tjj
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'Sight Unseen'
Jun 26, 2017, 09:48
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I'm in a reading group which often challenges me to read something I wouldn't otherwise pick up. The current book is anything by Robert Goddard - I chose 'Sight Unseen' which starts "It begins at Avebury ..." How could I resist.
https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-440-24280-2
What bothers me though, is that while the author gets all the other details about Avebury correct (the Red Lion, Green Street, Silbury House) he refers to the Cove stones as the Adam and Eve stones. What takes place by these stones is integral to the plot. How can I let this little mistake undermine the rest of the novel - but somehow it does. Does this make me an anorak?
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nigelswift
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Re: 'Sight Unseen'
Jun 26, 2017, 10:25
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Seriously June, you're here.
I rest my case.
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Evergreen Dazed
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Re: 'Sight Unseen'
Jun 26, 2017, 10:30
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tjj wrote: I'm in a reading group which often challenges me to read something I wouldn't otherwise pick up. The current book is anything by Robert Goddard - I chose 'Sight Unseen' which starts "It begins at Avebury ..." How could I resist.
https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-440-24280-2
What bothers me though, is that while the author gets all the other details about Avebury correct (the Red Lion, Green Street, Silbury House) he refers to the Cove stones as the Adam and Eve stones. What takes place by these stones is integral to the plot. How can I let this little mistake undermine the rest of the novel - but somehow it does. Does this make me an anorak?
One of the 'Adam and Eve' stones is part of a cove. Perhaps thats what the author was referring to?
One time I was walking along Bray St I got talking to an old boy, a local, and he told me that locals always used to refer to Adam and Eve as the King and Queen. I'd never heard that before.
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Sanctuary
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Re: 'Sight Unseen'
Jun 26, 2017, 10:46
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tjj wrote: I'm in a reading group which often challenges me to read something I wouldn't otherwise pick up. The current book is anything by Robert Goddard - I chose 'Sight Unseen' which starts "It begins at Avebury ..." How could I resist.
https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-440-24280-2
What bothers me though, is that while the author gets all the other details about Avebury correct (the Red Lion, Green Street, Silbury House) he refers to the Cove stones as the Adam and Eve stones. What takes place by these stones is integral to the plot. How can I let this little mistake undermine the rest of the novel - but somehow it does. Does this make me an anorak?
About a mile outside the main circle of the henge and on the line of the Beckhampton Avenue stand two large stones. With some interesting lichens adorning their surface they are known as the Longstones (also known locally as"Adam & Eve"). The larger of them, according to a drawing made by William Stukeley, is the surviving component of a cove similar in structure to that in the north circle of the henge; the other belongs to the avenue. Recent excavations have confirmed the existence of this cove.
(Avebury - A Present from the Past)
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tjj
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Edited Jun 26, 2017, 23:24
Re: 'Sight Unseen'
Jun 26, 2017, 20:27
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Evergreen Dazed wrote:
One of the 'Adam and Eve' stones is part of a cove. Perhaps thats what the author was referring to?
One time I was walking along Bray St I got talking to an old boy, a local, and he told me that locals always used to refer to Adam and Eve as the King and Queen. I'd never heard that before.
Thanks ED, that's interesting, I didn't know that about the Adam and Eve stones. The author obviously has an in depth knowledge of Avebury and Avebury Trusloe - had probably spent some time talking to the older locals, possibly even the man you mention above. The stones he is talking about in his novel are definitely the Cove stones you can see clearly from the Red Lion.
Nigel :) wave!
Roy, thanks. Yes I did know the Adam and Eve stones are the only two 'exposed' standing stones on the Beckhampton Avenue. I used to spend quite a lot of time over there with people from the now defunct Avebury Forum.
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nigelswift
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Re: 'Sight Unseen'
Jun 26, 2017, 22:07
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I went to look at the exposed Beckhampton Avenue stones. Reddish, I seem to remember. I had a fantasy thought, to hire a local digger that night and put one of them upright, to leave EH with an ethical quandary about whether to knock it down like it used to be or leave it upright like it used to be before that.
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thesweetcheat
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Re: 'Sight Unseen'
Jun 26, 2017, 22:10
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Perhaps they'd have to lean it over at 45 degrees.
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nigelswift
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Re: 'Sight Unseen'
Jun 26, 2017, 22:13
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Well they do decide everything by committee!
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thesweetcheat
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Re: 'Sight Unseen'
Jun 26, 2017, 22:24
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There would obviously need to be consultation and a public enquiry first.
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Wild Wooder
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Re: 'Sight Unseen'
Jun 27, 2017, 12:45
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When all's said and done it's a bloody good page turner, as are all of his IMHO.
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