The Knowing: A thrilling horror fantasy

by David Graham

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  David Graham lives in an ostensibly carbon zero house, converted from a chicken shed, with his partner and two cats amid fields of maize, orchards of apples and poly-tunnels of strawberries. He would like to live entirely off the grid, but a 3G mobile network mast stands sneakily camouflaged as a tree in an adjacent field. When he isn’t enjoying the ever-changing Kentish landscape, gale-force winds and torrential rain, his mind is drawn to strange imaginings about what lurks beneath the surface of the world around him. This is his fifth novel.

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  The prequel to this book, entitled ‘The Screaming’, is published by Urbane Publications (eBook) and Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd (paperback).

  Matthew Smith kindly offered a different deal that breaks the mould of traditional publishing. I’m proud to be a member of the Urbane Publications family.

  Henry Andrews, Harmony Kent and Dayna Harding-Hubbard were my beta readers. They did a great job. Thanks, guys.

  Ben Way was my editor. He’s a stickler for accuracy and I really appreciated that.

  The characters Emma Jones, Sandra Evans and Dr Petros Kyriakides first appeared in a self-published novel entitled Looks Could Kill.

  The character of Dai Williams is borrowed with permission and adjustments from Paul Nagle’s excellent first novel, Bogus Focus. His music is still awesome.

  The character of Betty Williams is modelled on my Great Aunt Maggie, who used to inhabit a drafty, smoky farmhouse in North Wales that had a wheezy harmonium in the corner of the kitchen. She wasn’t a witch, but I’m sure she could have been in another life.

  I spent the first few years of my life in a bleak and windswept place called Borth, just outside Aberystwyth. My father was born and raised in Aber, too. And I play the harp. I hope that makes me sufficiently Welsh.

  My grandfather’s nanny Letitia Evans used to say ‘Jiw, jiw!’ at just about every opportunity. It stuck in my mind. It means ‘Good God!’, or words to that effect. The other thing I remember about her were her fantastic pommes frites. Oh, and accidentally hitting her on the forehead with a toy gun. Sorry, Letty bach.

  Secret tunnels under Buckingham Palace were mentioned in an article in The New Statesman in 1980 and have been the subject of urban myths ever since. Possible destinations include Green Park, Windsor Castle, Number 10 Downing Street, the Houses of Parliament and Scotland. An underground Tube stop has also been rumoured to exist. Buckingham Palace has always declined to comment. Boo.

  The Dynion Mwyn tradition was established between 1282 and 1525, by descendants of the Bards of Prince Llewellyn, the last true Prince of Wales. The pagan religion of Dynion Mwyn was revitalised in the 1950s and 60s by Taliesin einion Vawr. I’m not sure what they get up to, but I don’t think spinning orbs figure.

  The Association of Cymry Wiccae is an assembly of traditional Welsh covens in the US and has no connection with the Cymry Wiccae Association mentioned in this book. It’s curious that the ACW doesn’t exist in Wales itself, but the Welsh have always been adept at exporting themselves, viz. Y Wladfa, the Welsh colony in Patagonia.

  A Course in Welsh Witchcraft was indeed authored by Taliesin einion Vawr and Rhuddlwm Gawr. Sadly, it’s out of print.

  Shandy Dann was the name given to the effigy of a hideous old woman put on the bonfire every Halloween at Balmoral Castle. Queen Victoria was said to be much amused by the spectacle. A shandrydan is also the term given to a rickety, ramshackle vehicle like a hand-propelled cart. The name Siandi Da’aan is entirely made up.

  Scottish witches seem to have been frequently hunted down and burnt at the stake, which may have led them to be jealous of their more protected Welsh rivals. Life ain’t fair.

  The Third Level of Reality: A Unified Theory of the Paranormal by Percy Seymour (Cosimo, Inc., 2003) is one example of surprisingly many attempting to explain abnormal phenomena in terms of particle physics. I haven’t read it, but it just goes to prove we’re all thinking along similar bidirectional lines.

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