they have again ignored my wish for the Bruegel image to be used. (I suspect the hand of religious fundamentalism, or possibly the Leader of the Opposition...)

However, there is some connection between the plague and Elias, in that one of the main characters dies of it during the Great Plague of 1665. It also appears, offstage, in the first part, where it breaks out in Amsterdam during the winter of 1601/2, one of the series of harbingers that starts the novel. So, a nice little overlapping of paid hackery and Mein Verk!

And the scores on the doors...

2007-02-14T00:38:00.000Z

On Saturday the group met at Sue's new flat in Canonbury (very nice! the sort of London district familiar to Arthur Machen, I believe), as our local haunts in Fitzrovia were double-booked with the usual problem of salsa classes etc.

I unveiled the new beginning I wrote in early January in Inverie and got a largely good response. Absolutely no-one liked the first two (lengthy!) paragraphs describing our hero Jacob's walk through his home town of Enkhuizen, and I was subjected to a Comfy Chair experience in which Lindsay asked me to remind him of his 6 golden rules of How to Begin a Novel. Unfortunately, I couldn't remember any except for pace (which I failed at) and a hook (which came far too late).

He was good enough in his wisdom to remind me of the other four points that I forgot: have a strong image; show human interest; indicate the style of the whole thing and also hint at the overall themes. In fact, come to think of it, I did more or less make it on the style and themes front, but I did indeed fall down on the image and human interest elements, which only kicked in after the first two paragraphs were history.

So... I cut the opening paras, and it's a lot better. Thank the Divine Powers for writing groups, supportive feedback, and Sages from Frome.

Incipit Vita Nova

2007-01-24T01:01:00.000Z

Or at the very least, Here Begins a New Beginning (if not New Life, to bastardize Dante). The meaning for such cryptic statements on the 32nd anniversary of Keith Jarrett's Cologne Concert
refers to my own experiences over the New Year, not in Cologne, but on Lewis, Harris, and then Knoydart in Bonnie Scotland. Especially in the latter place, where it rained a lot, but was still idyllic (great pub!) I managed to rethink the beginning of the novel and generally go back to a very basic approach that is hopefully unselfconscious and hopefully also oblivious to the whole idea of 'good writing'; I'd rather just try and get on and tell the story. Bugger good writing, if not Bognor!

It was rejuventating just to look at the part of the book that bugged me - the beginning - and realized that I just had to murder my darlings. It was a darling -the scene with the beached whale - that just didn't work. So it had to go. Once I had murdered said darling, I felt free to just write what had to be written - which is now a totally different beginning, but hopefully one that is much stronger, and one that gets the story going much quicker. More anon.

Newnovelist.com

2006-12-12T23:05:00.000Z

Well, the Dinesen's turned up (I opted for the Penguin C20 Classic edition, now out of print, as it has a great Hammershoi on the cover), and I've started reading. The blurb on the back says that one theme runs through the whole book - that of Ariel - and that the first and last stories act as prologue and epilogue ('The Diver' and 'The Ring' respectively), so Lindsay's comment about how to structure Elias could well prove to be inspiring. Needless to say, I'm still reading the Stephenson (nearing the end of the first book in the first volume), and actually quite enjoying it, although whether I get through all 3,000 pages of the bugger remains to be seen. In between breaks from the Stephenson, I'll be studying the Dinesen, and then making copious notes. Or perhaps just a few notes.

The note-taking will be greatly aided, I hope, by some writing software I've just ordered from Amazon called New Novelist, more on which here. I thought it might help organise things a little better, and may act as an incentive - if any were needed at the moment - to get on with the thing. I'm also getting a second laptop, which I'll use more or less exclusively for writing. A bit of a luxury, but, again, anything to get it done. I shall certainly raise a glass in my own direction if I can do so, preferrably by this time next year.

The News for Parrotts

2006-12-04T12:58:00.000Z

On Saturday Lindsay's group finally reconvened after a difficult period in which our drummer was suspected of suffering from death. This turned out to be a rumour, and we split up again... No, in fact, our six-month hiatus has been more due to double-bookings, the World Cup, people being away etc (unless there was one in September that I couldn't make - can't remember as that seems like a long time ago now). I also had the train journey from hell getting into London, which included a delightful hour at Swindon, where we were holed up while there was foul play in the air at Didcot (a fatality, police activity on the line - which sounded like a suicide, until we heard news of another fatality, which sounded more like trigger happy fascists shooting people they believe to be terrorists, but were in fact completely innocent, and just happened to be wearing a baggy anorak/non-caucasian/dark-haired/not wearing a Hitler-style moustache etc).

Once actually in London (and in our old haunt, the Fitzroy), I told Lindsay of my conceptual problems - i.e. the novel started out as an Utz-style short thing, and now, what with reading Quicksilver, I am thinking more in terms of sequoias than toothpicks - but Lindsay told me to fear not, and to think of the book as simply four short stories, that could be read independently of one another. To that end, he advised me to read Isak Dinesen's Seven Gothic Tales (which I have a copy of somewhere, bought many years ago) and Anecdotes of Destiny (which contains two titles I'm familiar with, 'Babette's Feast' and 'The Immortal Story', as they have both been made into rather good films) . I spent the train journey home - Didcot suspiciously quiet - going through the first episode with a fine toothcomb, feeling like I have a handle on the beast once more.

Quicksilver

2006-11-28T23:44:00.000Z

When I originally started Elias, it was intended to be a novel of four chapters and an epilogue. That has subsequently grown to twelve and an epilogue, and I am feeling that, before I get back into the swing of things, I need to decide which way the book should go. I could revert to my original short-ish novel of 200 or so pages, or carry on with the 500-plus page version. Having just started Neal Stephenson's Quicksilver, which is 900 pages long and covers similar themes and roughly the same period, it might be an idea to return to the shorter version of Elias. I've always felt that it might be better to imply the beginning of the modern world, rather than to show it in exhaustive detail, as Neal Stephenson does. My other feeling has been that if I can get Part I finished, I will know where to go with the rest of it. Either way, it's a case of making time to write, which always seems to be harder than the actual writing itself; or, rather, the not making time means that the writing, when it happens, is harder than it needs to be.

The Knights who say Ni...gredo

2006-11-06T10:49:00.000Z

Last week I finished shooting a film (more of which here). Now, as the material gets digitised and then Fed Exed to our editor in LA, I find myself this foggy morning reading the latest issue of Alchemy Journal, in particular an article about that old alchemical chestnut, 'Who was Fulcanelli?'. (My own theories suggest that he was, in fact, the French filmmaker Robert Bresson - but that's something to discuss with De Selby over inordinate amounts of alchemically produced whisky!).

The upshot of my reading is that it's high time to work on Elias as full-time as possible. I've been doing this blog for 24 (solar) months now, and it really is time to try and up the ante. True, this period has not been easy for personal and professional reasons, but try as I might, I can't bring myself to begin work on another novel. I've thought of a few potboilers - about the Templars mainly, but even one on alchemy that I was considering a month or two back, and over the weekend gave thought to turning an old screenplay about fairies into a prose - but as I now look through the various Elias drafts, it seems there is only one way to go: deeper into what I've already done.

I also feel I've been evading my responsibilities with this book - something I tend to do with commissioned books (the last three of which were all largely written after their respective deadlines had passed). But before I lapse into the slough of despond, or, perhaps worse, visit Slough accidentally, I've just noticed something in the latest issue of AJ, namely the article by John Reid III:

'If there is one stumbling block in the plant work, nay the entire Royal Art, I would have to say it is from the paving stone that thinks itself a cornerstone, thus occluding the work at its inception.'

Perhaps this has been true of my progress with the story so far; it was certainly a feeling I had on last October's Arvon with Adam and Lindsay. Perhaps the delays and general slowness of the whole thing are necessary. Maybe that's true of life generally, reminding me of something that Jennifer Lash said in her great book On Pilgrimage, namely that delays are good, because they slow us down, and we need to be slowed down in order to learn. Back to the paving stone/corner stone idea, and the alchemical circulata. Which in turn reminds me of something that Lindsay has said to me time and time again, that Elias should not be a novel about alchemy, but an alchemical novel. Certainly seems to be the case! Time to say 'Ni!.... gredo' and get back into the kingdom of plants, minerals, and words.

Alchemy & Alchemists - Another Revised Version

2006-08-27T13:04:00.000+01:00

I have about a week to revise a book I wrote back in 2000 on alchemy. As usual with these things, it's going slowly.

To help me get my rewrite done, I've been reading Patrick Harpur's The Philosopher's Secret Fire, and will then move on to Jean Cooper's book about Chinese alchemy. I've also ordered a book on Indian tantric alchemy from Amazon, plus a dictionary of alchemical symbols. I'm hoping both will arrive in the week.

When I started writing the book - the first version, that is - back in July 2000, I thought it was possible to sum the whole subject up in one book. It was only in doing a second, revised edition in 2003, that I realised that it's an impossible task. Alchemy is a life's work, and is also the work of life. Anyway, the 3rd edition is due out in October, and will hopefully be slightly more modest in its aims...

Still, it has at least got me back in the Zone after spending a summer with the Gnostics, so my thoughts are back with Elias again. I bet he's been wondering where I've been. Come to think of it, that makes two of us...

It was 340 Years Ago Today

2006-08-26T13:18:00.000+01:00

...that Sgt Pepper... Sorry, couldn't resist.

Today is in fact the 340th anniversary of the creation of one of the alchemical medallions that Elias shows to Helvetius when they meet for the first time.

Here is a world premiere of a draft of the scene:

"The man handed Helvetius one of the pendants. On it were inscribed the words AMEN. Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord our GOD, for all things are full of his Power. It felt heavy enough to be real gold, and when Anna came back with his purse, Helvetius compared the pendant with a gold coin. It seemed dull and lifeless against the medallion: had the man really made it himself? The inscription on the second pendant, when it was offered to him, seemed to confirm it: The wonderful wonder-working wisdom of JEHOVAH in the Catholick Book of Nature. Made the 26th day of August 1666.

Helvetius's mind began to reel. The date seemed somehow full of portent: what had he himself been doing on that day? Was he in England, concerned with the goings-on at Ragley? Was that the day of Lady Anne’s collapse and Greatorex’s attempts to revive her? Or was it a day like too many others when nothing of import had happened, when his own soul-gloom descended upon him as he tried to balance the books? Why had he not been aware that on that very day, this man had attained the mastery? People had come and gone about their business as he himself had, all of them unaware. All of them unaware. "

And happy birthday, Chris!

The Hack in Space

2006-08-12T15:46:00.000+01:00

Well, nearly finished the Gnostic tome. Just need to finish up the section on Jung, add a bit about Gnosticism in literature - e.g. Hesse's Demian, Durrell's Alexandria Quartet, the complete works of Philip K. Dick - and a section on the Matrix movies and computer games, then it's more or less done, thank God (the real one!).

Am yearning to return to Elias and write something that I really want to write. Although I am extremely sympathetic towards the Gnostics, it's still a commissioned book and not one I would have written otherwise. Have been doing almost nothing but the Gnostics for the past few weeks and am as a consequence feeling a bit adrift from reality in general.

I've also been toying with the idea of getting a collection of poems out via Lulu.com. But that's another post, or even blog. Right, time for yet another coffee, and then it's either back to Jung, or I might watch The Matrix, which I've never seen all the way through. (Only seen the second film so far. Just bought the Ultimate Matrix Collection - 10 DVDs with 35 hours of bonus material!)

The Mystery of Time

2006-08-10T01:18:00.000+01:00

I am listening to Keith Jarrett's remarkable 1977 album SPHERES (originally a double LP called HYMNS SPHERES containing twice as much music as the current CD). I've rarely been as transported to the age of Elias as I have with this album. If anyone has the original double LP, please let me know. I'd love a copy! This is music about time, it seems to me. More than that, I can't say at present. (I'm not sure Keith could, either, come to think of it.)

I'm not sure what music will appear in the novel. The oldest extant complete opera, Peri's Eurydice (1600) is hermetic; Monteverdi a practicing artist (in the alchemical sense as well as musical). Work by Lully may also appear, and, given my current enthusiasm for Keith Jarrett's organ music, an organ improvisation may also appear.

Arvon Attendees Anonymous

2006-07-30T00:01:00.000+01:00

Today I finally managed to get to Gill's in Oxford for a writing afternoon. Gill was one of the attendees on last October's brilliant Arvon with Lindsay Clarke and Adam Thorpe at Ted Hughes' old house Lumb Bank. It was a great experience, and a great group - everyone really got on well (as I think I may have said elsewhere on this blog, but if not, I'm saying it now!) Since then, Gill has been holding reunion afternoons at her house, but scheduling hassles have prevented me from attending until now.

It was a good session. I took along the latest version of the beginning of Elias, which now sees our main character, Jacob, in a coach on the way to see a 'sea monster' at Beverwijk (actually a beached whale, which washed up there on 20 December 1601, according to Simon Schama's Embarassment of Riches). I did a bit of a rehash last night after coming back from the pub, which seemed to go down well. I feel like I'm at last on the right track.

Gill's, Jo's and Kay's work was good, too. I look forward to reading more of it. And I also met Gill's partner Rob, who not only used to live with Richard Leigh, who gave me some help when I was writing The Templars, but also loves Andrei Rublev.

Getting in the Zone

2006-06-02T00:23:00.000+01:00

The Zone of course calls to mind, for me at least, Tarkovsky and Stalker, but here I'm referring to the difficulties of getting into the right mindset to write a novel. Put simply, over the last month or so, it's been impossible, due to commitments to my book on Gnosticism and my new film.

Last month at Lindsay's group, I read some poems, rather than a new section of Elias, mainly because I didn't have a new section of the novel to read. We're meeting again tomorrow, and I suspect history will repeat itself.

Motto: don't take on too much at the same time! I thought I could handle it all, but I'm afraid to say, men in white coats have been spotted outside my front window... And, to be honest, I'd rather go to a Cider Farm than a Funny Farm.

So this will mean that Elias is on ice for the forseeable future, although I do plan to get a draft finished somewhen between now and the end of time. Which, if the Mayan calendar holds true, gives me another 6 years. Is that long enough? As Lindsay said to me a while back, after praising the overall idea, 'it might take you years.' Maybe he knows a wise woman or two who could read my tea leaves and find out. Must ask him on Saturday...

Jacob van Ruisdael

2006-05-01T11:55:00.001+01:00

Just back from a trip to London, where I managed to see the Ruisdael show at the RA. In moments when I've been seeking inspiration - which is sadly all too frequent! - I've often consulted paintings to get me in the zone. Vermeer is of course the natural choice, and I have a copy of the small Complete Paintings that Taschen do.

Ruisdael is also certainly up there as one of my main inspirations for the 'look' of the novel, and the RA show is awesome. In particular, the painting of Haarlem with the bleaching grounds in the foreground made a huge impact on me. You can almost see the cloud shadows moving across the fields, and it suddenly struck me that perhaps it's a painting about time...

As a result, I'm sure bleaching grounds will be appearing in Elias, alongside other things that I saw in the show: streetlights (Amsterdam was the first European city to have them, in 1669), beacons for ships and something after Heath-Robinson's own heart, a mud-mill (used for draining land).

On TV Again

2006-04-18T15:01:00.000+01:00

Back to my old ways - another post not about the novel. I'm in a documentary called The Templar Code: Crusade of Secrecy, which is on the History Channel this Saturday, 22 April, at 2000. It's a two part thing, and you can find out more about it here.

It's all good fun. So much so, that I'm afraid to say that I don't look very serious in it at all... Oh, the joys of history and being mistaken for an expert!

Maybe I should start a Templar blog, as I'm thinking about a Templar novel, purely as an anti-Dan Brown strategic initiative, and also to make a lot of money...

Jesting Pilate

2006-03-07T10:16:00.000Z

'What is truth?', said Jesting Pilate. The different forms of truth have been brought home to me by two things over the last few days. One was reading an article by John Burnside about the process of writing his new book, a memoir called A Lie About My Father (it's brilliant, by the way). He said that what he remembered about his father may not necessarily be accurate - his truth, but no one else's, hence the title of the book.

The other was Saturday's session with Lindsay and the gang. I read the latest section of the novel, which concerns Elias's eventual appearance in the novel. I'd based the scene (only a first draft) on the account by Helvetius, from whose point of view we see the final part of the book. Helvetius's account, however, seems oddly undramatic. Although he tells the story, he simply relates it matter of factly. We have to remember that this is 1660s narration, and they did things like that in those days. But as Lindsay pointed out, the story needs to be told in a way that will engage the attentions and fire the imaginations of 21st century readers, so I now realise that, although Helvetius's account may be true, I need to deviate from his truth in order to find my own.

Truth, as John Burnside says, is not necessarily related to facts.