Book Reviews Information

A Ghost in Cornwall


This land is my memories. For two thousand years this valley has been mine alone.

I know every rock, every stream and every tree. I know the forces that shape this land and the people who inhabit it.

A billion years ago this land was a migratory trail for the animals of Western Europe. They roamed freely across the huge land of one continent. Millennia passed as the rivers washed silt to the ocean and the sun raised rain to the sky. At that time the mass of Eurasia was joined. The tectonic plates shifted and islands formed, raising proud, green peninsulas on green water, thrust out to the ocean. Long before my time the forces of nature battled along the coasts of Western Europe. From the Southwest, the Gulf Stream warmed and opened the land with summer heat. From the north, ice raged and cracked the rock of what would become the British Isles.

The land tells me it was an epic struggle. The generous heat of earth, venting her spleen, the wash of the water, cooling and circulating air. Rain succoured the land and ran back to the sea, endless cycles, repeating endlessly. The earth shifted, chasms opened and the sea swept in, submerging areas and separating the islands of Britain and Ireland from the mainland.

Spouts of boiling lava spewed from the molten centre of earth to create granite formations, a source of wonder till the end of time. A great rift opened up what is now the Bristol Channel and the Irish Sea, separating the land into distinct areas. Many characteristics still connect Brittany, Ireland, Wales, and Cornwall. Their joining can still be seen in place and people. But veins of power run through the sea, a matrix of energy criss-crosses the land and reaches out around our planet.

The Phoenicians, Egyptians and Greeks journeyed to these coasts even before the Iron Age, in search of Keltic wisdom, since long before the time of my youth. They followed the trail of gold and wisdom across the sea to Cornwall and then to Wales and Ireland. Later, tin trade followed these routes across Brittany and the journeys of wise men and saints to the west of land, the land of setting sun, of Gods and the quest for immortality that haunts us all. Ships and boats from the French and Spanish coasts often sailed to rivers on the south coast of Cornwall in search of trade and journey with the friendly and civilised Keltii, hopefully avoiding the pirates that have ravaged these coasts for millennia.

2000 years ago I was killed trying to save my mother from Portuguese raiders on the river, who stole the gold that came from Ireland. My story is located in the valley of one of these rivers, now called 'River Fowey'. It is a story that I have not been able to tell until now. My own story starts with the visit of Jesus of Nazareth to the river Fowey in 30 AD (according to the Julian Calendar and allowing for a seven year miscalculation). He was twenty three years old. He journeyed on a vision quest to the west-of-land, in search of the wisdom of the Keltii and union with his father spirit. I have spent much time thinking about this moment and my brief encounter with a man who claimed to be Son of God. For hundreds of years I puzzled at his smile, the light in his gaze. He had a quality of being rare in the extreme, an utter and unconditional compassion for all life.

Who am I? A ghost; Fintan, born 2000 years ago and caught in the matrix of nature unable to tell my story until now. I am here, waiting for you.

A Cornish ghost story, 'The Lily' available only at http://www.simonthescribe.co.uk/Lily.html


MORE RESOURCES:

ZDNet UK (blog)

Book review: The Geek Manifesto
ZDNet UK (blog)
By Book Reviews , 24 May, 2012 08:35 "I could not have written this book four or five years ago," Mark Henderson said in a recent visit to the Westminster Skeptics. "The problems were there, but the solutions were not. We are part of the solution.



Transworld Surf

Spring Book Reviews
Transworld Surf
By Justin Cote In this age of digital everything it's easy to browse your favorite web sites, read a few gossip columns, and call yourself “in the know.” That's great and all but lately I've rediscovered the joy of reading a good book.



The battle of book reviews
DAWN.com
IS the professional book reviewer an anachronism? In a recent Harvard Business School study of nonfiction reviews, assessments in mainstream media outlets and amateur ratings on Amazon largely converged. Surely we could chuck the review section and ...

and more »


The Guardian

Amazon consumer book reviews as reliable as media experts
The Guardian
... that even many published authors make disappointing reviewers. Not many people can do the particular thing I'm looking for, which is one reason why the Guardian's book pages are different from Amazon book reviews," he said. Woman reading book.

and more »


The Guardian

The battle of the book reviews
The Guardian
Is the professional book reviewer an anachronism? In a recent Harvard Business School study of nonfiction reviews, assessments in mainstream media outlets like this one and amateur ratings on Amazon largely converged. Assuming we can trust the ...
Everybody's an Expert, or, 1972 Amazon Reviewers Can't Be WrongMobyLives
Amazon reviews have as much weight as professional critics, says new studyDigitaltrends.com
Amazon book reviewers as reliable as professional critics, says Harvard researchThe Verge
Forbes
all 16 news articles »


The Atlantic

Could the Internet Save Book Reviews?
The Atlantic
His idea to review only the best books didn't spark a revolution in 1946 and probably won't start one any time soon, but the essay points to the fact that book reviews haven't changed very much in the past 65 years—until now.
Confessions of (Another) Book ReviewerTIME

all 2 news articles »


Critical eye: book reviews roundup
The Guardian
Kate Summerscale and Hilary Mantel both won major prizes and enjoyed spectacular sales figures with their previous books – the Samuel Johnson winner The Suspicions of Mr Whicher and the Booker winner Wolf Hall, respectively – and they happened to ...

and more »


AFP

'Fifty Shades' may be readers' summer romance
STLtoday.com
RT Book Reviews also uses a sensuality rating system. A review of "Fifty Shades of Grey" said its hero is 'sizzling hot" but the story "tame" compared to others in its genre. Here's how RT (formerly Romantic Times magazine) describes its current heat ...
Banned Book "Fifty Shades of Grey" at Fort Bragg LibraryPatch.com

all 398 news articles »


Publishers Weekly

San Francisco and Sacramento Book Reviews Start Monthly Children's Sections
Publishers Weekly
Heidi Komlofske, president and CEO of the four-year-old book reviews, says that in the past the publications would partner with local schools to have children review books for the yearly features. “That didn't work, though,” she says, “because the ...



Catholics and Jews in the 'New Republic'
Commonweal
There are two book reviews in the June 7 issue of the New Republic that may be of interest to Commonweal readers. The first is “The Border Crossers,” Peter E. Gordon's terrific and comprehensive review of John Connelly's book From Enemy to Brother: The ...

and more »

Google News

Home | SiteMap