Yes, barely has my reviewing machinery had time to cool off after tackling an anthology inspired by W.B. Yeats (posh, or what?) here comes another one. Last September I mentioned Tom Johnstone's forthcoming collection from Omnium Gatherum. The author was kind enough to send me a PDF to review. Then I totally forgot about it over Christmas, like a nit. But now it's a new year and I am determined to do justice to this substantial book.
So, what's it all about? Well, let's blurb:
Wellsbourne’s a town like no other, an ordinary English seaside town where extraordinary things happen, a place of magic, mystery and madness. Here you’ll meet the woman stalked by drones and her own past, the politician who discovers the dark secret of the Green Man, the corpse collector with another self, the girl who menstruates yellow paint and the woman with the red, red hands. You’ll discover a garden that can disappear, boxes of books haunted by a dead writer and a 3D printer that can bring the dead back to life, though in a somewhat altered state. Wellsbourne welcomes careful drivers, but doesn’t necessarily let them leave again…
The 3D printer that can bring the dead back to life might ring a bell in your mind, gentle reader. Because the story, 'What I Found in the Shed', was published in ST #31, and a jolly good story it is. But let's start at the very beginning, with the introduction by Dr David Bramwell.
I began to read 'Haunting Strange Places' on the assumption that Dr Bramwell was a real person. Then I wondered if he was a fictional creation of the author. Then I looked him up and found he exists and is interested in psychogeography, among other things. Anyway, Dr Bramwell's playful introduction concerns the Wellsbourne, which is apparently 'Brighton's lost river'. Tom Johnstone and Dr Bramwell contributed to an anthology. Later (we are told) Johnstone claimed to have discovered an entire town called Wellsbourne. 'And with that he was gone... He left no trace but this strange collection of interconnected short fiction, if it is fiction.'
Perhaps we're dealing with metafiction, here. But whatever you call it, it's the book I'm going to review, Stay tuned for more revelations about a town that may not exist, but is already more celebrated in literature than most towns that do.
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