troy town

in the white goddess robert graves writes of mazes - he finds the same design (of the labyrinth of daedalus) preserved in the dance troy town and at bosinney in cornwall as at the dublin national museum (on rocks from the wicklow hills).


just as southern baptist preachers lay biblical time over present time (‘and it rained and it rained’) so graves lays classical time over the dark ages and the times before and over the now.

elsewhere fictional universes are being brought into communication - but what about if you were a character from another novel wandering around inside one of these trying to find the characters from your novel. 

horsemouth has diverted from utopia to reading into unknown england 1866-1913: selections from the social explorers (ed. peter keating) - disguised in rags james greenwood spends a night in a london workhouse (8th jan 1866). later in low-life deeps he witnesses a fight between a midget and terrier staged for money among the miners of hanley.

arnold bennett does not believe him;

‘the only man who stands a chance of getting his teeth knocked down his throat here is the ingenious person who started the celebrated legend of the man-and-dog-fight at hanbridge. it’s a long time ago, a very long time ago, but his grey hairs won’t save him from horrible tortures if we catch him.’ 

there is a certain crossover between the worlds of derek raymond (the crust on its uppers - the impecunious posh fronting gambling dens for the richardsons) and that of michael moorcock (new wave science fiction, genre hackwork editing and writing at the lower ends of the london literary scene). it is in Kyril Bonfiglioli (art dealer, book dealer, editor, author) - whose birthday is today incidentally (harry smith''s too).

the krays were out looking for bonfiglioli  onetime and ‘braced’ the young michael (in a bookshop naturally). at a party once he pulled out a pistol and chased everybody about (a very derek raymond to have happen).