Here, the
intersection of the timeless moment
Is England and nowhere. Never and always.
T.S. Eliot "Little Gidding"
There
is a real place called Binscombe, located in the south-east of
England; but these tales are not about that Binscombe. Instead
they concern another Binscombe, linked to the first by subtle --
but invisible -- bridges of 'what if?'. This other Binscombe is a place
rich in history, where strangers are welcome, but not always safe; a place
where watching a video is not as harmless a pursuit as it might seem,
where waiting for the bus may take much longer than expected, and where
churchgoers are advised to pay very close attention during the midnight
service on Christmas Eve. It is, in short, a place which takes its history
very seriously: and with good reason, as the unwary are apt to find out
to their cost.
No one takes Binscombe and its history more seriously than Mr Disvan,
whose encyclopaedic knowledge of the village and its past seems to have
been acquired through more than simply reading history books. We see Mr
Disvan and Binscombe life through the eyes of Mr Oakley, a newcomer whose
family has long had roots there, and who thus proves the truth of a local
saying: 'They always come back'. This local connection gives Mr Oakley
an opportunity to see some of the stranger side of life in Binscombe,
with Mr Disvan as his guide; but it also shows him that once you come
back, it isn't always possible to leave again.
This, the first of a two-volume set that collects all the tales in the
saga, contains fifteen stories, seven of which are published here for
the first time.
The
Ash-Tree Press
Hardback. 1998
ISBN
1
899562 40 0
£25.00