Some Books Used in the Research for Another Life

Here are just a few of the books used as reference and inspirational material in the writing of my new novel, Another Life.
Peter Ackroyd’s Albion, subtitled ‘the origins of the English imagination’ is nostalgic in its celebration of the historic ability to assimilate foreign influences in an inclusive, eclectic way.
Engraved Gardens, illustrated by four leading engravers, highlights the contrasts and eccentricity often found in large gardens between formal plantings, ‘garden rooms’, and their often ramshackle sheds created from discarded materials. This small book was one of the sources for the garden of nine rooms, each representing stages in the past, present and future life of my main protagonist.
Four of the books provided much of the essential detail of the history of the Green Man, paganism, witches marks and other ephemera to help form a coherent mythology with which to frame the story.
Mark O’Connell’s To Be a Machine describes how science and technology continue to develop solutions to repair our damaged and deteriorating bodies and minds: some for the good, others contentious.
And who could not fail to be influenced by the genius and imagination of the great David Lynch? The book Lynch on Lynch includes numerous informative and humorous insights into his creativity.