The Bones Beneath (30 page)
As always, I am enormously grateful for the efforts of everyone at Little, Brown, particularly my wonderful editor David Shelley and his team. I am hugely lucky in continuing to work with Robert Manser, Tamsin Kitson, Emma Williams, Jo Wickham, Sean Garrehy and Thalia Proctor. Long may my luck hold. At Grove Atlantic in the US, Morgan Entrekin, Peter Blackstock and Deb Seager have provided much-appreciated shots of faith and enthusiasm in the books, for which I am hugely thankful.
I am deeply indebted to Colin and Ernest Evans for their immeasurable patience, advice and input, and for getting me there. There would be no book without them. I hope you’re happy with how I portrayed your island…
Diolch o’r galon
.
For help with the forensic anthropology in the book, thanks are due (along with many, many drinks) to Professor Sue Black, Director of the Centre for Anatomy and Human Identification at the University of Dundee and Professor Lorna Dawson, Principal Soil Scientist in the Environmental and Biochemical Sciences Group at the James Hutton Institute. Their generosity and expertise is matched only by a seemingly limitless capacity for answering stupid questions.
Louise Butler was helpful on matters of prison procedure (thanks, Lou), the words of Wendy Lee and Tony Fuller were wise as always and I could wish for no more sympathetic and eagle-eyed copy editor than Deborah Adams. Sarah Luytens rocks, and remains the agent that every author dreams about having. I am thankful every day that she’s mine.
And thank you Claire, above all. For taking me to Bardsey Island and for thinking that it might be an interesting place to take Tom Thorne.
Bardsey Island (Ynys Enlli) lies just two miles beyond the tip of the Lleyn peninsula. It is 1.5 miles long and just over half a mile wide. The mountain, Mynydd Enlli, rises to 167 metres. Whether the remains of King Arthur or of those twenty thousand saints are buried there or not, it is every bit as unique and magical a place as Tom Thorne comes to realise by the end of
The Bones Beneath
. Though I may have taken the occasional liberty with geography in service of the story, I have tried my utmost to capture the stark beauty and atmosphere of the island and can only hope that the curiosity of some readers has been piqued by the facts about its history, mythology and scientific significance that are scattered throughout the novel.
For anyone interested in visiting Bardsey Island, there is no better place to start than here:
www.bardsey.org/english/bardsey/welcome.asp
. This site gives details of the trust that administers the island as well as information about its arts, archaeology and natural history. It also provides prospective visitors with everything they need in terms of how to book day trips or longer visits, with pictures of all the available accommodation. I can assure anyone thinking of visiting that the journey is exhilarating, the hotels on the mainland are fantastic and that the cottages available for rent are not as spooky as the one Tom Thorne is forced to spend the night in.
www.bardsey.org/english/staying/staying_bardsey.htm
Bardsey is a National Nature Reserve and a Site of Special Scientific Interest. Further details can be found here:
www.bardsey.org/english/the_island/natural_history.htm
Those specifically interested in the island’s birds can get detailed day-by-day reports from the Bird and Field Observatory, with wonderful pictures and up-to-date information about more than 175 species, here:
https://bbfo.blogspot.co.uk
.
The last King of Bardsey, Love Pritchard, died in 1926, and was buried close to the beach in Aberdaron cemetery. Find out all about him, the kings who ruled before him, and what became of the legendary crown of Bardsey here:
www.bardsey.org/english/the_island/king.htm
Bardsey Lighthouse was built in 1821, stands a little over thirty metres high and, unlike almost all other Trinity lighthouses, is square. The top of it is also the only place on the island I was able to get so much as a glimmer of a phone signal, and I dislike heights as much as Tom Thorne.
www.trinityhouse.co.uk/lighthouses/lighthouse_list/bardsey.html
Bardsey’s religious significance, its history as a place of pilgrimage and the story of those twenty thousand saints are detailed here:
www.bardsey.org/english/the_island/pilgrims.htm
A remote and all-but-deserted island, cut off from the mainland with
no mobile phone signal
is, of course, a wonderful place to set a crime novel. In reality, however, I cannot remember spending time anywhere as peaceful as Ynys Enlli. Though not a religious person myself, I can fully understand its status as a place of pilgrimage and can see why it is so beloved of artists, writers and natural historians. If even one reader who has enjoyed
The Bones Beneath
is tempted to visit Bardsey Island – to hear the Manx shearwater at night, to watch the sun set behind those spectacular abbey ruins, to escape the stress of modern city living for a few days or simply to search for the place where Stuart Nicklin buried those bodies – then I shall be a very happy author.
Mark Billingham, London, 2013