Synopsis
'My name,' he says, 'is Melchizedek. I am old and young at once, standing at the end of the world and its beginning, the servant, priest and scribe of the Most High God.' He holds out the scroll. 'Write, Julie,' he says. 'But Sir, I have no pen.' 'Write, write, write. Become what thou art.' He hands me the scroll. It's warm to my touch. 'Surely,' I think. 'This can only mean one thing ...' Turbulent teenager, Julie Carlton, finds happiness and peace through her storyteller father's vast reservoir of Gaelic, Greek and Welsh mythology. His sudden death, however, plunges Julie into turmoil. Struggling to differentiate between the mythic and the everyday, she becomes captivated by the enigmatic Ambrosius Carlisle and joins his artistic community, Constantine's Chambers, with consequences both terrifying and transformative. John Fitzgerald's debut novel, a contemporary Grail quest set in Liverpool and Manchester, will resonate with readers of (among others) C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, Alan Garner, Rosemary Sutcliff, William Golding and Susan Cooper. It explores the trauma of bereavement, the inner drama of adolescence and the contested (and sometimes questionable) terrain where religion, mythology and politics collide. The book is a fictional meditation on the visionary impulse and the search for meaning, purpose and direction in a world which often seems to militate against such concepts.
About the Author
John Fitzgerald lives and works in Manchester. He holds Masters degrees in Modern European History (University of Manchester, 2009) and Creative Writing with Pedagogy (Manchester Metropolitan University, 2015). He has written previously on the relationship between the French Resistance and existential thought, and is currently working on a critical study of Rosemary Sutcliff's Roman novels. John was a Manchester City Centre Tour Guide between 2006 and 2010. He has over twenty years work experience in Higher Education and the Arts. His long-term goal is to become a spiritual director and retreat giver. He has a particular interest in the relationship between faith and the Arts, especially with regards to the writings of C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien and Charles Williams, as well as the films of Andrei Tarkovsky. John presented a creative writing workshop at Manchester Cathedral in July 2014, entitled, 'A Day of Imaginative Writing with The Inklings.' He has also devised a ten-week Modern History course for adult learners, 'War, Revolution and Peace: Europe 1914-2014.'
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