The Dark Isle
Page 34
‘In the darkness,’ he whispered, ‘there is light.’
They waited in silence. The darkness complete. She fumbled in her pocket, felt the tile that Anna had given her, removed it and dropped it gently into the side chamber, the ancient resting place of the dead. Let it go. The tale of the Fisher King, over. A tear dribbled down her cheek. The shortest day and the sun was sinking, moving west, dropping below the clouds, between the slopes of Hoy’s hills. And the last rays of the setting sun shone across the water, over the meadow, through the tomb’s long tunnel, and illuminated the grey stone of the furthest wall.
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Author’s Note
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Author’s Note
THANK YOU TO Laura and Maddy and everybody at Head of Zeus for suggestions and support. Thank you to Oli for advice and encouragement at the right moments. Thanks to Mark for suggesting the Earl’s Bu, and Guy for his memories of Bonnington Square in the eighties (those were the days...). Big thanks to my mum for being encouraging from the beginning to the end. Biggest thanks to Andy and my daughters.
THE BOOK’S TITLE was originally inspired by the beautiful folk song Hoy’s Dark and Lofty Isle. John Bremner’s memoir, Hoy, the Dark Enchanted Isle (Bellavista Publications 1997) was a lovely read and a useful guide to life in Hoy. I have devoured everything I could find that George Mackay Brown has written about Hoy, including the collections of his weekly columns for the Orcadian. Many thanks to the staff at the wonderful Orkney Library – I found details about the Earl’s Bu excavations in the Orkney Archive. Background information on the history of MI5 and Special Branch comes from The Spying Game by Michael Smith (Politico’s Publishing 2003).
About Clare Carson
CLARE CARSON is an anthropologist and works in international development, specialising in human rights. Her father was an undercover policeman in the 1970s. She lives in Brighton.
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First published in the UK in 2017 by Head of Zeus Ltd.
Copyright © Clare Carson, 2017
The moral right of Clare Carson to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
This is a work of fiction. All characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
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A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN (HB) 9781786690548
ISBN (XTPB) 9781786690555
ISBN (E) 9781786690531
Jacket design: kid-ethic.com
Jacket images: Shutterstock
Author photograph by Charlotte Macpherson
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