One of my favorite Victorian urban legends is Spring-Heeled Jack, a flying, fire-breathing demon who scared the wits out of a maid in Blackheath one evening in the 1840’s and was seen around London now and again for several decades before disappearing for in 1890. He caught the imagination of the lurid press and appeared as a cross between Batman and a scaly demon. He had the ability to jump tall walls as if they were nothing, but though he breathed fire at several persons, never actually did anyone harm. Was he human, hoax, or some sort of unclassified cryptozoological creature, a Victorian version of the Mothman? I don’t know, but perhaps someday Barker should track down this creature for the good of London. After all, we can’t have our housemaids terrorized, can we?
Cheerio,
Will
June 29th, 2009
If you happen to attend a Scottish gathering or look into a book of clans searching for the Barker clan, I’m afraid you might be disappointed. There is no Scottish clan Barker. Oh, there are Barkers in Scotland, to be sure, most of them associated with Castle Stirling, but the authentic family Barker, with the motto Fide Sid Qui Vide is actually - brace yourself - English. The Barkers owned land in Cambridge and one scion existed for centuries in Yorkshire. At some time in the past a few Barkers must have crossed the borders into Scotland and found work in the shipyards around Perth, or perhaps worked as mercenary soldiers. Barker would insist he’s Scots to the core.
Barking is a process to tan leather using tree bark, and anyone associated with the trade was called Barker. So far, I haven’t found a proper tartan for Barker. I’m sure he used Black Watch whenever he was north of the border. That is, until I get around to having one registered in his name.
Cheerio,
Will
June 22nd, 2009
With the warm spring weather, a man’s fancy turns to thoughts of, well, you guessed it, golf. Half a century avoiding what Ty Cobb called “the Scottish game,” and it has finally caught up with me. In my defense, it is one of those games that came of age during the Victorian Era, a game which we still associate with knickers, tweed caps, and hickory clubs. There are several groups out there that play with hickory and no doubt I’ll eventually count myself among them, but for now, I’m just learning the game. I’ll get off the green and back into my study very soon, I promise. Any stray golfers out there, put down the niblick and drop a line.
Cheerio,
Will
June 8th, 2009
The blog page has been down, due to technical difficulties. It’s good to be back. I’ve heard from so many of you wondering about the next Barker and Llewelyn novel. I am hard at work on it, even as we speak.
I appreciate all of your wonderful letters. I’m beginning to consider you all “Barker’s watchers.” After a day of writing, it’s inspiring to get online and read a letter from someone near or far who enjoys the books. You are an interesting bunch, a collection of Anglophiles, Sherlockians, martial artists, mystery fans, and what-have-you. Possibly the only thing that you have in common is an interest in Cyrus Barker and Thomas Llewelyn. Thanks again, and keep writing!
Cheerio,
Will
March 30th, 2009
I don’t get writer’s block. Sitting down with a notebook in front of me, I wait a few minutes and the ideas begin to flow. It doesn’t matter what time of day, as long as I have enough coffee. If I’m rested, the thoughts come. Llewelyn opens his mouth and the ink begins to flow. If anything, I have the opposite problem. Lying in bed after midnight, it is difficult to shut my mind off, creating that irritating situation in which I’m constantly turning on the light to scribble on Post-Its. The next morning, I’m left trying to decypher what I scribbled at midnight.
What I am conscious of is exhaustion after turning out a certain number of pages. My senses are dull and my brain overstrained. Going to a Starbucks doesn’t help, either. I’m incapable at that point of making a decision. What I need is another kind of stimulus. A good movie (lately, I’m rewatching all the Bogie and Bacall films), a good book (currently Inspector Faro’s Casebook by Alanna Knight), or even a good television show (Tim Hutton’s “Leverage,” a guilty pleasure), and it soon sets me right again. Before you know it, it’s one a.m. and I’m scribbling ideas for the next chapter, which will give me eyestrain tomorrow morning.
Cheerio,
Will
January 19th, 2009
In those scant hours that I am not writing, researching, or running about, I’ll often be found at a table working with miniatures. I suspect this is inherited, as my father was always to be found in his workship cutting wood, though I appear to have been infected with a lesser strain of the disease. Over the years, I’ve modeled English railways, scale ships, and historical figures. Now it’s scale miniatures. The only thing these have in common is the era, which of course, is Victorian.
In London, there is a fabulous royal residence in scale, the Queen Mother’s Doll House, complete with volumes in the library signed by Rudyard Kipling and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. In America, the craftsmen from Colonial Williamsburg went to the home of artist Tasha Tudor to build a scale home for her vast collection of miniatures, circa 1830. Needless to say, my projects are more modest, but someday I’d like to build a scale version of Cyrus Barker’s home. It would be the perfect visual aid when trying to decide what comes next. Until then, I’ll putter on vignettes and smaller projects, honing my skills, such as they are. As I work with my eyes and fingers, my brain fills up with new ideas and I go back to the notebook ready to tie up loose ends and begin more dastardly plots.
Best wishes for a happy holiday.
Cheerio,
Will
December 20th, 2008
The other day I had an experience I will never forget. I had the opportunity to visit the Cleveland Botanical Gardens, including the Japanese Gardens. It was a cool, sunny day, around 48 degrees, and as I stood there in the sunny enclosure, dappled by the shade of overarching Japanese maples as red as fire, the air was filled with maple seeds spinning and helicoptering silently. There was magic in the air. I felt that if I turned around, I could grasp the door handle and enter Cyrus Barker’s home.
What a monumental effort it is to create such a garden. I cannot imagine what it must have been like before the invention of the backhoe. In an earlier age, when life was brutal and short, such luxuries were only for kings and conquerors. Such an achievement shows more than mere power and position, however. It shows the strong need an individual has for aesthetics, the desire to create something lasting and beautiful. And it was indeed profoundly beautiful.
I believe Barker’s garden, his half acre Eden, is an allegory in my novels. It represents the land in London he has come to love and for which he is willing to lay down his life. At the same time, it is the Oriental part of Barker’s life, his mystery on display. It is the part of him that a typical English gardener would find extreme and stoical.
Do you have a favorite, secret garden that means something to you?
Cheerio,
Will
October 25th, 2008
Years ago, I was a young adult librarian and it was necessary for me to read a lot of teen literature. Much of it, I regret to say, was not of interest to an adult, although the influence of J.K. Rowling has improved that somewhat. One notable exception and a bright spot to my reading was Phillip Pullman’s Sally Lockhart series, (”Ruby in the Smoke,” “Shadow of the North,” “Tiger in the Well.”) The character teeters on the brink of adulthood in the first book, and by the third is already a mother. I cannot recall another series that slides from Young Adult into the Adult category.
Lockhart is a detective in Victorian London and she faces real social problems such as opium addiction, poverty and street crime, while encountering villains that are more than two-dimensional. I recommend the series and regret that Pullman hasn’t written more of the series, involved as he is with His Dark Materials and other projects. Also, teaching at Oxford and having Rowling as a best friend does tend to keep one occupied. PBS has recently produced the Lockhart series on Masterpiece Mystery, starring Billie Piper. While not being fully period appropriate, they are lavishly done and worth a viewing. After her other recent television appearances, I admit, I can’t help looking for Doctor Who’s TARDIS!
October 1st, 2008
I’d like to recommend a delightful series of reprints by the Penguin Publishing Company. In the wake of the highly successful Dangerous Book for Boys, Penguin has produced a series of classic paperbacks. They are ostensibly for boys, but all men and women should read them. These books have block print covers featuring 1920’s era art. The set of books, each priced around ten dollars, includes:
- The Thirty-nine Steps by John Buchan
- Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope
- She by H. Rider Haggard
- The Man Who was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton
- Riddle of the Sands by Erskine Childers
- The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
I can recall in the early 1980’s going out to purchase a Penguin classic every week or two. They included works by Doyle and Christie, Chesterton and Stevenson, and had the distinctive orange spine and black cover. I’d forgotten how much I’d enjoyed them and looked forward to the next.
These are the best Victorian and Edwardian fare, perfect for the whole family.
Cheerio,
Will
August 10th, 2008
Today’s blog is an interview by Will’s wife, Julie, with Jodie Butler, an artist known as rosesandthorns who posts art about Barker and Llewelyn, as well as other interesting subjects on www.deviantart.com.
Julie: Tell us a little about yourself, Jodie. Do you have an art background?
Jodie: I do have a background in art, though I only consider myself an “amateur,” an amateur of limited (but hopefully improving) talents. At a local two-year college, I earned an Associate of Arts degree and took a variety of drawing, writing, and graphic design classes. When I entered a four year college, I majored in Commercial Writing and minored in Graphic Design, and earned a Bachelor of Science degree. For about seven years now, I have worked at a small daily newspaper as a page designer/copy editor. One strange fact about me: I enjoy looking up words in the dictionary.
Julie: What type of books do you like to read? Have you illustrated other series besides the Barker and Llewelyn books?
Jodie: As to genre, a lot of the books I read seem to fall in the fantasy category (mostly young adult/all-ages fantasy), with mysteries/thrillers also as big contenders. But the books I am truly drawn to are all about characters and themes that I love, and that transcends genre.
I have drawn some fanart for a few book series besides the Barker and Llewelyn novels, most notably a fairly recent fantasy trilogy for which I drew a number of (mostly) pencil sketches of the characters with no background. I also sheepishly confess to joining the glut of those who have drawn Harry Potter fanart.
Besides the book series, I have drawn fanart of various anime/manga and The Phantom of the Opera, both Leroux’s book and Webber’s musical (again, mostly simple pencil sketches of the characters with no background.)
Julie: How did you discover Barker and Llewelyn, and what do you enjoy most about the books?
Jodie: I found the first Barker and Lewelyn novel on the new books shelf of a local library when it first came out several years ago. I enjoyed it, and when the second one appeared on the same new books shelf about a year later, I remembered that I had liked the first and picked it up. The third novel I got through inter-library loan some time after it came out, and I made a mental note to myself to look for the then-upcoming fourth novel. But life and other things got in the way, so it wasn’t until December 2007 that I finally remembered to request the book from the library. As soon as I read the fourth book I thought: “Why haven’t I bought these books before?” So I did. Soon afterwards I realized that I had become a fan, for the series entered the small list of books I can read over and over again.
What do I enjoy most about the series? The loyalty that Barker and Llewelyn have toward each other, as well as their interpersonal dynamic, reminiscent of that between a father and son.
Julie: Which is your favorite illustration from the series? Will and I love them all! He’s especially fond of Barker as Shi Shi Ji, the Stone Lion, and I keep being drawn to Bok Fu Ying with Harm.
Jodie: I have two favorites: “Characters: Barker and Llewelyn” and “Barker and Llewelyn: Street Scene.”
Julie: Will loves to do pen and ink drawings of the characters in the margins of his manuscripts (since he writes them longhand). What is your favorite medium to work with?
Jodie: I would have to say that my favorite medium is pencil. Almost every artwork I draw starts as a simple pencil sketch that generally goes through a lot of revision before I either finish it in pencil or change it to pen and ink, marker, mixed media, computer generated, etc.
Incidentally, I would love to have Will Thomas’s talent for going straight to pen and ink, and I am hoping he will share his own drawings!
Julie: That’s under consideration! Thank you for sharing your thoughts today.
Jodie’s art can be viewed at: http://rosesandthorns.deviantart.com/gallery/#Barker-and-Llewelyn-series-fanart
July 3rd, 2008
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