Illumination now available at the Kobo store
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Just a quick note to say that, after Amazon and Smashwords, Illumination is now available for the Kobo ebook reader at the Kobo store. Just click here to go to the page. Watch for other estores coming soon.
Guardian slideshow featuring Newborough
The Guardian website has just put up a lovely audio slideshow about the new Welsh Coastal Path, the second half of which covers Newborough and Llanddwyn, with some beautiful moody photography, and snow on the mountains of Snowdonia – a wonderful evocation of this wild place. Click here to take a look.
The Locations of Illumination 3: Bangor Cathedral
Bangor Cathedral is very old – St. Deiniol founded his first cell on the site in the early 6th century. He was consecrated as a Bishop in 546 and his church became a cathedral. It was attacked (and in some cases destroyed) in 1073 by Vikings, 1210 by King John’s men and 1402 in the Glyndwr rebellion. Much of the present building dates from the 16th century, with Sir George Gilbert-Scott’s restoration in the late 19th century, and the central tower completed in the 1960s.
Houses in Illumination
Warning: Spoilers!
In Illumination, the houses that Uncle Toby and Professor Pritchard-Jones live in are quite important clues to their characters. Hawlings has an imposing, but quite cold and frightening exterior; inside it’s dark and full of secrets, just like its owner. Nemeton, by contrast, is very different – the Tudor mansion itself is empty, and the ‘real’ Nemeton is the grove of oaks in the grounds. The character who lives here presents a respectable front (like the Tudor house provides for the grove), but his real nature is unorthodox, romantic, warm and closely allied to all things natural. So if you want to know a character’s true nature, look at their house!
I chose the name Hawlings as a nod to the book that was partly responsible for inspiring the story, John Masefield’s The Box of Delights. In that book, the mansion is called Seekings, but the wise old man of the book is called Cole Hawlings; a good character, so perhaps it’s a bit unsuitable to name the house after him. However, like the old man, the house in Illumination is ancient and full of secrets.
Nemeton, however, is a very old Celtic word meaning a sacred grove or a place of sanctuary. In Illumination, the house is both these things. You can find out more here.
The Locations of Illumination 2: Llanfaglan Church
Llanfaglan Church across the fields
One of the more romantic, true-life elements in Illumination is the pirate’s grave in the churchyard of St. Baglan’s church at Llanfaglan. I’m not sure where I first heard about it, but I investigated it in the autumn of 2009. The church itself is outside the village of Llanfaglan. When I arrived, I couldn’t see a church anywhere, and had to ask a passerby, an older inhabitant who clearly knew about the history of the place, as he said “Looking for the pirate’s grave, are you?” He directed me out of the village to the very edge of the Menai Straits. A couple of times, I thought I’d taken a wrong turn, until I spotted the lonely church standing in a field. Like the characters in the book, I trudged up a ploughed field, and into the graveyard.
The Ogham and Welsh alphabets
Just a quick post to link to the Wikipedia site about Ogham, in case you’re wondering what this ancient alphabet looks like. To get the puzzle in the university library to work, I had to find a letter in the Welsh alphabet made up of two characters, that was also in the Ogham alphabet, and that letter was ‘ng’. Thanks to Eiry at the School of Welsh in Cardiff University for helping me out with that one. For those interested in the Welsh alphabet, here’s Wikipedia again – where would we be without it?
A visit to the Making of Harry Potter tour
Working in the leisure industry, I was lucky enough to attend a preview of the new Making of Harry Potter attraction a few days ago. I absolutely love the Potter books – in my humble view, JK Rowling has created the best-realised imagined world in children’s fiction, meticulously crafted and vividly written. With Rowling announcing recently that she’s moving on to writing specifically for adults, the visit was a bit of an ‘end of an era’ for me.
Higher resolution map
The Illumination map, by Martin Williams. Click to enlarge.
I decided quite late in Illumination‘s gestation period that these kinds of books should really have a map, showing the locations featured in the story, and their relative positions. Children love maps, and I love drawing, so why not? It does make you realise that it’s quite a long cycle ride from Anglesey to Caernarfon, and undoubtedly there’s a bit of artistic licence to move the plot along. But the map, especially the detail, isn’t that easy to see on reading devices, so I thought I’d put a larger, higher resolution version here. If you’re wondering why the scroll on the right (with the title) is a funny shape, I guess you haven’t got to that part of the book yet! For the graphic artists out there, the map was drawn on A4 Bristol board, using Winsor & Newton ink and Series 7 brush (size 00), and lettered in Photoshop using Blackadder ITC Std font. Click on the image for the large version.
Alan Garner to conclude Alderley Edge sequence
The Guardian is reporting that the Master of fiction rooted in British mythology, Alan Garner, is about to publish the third and final book in the series that began with The Weirdstone of Brisingamen. Great stuff! It’s due in August. Follow the link above for more information.