The end of a chapter

Actually the end of a book.

Today I finally finished the novel I started writing 24 years ago.

Back then it was going to be my ‘magnum opus’, my semi-demi-autobiographical debut on the literary scene, which would launch me to fame.

Instead it underwent surgery several times over as its second half was altered, either more or less drastically, interspersed with long periods of convalescence in my bottom drawer.

Its various titles bear witness to its different guises:

• Kingfisher Fire until I discovered that Rumer Godden had beaten me to it with her ‘Kingfishers Catch Fire’ – a big blow that
• Black Gentian
• The Green Tree
• The Colours of the Sea
• The Warden
• The Jay’s Feather
• Wild Goose

Clive read through the final version. He found a phrase which he said sounded like ‘To the Batmobile!’

The photo is a possibility for the ’cover’ of an electronic book version.

Wild Goose