Walcot
A story charting the events of the twentieth century through the eyes of the Fielding family, whose fortunes are altered irrevocably…The Brian Aldiss collection includes over 50 books and spans the author’s entire career, from his debut in 1955 to his more recent work.On the glorious sands of the North Norfolk coast, Steve, the youngest member of the Fielding family, plays alone. But are these halcyon days?War is looming, and things will never be the same again. This book, described by Brian as his magnum opus, charts the fortunes of the Fielding family throughout the twentieth century.
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BRIAN ALDISS
Walcot
HarperVoyager
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
This ebook first published in Great Britain by HarperVoyager in 2015
Copyright © Brian Aldiss 2009
First published in Great Britain by Goldmark 2009
Cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2015
Cover photographs © Shutterstock.com
Brian Aldiss asserts the moral right to
be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the authorâs imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.
Source ISBN: 978-0-00-748226-9
Ebook Edition © December 2015 ISBN: 978-0-00-748227-6
Version: 2015-10-19
God forbid that we should give out a dream of our own imagination for a pattern of the world.
â Francis Bacon
Novum Organum
Contents
Chapter 5: âBloody Cripples!â
Chapter 8: Kendal, of All Places
Chapter 10: A Slight Change of Plan
Chapter 11: Carnage on the Road
Chapter 12: âWar or no War â¦â
Chapter 13: âWeâre Okay Here â¦â
Chapter 16: A Lesson in Aristotle
Chapter 17: The Wehrmacht Pays a Visit
Chapter 3: Christmas at Gracefield
Chapter 4: âPlease Not to Shoot Usâ
Chapter 11: A Break in Torremolinos
Chapter 12: The Disastrous Party
Chapter 13: On the Grand Canal
Chapter 14: Elizabeth Sips Her Wine
Chapter 15: âI Must Love Abbyâ
Chapter 16: A Modernizing Government
Chapter 1: A New Line of Thought
Chapter 4: âWe Donât Want no Troubleâ
Chapter 5: Some Family Conversation
Chapter 8: Supper at Sandy Bassett
Chapter 10: Violet in Her Bath
Chapter 11: Flight to Austin, Texas
Chapter 12: The Future of the World
Chapter 13: An Arrival From Venice
Chapter 14: The Known Unknowns
âYou are free men, whatever that means.â So says Steve Fielding to some German soldiers, whose lives he spares during the closing events of a world war, in the freezing cold Ardennes. But Steve, as we learn in this complex unfolding of a life, is himself not a free man.
We find him first of all as a child, playing alone on a Norfolk beach â the beach that gives this complex tale its title.
Already, like a tide, doubt enters his life. Is he in danger? High on the dunes, a woman, almost a stranger, looks to see if Steve is safe.
So the question arises, to be solved if possible: do Steveâs parents wish to get rid of him? In love, in war or peace â or in an uncertain interlude between the two â the uncertainty continues to tease.
As this delightful and complex story unfolds, the reader meets new astonishments and some strange old events.
Questions remain, but now thereâs beloved Verity â and a cheetah â and of course the sort of unexpected we all expect to meet.
A long and intriguing story unfolds before us.
Brian W. Aldiss
Oxford, 2015
At high tide, the sea lapped close to the dunes, leaving little sand to be seen. The remaining sand above the high tide mark was as fine as sifted salt. Spikes of marram grass grew from it like quills from a porcupine. No stones were visible. The small waves, white and grey, seethed against their limits. How lonely it was, this wild coastline.
When the tides began their retreat, they revealed first a line of pebbles, grey and black. The pebbles gleamed like jewels until the sun dried them, when they became as grey and inert as if they had grown rapidly old and died. Occasionally among the stones lay a small, dead crab, its up-turned belly the respectable white of death.
