Elegies and Requiems
'Elegies and Requiems'
is the first major collection by this hugely talented writer and
contains eighteen stories, nine of which are unique to this volume.
Insole's work explores the mysterious world where a confluence of
objects and circumstance awake atavisms which draw the protagonists of
his tales into mysteries infinitely greater than themselves.
In 'The Golden Birds of Mariston', an artifact weaves its magic over
the population of a once mighty but now moribund city, while in
'Ancestral Rooms' a doll given to a child begins a process of
familiarial transformation for its giver.
The make-believe
world of childish imagination becomes something else in 'Blackthorn
Cottage', whilst in 'The Bellman' the intrusions are infinitely more
malignant.
Lovers of authors such as Bruno Schulz, Georges
Rodenbach, Arthur Machen and Mark Valentine will find much to admire in
Insole's delicately wrought symbolist prose style, whilst lovers of the
supernatural will admire the imagination and imagery of a writer who is
regarded by many as one of the most interesting authors to emerge in
recent years.
