Red Shift | Litsy

My son was up in Chester on a training course today, and as we arranged to meet for tea, I took the opportunity of visiting Bartholmey beforehand, as it's a setting in Garner's "Red Shift", which I read earlier this week.
St. Bertoline's church was the scene of a massacre perpetrated by Royalists in the Civil War, which is a key scene in the novel, and the effigies that 20th century MCs Tom and Jan have to persuade the rector to show them are ⬇️

Bookwomble ... now on view, though locked behind gates within the church. It was a little strange to be at the scene of such a vividly portrayed history event.
There was a lovely Harvest Festival display inside, and a peaceful atmosphere that held nothing of the past tragedy.
One of the architectural curiosities was the blocked up remnant of a Norman doorway.
⬇️ 1w

Bookwomble Afterwards, I got lost on a circular walk, was low-speed pursued by a herd of curious cows, and headed back to my car with another failed expedition to my credit 😄 1w

IriDas Im glad you escaped the cows. 🐮 😊 1w

See All 8 Comments

Leftcoastzen An adventure! 1w

Bookwomble @IriDas @Leftcoastzen I was definitely more nervous than the cows were. They were all adolescents and I think they just expecting me to be bringing them feed, so curious rather than aggressive 🐄😄 1w

AnnCrystal 👏🏼🤩👍🏼 What a gorgeous adventure 💫. 1w

BarbaraBB I was in Chester last week. Such a coincidence. Hadn‘t been there before but what a beautiful place! 1w

Bookwomble @BarbaraBB I noticed you were in Chester the same time my wife was there for a conference. I hadn't expected to visit myself, and then my son suggested we meet up as he was there for his job. Synchronicity! It's a lovely city, which I need to go back to and explore properly. Glad you enjoyed your visit 😊 1w

41 likes8 comments

Bookwomble

Red Shift (Revised) | Alan Garner

pick

Where to start with a book like this? It's been said of Garner's work that it's complex, not complicated, and that seems fair.
There's a simplicity in presenting much of the story as dialogue, but as the time periods of the present day, 17th and 2nd centuries overlap and intertwine, there's more going on than is immediately apparent.
I picked this up in the Children's section, but this is far from suitable for a child, in terms of the interplay ⬇️

Bookwomble ... of dialogue, the swearing, the references to sex, rape used as a weapon of war, murder, beheadings, and themes of isolation, alienation and the breakdown of personality.
In the Romano-British period, we are with survivors of the historically mysterious Legio IX Hispania, the Ninth Legion who disappeared from Imperial records, possibly (or possibly not) in an uprising of the Celtic Brigantes tribe. Garner translates their Roman soldierly ⬇️ 2w

Bookwomble ... talk into that of modern day special forces, seeking to survive in the hostile territory that became Cheshire by "going tribal". One of their number has fits of violently psychotic behaviour, replicated in the 17th century by a Cheshire villager, living in the same area, and further linked by possession of a Bronze Age stone axe. The historical Civil War Barthomley Massacre of 1643 is the setting of these episodes, and while not explicitly ⬇️ 2w

Bookwomble ... named, the Royalist leader of the massacre, John, 1st Lord Byron, proves that "mad, bad, and dangerous to know" ran in that family.
In 1973, Tom and Jan, late teens in a long distance relationship, have found the axe and keep it as a talisman to feel connected with each other. Tom's disintegrating mental health resonates with his historical counterparts, and I think there's a hint of metempsychosis in their shared visions.
⬇️ 2w

Bookwomble Then there are the possible autobiographical elements of Garner's own experiences of being bipolar, growing up in this exact area, and, like modern Tom, being the first of his family to enter higher education, and feeling alienated from them as a result.
There's no neat conclusion, and it's simultaneously bewildering, frustrating and marvelous! 4.75♦️ 2w

32 likes4 comments

Bookwomble

Red Shift (Revised) | Alan Garner

Next up, Alan Garner's Red Shift: a time-slipping tale of generational trauma set in his native Cheshire, from the present day (as it was in 1973), to the English Civil War period, to Roman-occupied Britain.
Garner's love of astronomy is embedded in the title, and the opening dialogue about the relativistic motions of the planet, solar system, galaxy and local galactic cluster sets the scene for the permeability of space-time 🌌
#BookmarkMatching

LeahBergen Nice! 🔖👏 2w

Bookwomble @LeahBergen Mrs. B went to Chester last week and got the bookmark for me, which was timely as Chester's in Cheshire, and that's where Red Shift is set 😊 2w

33 likes1 stack add2 comments

Severnmeadows

Red Shift | Alan Garner

What was awaiting me from Blackwell‘s when I got home 😊 Read Red Shift when it was published in 1973: this copy‘s for a grandson (but I‘ll reread it first). And looking forward to A Life of Adventure....

21 likes