Synopsis
"Make the reader think the evil, make him think it for himself . . . " -Henry James
This first collection of tales by Rosalie Parker contains eight stories that explore the uncanny in the modern world. As Glen Cavaliero observes in his introduction, "like all good stories of the preternatural, these in The Old Knowledge have a subversive effect." In them, "the world of logical, predictable reality is seen to be at risk from rejected modes of knowledge which can thwart the materialist and victimise those innocents who stumble into another order of reality."
In "The Rain", Geraldine heads to the North for a holiday she hopes will provide a welcome break from her busy city life, only to suffer a complicated and enigmatic distortion of her usual world-view. The narrator of "In the Garden" strays into new pastures while explaining her theory of gardening. In "Chanctonbury Ring", the well-meaning protagonist, helping a lady in distress, gets rather more than he bargained for. The temporary schoolteacher in "The Supply-Teacher" elicits altruism from her class, whilst, in "The Old Knowledge", a group of archaeologists called in to excavate a prehistoric round barrow have to negotiate local interventions. In "The Cook's Story" a Gothic country house provides the setting for a modern tale of mystery.
Do not expect blood-and-guts, wraiths or revenants: these stories hold a different kind of terror. "Their unostentatious magic is of an insidious kind; and like the protagonist of the title story, is liable to exert itself in disconcerting ways."
Contents
Introduction by Glen Cavaliero
The Rain
Spirit Solutions
In the Garden
Chanctonbury Ring
The Supply Teacher
The Old Knowledge
The Cook's Story
The Picture
Acknowledgements
Rosalie Parker was born and grew up on a farm in Buckinghamshire, but has lived subsequently in Stockholm, Oxford, Dorset, Somerset, Sheffield and Sussex. She took degrees in English Literature and History, and Archaeology, working first as an archaeologist before returning to her first love of books. Rosalie is co-proprietor and editor of the independent publishing house, Tartarus Press, and lives in the Yorkshire Dales with her partner, the writer and publisher Ray Russell, their son and two cats. Visit her website at: www.tartaruspress.com/rmp1.htm
From Publishers Weekly
The eight stories in this beguiling first collection are full of apprehension and mysteries whose solutions often dangle just out of reach of the characters. In "The Rain," a single woman's holiday visit to a small town turns nightmarish when the locals turn on her for some obscure violation of their customs. "Chanctonbury Ring" tells of an archeologist who encounters at the site of two ancient Roman temples a teenage girl and baby who, as the narrator comes to realize, belong to an earlier time. The title story, which also features an archeological excavation, is narrated by a woman who clearly knows more about the ruins that remain unearthed at a local burying ground than she lets on to either the interloping archeologists or to the reader. Although some of the stories end so ambiguous as to be anticlimactic, Parker shows considerable skill at creating dramatic tension and moods of menace that will appeal to fans of subtly told tales of the macabre. (Sept.)
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