The Fabric of Sin

fascinating The Mystery of Jack of Kent and the Fate of Owain Glyndwr, and John Scudamore, of Kentchurch Court.

The Duchy of Cornwall: like Merrily, I’ve never met the Man, but his land steward, David Curtis, was hugely helpful. Thanks also to Amanda Foster, of the Buckingham Palace press office and Mike Whitefield, Duchy-approved conservation builder, who described some of the problems facing Felix Barlow.

Exorcism: Peter Brooks provided crucial eleventh-hour assistance to Merrily as well as background information on other aspects of the investigation. Liz Jump, now curing souls in M. R. James’s birthplace, also described first-hand experience.

Hay-on-Wye bookseller and esotericist Tracy Thursfield came up with some crucial ideas and was always ready to talk them through, between customers, whenever I staggered disconsolately into Addyman Annex, and she and Ian Jardin lent me a couple of significant books.

From the ever-obliging British Society of Dowsers, thanks again to Richard Bartholomew, Ced Jackson, Helen Lamb and John Moss.

Watching the ingenious Gruff Rhys setting up his Candylion gig (the most wondrously whimsical album of 2007, by the way) showed me exactly what Lol was up against touring solo. This surely can’t go on.

Thanks also to Prof. Bernard Knight (forensic pathology), Jodie Lewis (archaeology), Simon Small (spirituality), Mari Roberts (film awards), Mark Owen and Terry Smith (Templars), journalists Nicola Goodwin and Dave Howard (background and crucial contacts) and Mark Worthing (teeth).

Oh … and not forgetting the Rennoldsons of Geordieland.

Bibliography also includes: The Knights Templar by Helen Nicholson (Sutton), The Knights Templar Revealed by Butler and Dafoe, The Dragon and the Green Man by Paul Broadhurst (Mythos), M. R. James, an informal portrait by Michael Cox (Oxford), Herefordshire, the Welsh Connection, by Colin Lewis (Carreg Gwalch), National Redeemer: Owain Glyndwr in Welsh Tradition by Elissa R Henken (Cornell), The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail by Baigent, Leigh and Lincoln (Cape), Beyond the Brotherhood by Martin Short (Grafton), Historic Harewood by Heather Hurley (Ross-on-Wye civic society) and Darker than the Deepest Sea — the Search for Nick Drake by Trevor Dann (Portrait).

Thanks, as ever, to Carol ‘I don’t buy this bit’ Rickman for intensive editing, inspiration in the darkest hours and making me get it right even at the expense of several eighteen-hour days, my agent Andrew Hewson, the almost paranormally laid-back Nic Cheetham for extending the deadline well beyond injury time, virtually feeding it page by page to ace copy-editor Nick Austin. And Krys and Geoff Boswell and Jack for maintaining the website www.philrickman.co.uk against all odds.