Journal of Geomancy vol. 4 no. 3, April 1980
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In the earth mysteries authordom, the books on sale do not tell the tales of frustration, anger and failure often suffered by those who have reached the dubious glory of that hard slog: rejection slips, publishers’ abuse, critical disdain, the Inland Revenue’s insatiable greed, and even worse the reader who wants quick answers to 20 questions after he’s borrowed your book from his local public library.
This article is largely a personal one to put on record a catalogue of what might have been available with the Screeton name on the dust jacket, but in passing I will mention a few other writers whose work is in the geomantic vein.
In the case of John Michell, the one that got away was to have been a debut book or canals, but this project was abandoned due to a surfeit of inland waterways waterlogging of publishers’ lists. Anthony Roberts had so much trouble early on with his work on Atlantean Traditions that they appeared in home-produced volumes before Unicorn took it up and his Glastonbury compilation was only later acquired by Rider. Michael Balfour’s Leyhunting scheduled for 1977 Faber and Faber publication is conspicuous by its absence – for whatever reason *.
Paul Devereux and Andy York wrote a specialist book of geomantic, Fortean and folkloric lore on Leicestershire and its environs, but were unable to place the manuscript with a publisher. Nigel Pennick’s first geomancy book was published in Cambridge before Thames and Hudson accepted the widely-known work. He and Prudence Jones have now collected six rejection slips for their volume on German geomancy.
As many readers will be aware, I have had two books published, Quicksilver Heritage, a study of leys, by Thorsons (hardback) and Abacus (paperback), plus The Lambton Worm and Other Northumbrian Dragon Legends, a Zodiac House softback.
Following Quicksilver Heritage, Thorsons invited me to submit a synopsis for a UFO book and were most shocked that I did not favour an extraterrestrial explanation. I then began a compilation volume of articles from magazines on earth mysteries topics to be entitled Dynamic Prehistory, but abandoned this in favour of a comprehensive study of the folklore associated with prehistoric sites and comparable legends associated with modern edifices. All was going well until I discovered Janet and Colin Bord were also working on what seemed an identical project, which became The Secret Country. Nevertheless, I pressed ahead, only for us all to find L.V. Grinsell make a spirited dash on the inside to win the race with Folklore of Prehistoric Sites in Britain.
Having travelled to do research in the public libraries of Newcastle, Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, York, Leeds, Wakefield and Doncaster I was determined to complete it, particularly as it covered a much greater number of sites than the other two, examined contemporary parallels and did not rely on a singular and reductionist viewpoint as with the Bords or a sterility of approach as found in Grinsell’s. Being third past the post did not help, and The Living Stones has collected a round robin of rejections – one in particular being irksome as the editor concerned wished to see it published but the company was afraid of the book offending its academic authors. I am currently exploring the options of producing it myself as a part work over 12 or so monthly issues or having it set in type and produced as a newspaper. {24}
While writing The Living Stones I was approached by James Hughes, then an editor at Thames & Hudson, for my views on his idea of the possibility of a county-by-county ley guide – maps on one page and brief written accounts of what <was> to be seen on the other – perhaps beginning with Herefordshire. I was asked if I would be interested in writing such or becoming general editor. Pressure of writing, having deliberately just decided to relinquish editorship of The Ley Hunter because of other commitments and being already contracted to Thorsons, meant this tempting project had to be declined. I gave these reasons to Hughes and suggested Devereux’s work or Leicestershire could make a starting-point for such a series, but as the reader is no doubt aware the result was the England and Wales book The Ley Hunter’s Companion by Paul Devereux and Ian Thomson.
My next idea was triggered by an excellent survey of varieties of exotic fauna in the British Isles, Aliens Among Us in Fortean Times. I envisaged a collaboration with its compiler, Peter Roberts, and I writing up all that was known about creatures not indigenous to this country, from the shadowy Loch Ness Monster and Surrey Puma through the two Wallaby colonies to humbler introduced species, rogue escapees and Fortean oddities. Before I could formulate a plan of action the splendid and rivetting The Naturalized Animals of the British Isles, by Sir Christopher Lever, had appeared with hasty synchronicity.
My dragonlore book had arisen from an interest in the subject fired by William Porter, who was planning a definitive study, and after my regional account was published, Anthony Roberts suggested I expand it as a countrywide survey. The task seemed daunting and Janet Hoult having just produced a slim book as an introduction to the subject, I put on my personal charm and persuasive powers and failed to convincer her that a collaboration would be to our mutual advantage. I then approached Thames & Hudson with the idea only to find that they had already contracted Francis Huxley to produce such a work, which appeared in 1979 and which was to me a great disappointment.
As I write this note a review in a local newspaper of a book on dragons of all lands has appeared entitled The Hill of the Dragon by Paul Newman.
Around that time I had been trying to envisage some way of writing a book on Bob Dylan in a way no other commentators on this Jewish rock ’n’ roll mystic (yes, I know he’s now been converted to Christian fundamentalism, and God help his record sales) had done before. I have an extensive collection of cuttings in scrapbooks and the majority of books and other material published about him and at that time held him in high esteem.
There was a humorous preview in The Fanatic of John Michell’s The Hip-pocket Hitler and I decided to compile a book purely of quotations from the writings, songs and interviews with Dylan to be called The Wit and Wisdom of Bob Dylan along the lines of earlier books on the thoughts of Chairman Mao and Prince Philip. In this instance I had progressed as far as writing the introduction and had begun preliminary selection when appeared Bob Dylan in His Own Words by 60s Underground scene luminary Barry Miles. My scope would have been radically different and the selection process less rigid, but the similarity in format precluded my carrying on.
My next idea was to fill what I believed to be a gap in publishing – a book on prophecy. But I had not been warned and a few days later and while the idea was incubating I went to a sale of discarded library books only to be confronted by Fulfilled Prophecy by Justine Glass. It cost 25p, but it could have cost a couple of years’ wasted effort.
Then a publisher in Cambridge contacted me inquiring whether I knew who held the copyright for Archaic Tracks Round Cambridge, by the late Alfred Watkins, as they planned reprinting it. I did know and in the eventuality was asked to write the introduction. I did so. They closed down before publication **. {25}
A leisurely collaboration has been going on during the past few years between myself and a BBC film editor on a book whose subject I prefer not to reveal, particularly as one inept book on the topic has surfaced since our venture began, but all being well it could be a winner, unless, of course …
To close on a happier note, I am now putting the finishing touches to a history of ley hunting, which it would be most appropriate to have published next year at the anniversary of Alfred Watkins’s rediscovery of the ley system. So to any writers or would-be authors reading this, let’s face it, writing is its own reward, but publication counts as a bonus.
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* This brings to mind other promised but never published works – Pictures on the Hills by Sam Wildman; the reprint of Bayley’s Archaic England; the two reprints of Watkins’s Archaic Tracks Round Cambridge; Maltwood’s Enchantments of Britain and Temple of the Stars, not to mention the greatest tragedy of all, the loss of MacLellan Mann’s A Lost Civilization in 1930.
**The republication of this book has a strange history. In 1974, Cokaygne Press announced its forthcoming reissue. Their subsequent demise meant that it was not reissued. Then, in 1976 Newton & Denny of Cambridge decided to reissue it after Terry Newton, co-owner of the company, obtained an annotated copy of the book from Jean Pain’s bookshop in Trinity Street, Cambridge. This annotation was in the form of corrections, and a comparison with Watkins’s handwriting led him to believe that it was probably a proof copy belonging to Watkins. Preparation of the new edition was going ahead, and had reached the stage of platemaking. A new photograph of a stone in a wood in Herefordshire was taken as the original was too murky for reproduction. Then, Newton and Denny literally vanished. The office was empty, and then a computer consultants’ office occupied it. A visitor noted that in a bin were the plates and proofs of the book. He contacted the owners, but they did not deign to give a reply. Which brave publisher will try again? Third time lucky? We are working on the leys at present, so if a new edition is contemplated, then an appendix of our work will be a necessity – editor.
Alfred Watkins’s Archaic Tracks Round Cambridge has still not been reprinted, but it can be viewed on this website along with Paul Screeton’s introduction which he refers to above. Paul’s history of ley hunting, Seekers of the Linear Vision, was serialized in Stonehenge Viewpoint in 1981–1984 and published as a book in 1993. – MB, December 2015