The price promotion of these two books ends tomorrow!

The Initiate: Adventures in Sacred Chromatography and Heart of Albion: Tales from the Wondrous Head.

“Isn’t it odd how we keep circling the same concepts but from different angles.”

“The Beast Master harks back to Orpheus and his ability to tame wild animals with his lyre.”

“The Beast Master… More proof of a misspent youth.”

“The Lord of Animals is a bona fide leitmotif which occurs in traditional symbolism, myth, legend and story.”

“However that may be there is also a rather disastrous eighties film of the same name…”

“Which I may or may not have seen…the root Gil… as in Giles… and Gillian… and Gilgamesh …means Star and it may also be linked to Jewel .”

“There are three roundels presented on the Molloy court of arms: they owned the Manor of Kimble.”

“There are three gold pieces present on the pawnbrokers guild sign.”

“…”

“St Nicholas is the patron Saint of Pawn Brokers.”

“Gotcha…three bags of Gold…”

“…Three children resurrected after three nights, their tub of brine was a tub of dream.”

“St Giles is originally a French saint so he must have come across the channel with the Normans.”

“Gilgamesh was an Orpheus who went in search of his soul in the sea.”

“The Star of the Sea…”

“…the sea is merely our opaque view of the world…”

“I am so itching to get into this church.”

We quickly finish up and head up the alley leading to the graveyard of the church and my heart sinks. A man very obviously in the throes of a wedding is standing at the church porch. It is an undeniable hazard of Saturday church tapping and probably means we have no chance whatsoever of running the thumb over Salome today.

“They may have just finished up,” shouts Wen and starts to run towards the church porch…

I follow and overtake and as I gain the portal my heart sinks even further. The door is open and the church is buzzing with folk in their finery. The church warden notices our uncouth entry… well really… she could hardly have missed it as we stand forlornly in the doorway surveying the scene with crestfallen visages.

“Have you come to view the church?”

“We have but as you’re busy we’ll leave it for another day.”

“No, no please, the wedding doesn’t start until three so you still have time.”

It is what we now call a raid. And although at the time we thought this was the first, it is not all that different to what happened at Horsenden. A church not normally open… An event which allows unscripted entry… Severely limited time for the tapping… In some ways of course it proves to be a focus for the mind… and in others it simply leaves one yearning for the place to oneself and as much time as one could possibly wish for.

It is particularly harrowing for example when one notices a bodiless head in the wall painting and becomes reduced to hysterics. That kind of reaction is not normally understood by the great and the good of the community but such minor discrepancies aside, the wall painting is stunning and by far and away the most complete one we have seen to date. The sculptures are also exceptional and the windows too are worth a chapter to themselves… so we pick our way adroitly through the steadily amassing congregation and just as adroitly take our leave with thanks while the best man starts to cast anxious glances at the face of his wrist watch.

Wen congratulates the brother of the bride as we exit the graveyard which is a nice touch and one it has to be owned that I would not have thought of.

Back in the car we can hardly contain our excitement.

“Did you see the Heart in the Hand over the altar?”

“…Or the Hand that protects the Hind…”

“…and those windows…”

“…the wall painting is covered in stars…”

“…and the same symbols as on the robe of St Denis…”

“…it must be a French thing…”

“…and what about the little corbels…”

“…they look like they’re alive…”

“…one of them is winking…”

“…two of them are winking…”

Neither of us alludes to the most outstanding feature of the wall painting even though we have both seen it.

Indeed even though we spent the best part of five minutes staring at it and at it alone….In silence.

Some things cannot be addressed immediately.

It is a little like being in shock.

In fact that is it precisely.

The depiction of the beheading of St. John the Baptist which appears just below Salome ‘the crab’ is so shocking as to be unmentionable in polite company.

In any company anywhere…

It is quite simply… unthinkable…

To celebrate the launch of Giants Dance: Rhyme and Reason, Don and Wen’s third adventure in the landscape and mythology of England, we are running a Kindle Countdown Deal , saving up to 87% per book, on our two previous forays into the strange worlds that intertwine with ours.

You can download a free Kindle app for PC, Mac, android and other platforms that allows you to read the books available, even if you do not own a Kindle.. and there are thousands of books to choose from, including many classics, and hard-to-find volumes! With a huge catalogue of free, discounted and rare books to choose from it is a treasure trove for bookworms. You can download the free Kindle reading app for your device here in the UK, or here in the US.

The promotion runs from 9^th to 14^th of March on Amazon UK and Amazon.com.

Kindle Countdown Deals start at the lowest price and rise in increments for the duration of the promotion until they reach the normal sales price. This is a limited time offer and each book displays a counter with the current price and time remaining for that price.