by Emma Stonex
The ocean air was raw and clean in her chest, as new as an early morning.
‘We’re not sure of the truth, are we,’ she said. ‘Isn’t that the point? Some mysteries just aren’t meant to be known. I’m talking about Arthur and the others, of course I am. But I’m talking about the rest of it too. You know. The rest. Why we do it. Why we strike a match. Why we built any lighthouses in the first place and every other thing you think on a good day might save a life. We’re not the ones who decide, but we wouldn’t be human if we didn’t set these attempts in place. Put in as many lights as we can, while we’re here. Get them shining bright. Keep them shining when the dark comes in.’
He watched her.
‘Go on then,’ he said.
‘What?’
‘You write the ending.’
He took a sheaf of pages and threw them into the air.
‘What are you doing?’
Papers soared recklessly against the wind, scores of them in flight, bursting wings of white brilliance against sky and sea, drifting and scattering and dancing down to the water.
Helen laughed in shocked exhilaration as she followed his lead, flinging sheet after sheet extravagantly, like lottery winners showered by bank-note confetti.
She watched the pages disperse, gently rocking on the waves in every direction.
‘Thank you, Helen.’
The dog came back to her. Dan folded his bag and set off up the path.
As he reached the cemetery gate, Helen turned to see two figures standing beneath the yew. She would know them anywhere, like members of her family.
The writer stopped, to check she’d seen.
She dared to step closer, worried the women would disappear if she did.
But the nearer she drew, the clearer the vision became. Michelle’s arm was linked through Jenny’s, her expression soft and optimistic. Jenny looked the same as she always had. She hadn’t grown old. People didn’t, when you grew old beside them.
After a moment, Jenny raised her hand in hello.
Helen did the same.
Before she went to meet them, she turned to take one last look at the Maiden. The lighthouse was only the faintest line from here, a grey spike on a milk-green sea. The wind carried in; perhaps it had touched her face first, saltwater on both, drying in the fledgling sun. She knew the tower was empty, but her heart thought different. It always would. She could picture the Principal Keeper as clearly as if she were there; he was climbing the stairs, his face lifted to the light. Up to the lantern without touching the rail; further and further he travelled from the point of his dark descent, until all that was left, all that filled him, was a star almost done with its twinkling.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I owe a debt of gratitude and admiration to the book Lighthouse by oral historian Tony Parker, whose interviews with lighthouse keepers and their families illuminated the way I wished to set about this novel and the telling of this tale. Parker’s portrayal of a vanished way of life makes understood not just the occupation of lighthouse-keeping but also the wisdom and humanity of those who dedicated their lives to the service.
Some of the anecdotes and experiences of life on a sea tower are based on recollections belonging to real keepers. For this insight into the hearts and minds of that community, I have the following memoirs and anthologies to credit: Ceaseless Vigil by William John Lewis, It Was Fun While It Lasted by A. J. Lane, Stargazing by Peter Hill, and the keepers’ voices in The Lighthouses of Trinity House by Richard Woodman and Jane Wilson. I drew further inspiration from The Lighthouse Stevensons by Bella Bathurst, Lighthouse Construction and Illumination by Thomas Stevenson, Henry Winstanley and the Eddystone Lighthouse by Adam Hart-Davis, Eddystone: The Finger of Light by Mike Palmer, the Lore podcast episode ‘Rope and Railing’ by Aaron Mahnke, and the poem ‘Flannan Isle’ by Wilfrid Wilson Gibson.
Thanks to my brilliant editors Francesca Main, Andrea Schulz and Iris Tupholme for their insight, intuition and improvements to the manuscript; and to Sophie Jonathan for steering it so ably, and with such cleverness and kindness, out to sea. To the teams at Picador in the UK, Viking in the US and HarperCollins in Canada for their enthusiasm and expertise, in particular Jeremy Trevathan, Camilla Elworthy, Katie Bowden, Katie Tooke, Laura Carr, Roshani Moorjani, Claire Gatzen, Nicholas Blake, Lindsay Nash, Carolyn Coleburn, Molly Fessendon, Lindsay Prevette, Kate Stark, Nidhi Pugalia, Sona Vogel, Bel Banta, Amanda Inman, Meighan Cavanaugh, Claire Vacarro, Tricia Conley, Sharon Gonzalez, Nayon Cho, Jason Ramirez and Julia McDowell.
To my agent Madeleine Milburn and all at MMLA, especially Anna Hogarty, Liane-Louise Smith, Georgina Simmonds and Giles Milburn. Maddy, you’ve known this story for as long as we’ve known each other. Much like the lighthouses when they were a glimmer in a Stevenson’s eye, many drafts were built and fell, but we got our lantern shining in the end.
Mimi Etherington, Rosie Walsh and Kate Reardon, thank you: I hope you know what for. I’m grateful to Kate Wilde, Vanessa Neuling, Caroline Hogg, Chloe Setter, Melissa Lesage, Jennifer Hayes, Joanna Croot, Emily Plosker, Sam Jenkins, Chioma Okereke, Laura Balfour, Sarah Thomas, Jo Robaczynski and Lucy Clarke for their friendship and support. Love to my sister Victoria, my nephew Jack, and my parents, Ian and Katharine, to whom this book is dedicated.
Thank you, Mark, for encouraging me towards my beloved lighthouse, in life and imagination. But most of all, to Charlotte and Eleanor, who are forever my brightest lights.
THE
LAMPLIGHTERS
Emma Stonex was born in 1983 and grew up in Northamptonshire. Before becoming a writer, she worked as an editor at a major publishing house. The Lamplighters left harbour after a lifelong passion for lighthouses and everything to do with the sea; it has been translated into more than twenty languages. She lives in the South West with her family.
First published 2021 by Picador
This electronic edition published 2021 by Picador
an imprint of Pan Macmillan
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ISBN 978-1-5290-4733-2
Copyright © Emma Stonex Ltd 2021
Cover illustration © Max Ellis
Author photo © Melissa Lesage
Cover design by Katie Tooke, Picador Art Department
The right of Emma Stonex to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Grateful acknowledgement to the trustees of the Wilfrid Gibson Estate for permission to quote the lines here.
The epigraph here, ‘Two different men; I’ve been two men so long now’ is from Lighthouse by Tony Parker (Eland Publishing, 2005).
‘A Whiter Shade of Pale’, quoted here, lyrics by Keith Reid, published by Onward Music Limited, Roundhouse, 212 Regents Park Road Entrance, London NW1 8AW
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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
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