Reading The Ocean at the End of the Lane ...

The engine of Mike's customised Golf was a shining marvel - it thrummed and roared with awesome power - when you were being driven at speed you thought you were in the cockpit of a Messerschmitt 262 - 

Mike would race his Golf at night along floodlit urban motorways - other bold Golf drivers would try in vain to overtake him - 

Mike gave me a copy of Neverwhere - I read it in one sitting - I'd always been aware of that other worlds existed - I longed to meet the Lady Door - 

This week I read The Ocean at the End of the Lane - I'd taken the book with me to Hadrian's Wall - 

Once again, I read the book as if I were gulping down a bumper of False Bay Pinotage or chilled Sancerre - but this time, I was far more deeply moved - 

I sat barefoot in the garden, overwhelmed by what I'd read - the pain and the beauty of the fable filled my heart with a sweet anguish - 

I thought of my own childhood, of the mermaids and witches I'd found on the stairs - 

July 25 2914

Under the apple tree

The old School House

East Stoke