BRIAN ALDISS
Walcot
HarperVoyager
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
This ebook first published in Great Britain by HarperVoyager in 2015
Copyright © Brian Aldiss 2009
First published in Great Britain by Goldmark 2009
Cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2015
Cover photographs © Shutterstock.com
Brian Aldiss asserts the moral right to
be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.
Source ISBN: 978-0-00-748226-9
Ebook Edition © December 2015 ISBN: 978-0-00-748227-6
Version: 2015-10-19
To Ronnie
with remembrance of Ruth
with regards as always
God forbid that we should give out a dream of our own imagination for a pattern of the world.
– Francis Bacon
Novum Organum
Contents
Chapter 8: Kendal, of All Places
Chapter 10: A Slight Change of Plan
Chapter 11: Carnage on the Road
Chapter 13: ‘We’re Okay Here …’
Chapter 16: A Lesson in Aristotle
Chapter 17: The Wehrmacht Pays a Visit
Chapter 3: Christmas at Gracefield