Walcot

Walcot
Brian Aldiss

A story charting the events of the twentieth century through the eyes of the Fielding family, whose fortunes are altered irrevocably…The Brian Aldiss collection includes over 50 books and spans the author’s entire career, from his debut in 1955 to his more recent work.On the glorious sands of the North Norfolk coast, Steve, the youngest member of the Fielding family, plays alone. But are these halcyon days?War is looming, and things will never be the same again. This book, described by Brian as his magnum opus, charts the fortunes of the Fielding family throughout the twentieth century.

BRIAN ALDISS

Walcot

HarperVoyager

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpervoyagerbooks.co.uk (http://www.harpervoyagerbooks.co.uk)

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

Dedication (#u76d66035-7fc3-5046-bfc7-cb9118cc9a60)

To Ronnie

with remembrance of Ruth

with regards as always

Epigraph (#u76d66035-7fc3-5046-bfc7-cb9118cc9a60)

God forbid that we should give out a dream of our own imagination for a pattern of the world.

– Francis Bacon

Novum Organum

Contents

Cover (#uf9c10263-7c24-5a00-816f-b23282f672ca)

Title Page (#uc9d7801a-934d-506a-8fe2-94e5647c5eee)

Copyright (#u7bf2f970-be9b-5bbd-8215-8271f9a6a0f3)

Dedication (#ub0bf738e-259a-5840-8846-5233ba14bab5)

Epigraph (#u6e5bda1b-e2af-5a4b-aa60-0e927efeb7f7)

Introduction (#u69352506-b1e7-5ff8-8e9b-2052345f4ba6)

PART ONE (#u1c65c989-9496-54da-901f-bc6c967e88a0)

Chapter 1: Barefoot (#u1c895df3-415f-5316-aa33-7a7e6540909c)

Chapter 2: An Adult Breath (#uf1e06356-68d3-50fb-8dfd-58cf44e8542b)

Chapter 3: Almost Drowned (#uc487d248-62bf-5684-b436-d24b5d0def58)

Chapter 4: An Absolute Slave (#u330382f0-4d30-528d-9383-bfbdbd70cc21)

Chapter 5: ‘Bloody Cripples!’ (#u5ff08495-91bb-5fb9-b17b-c5a67a6263c0)

Chapter 6: Earth Sciences (#u728fd4ae-519b-51d5-ad90-bdfa46e08510)

Chapter 7: The New Widow (#ucfecc4b7-400f-56d5-9be5-438193406ae2)

Chapter 8: Kendal, of All Places (#uab952566-5a88-5969-9acc-ed78c0b8b116)

Chapter 9: A Good Old Row (#u80e801e3-db1b-5607-adbf-45395790696a)

Chapter 10: A Slight Change of Plan (#uf2a17b9e-7e20-5896-bc51-84c54b93bca8)

Chapter 11: Carnage on the Road (#u52ba4ca8-ae74-5083-9594-064d75d374cd)

Chapter 12: ‘War or no War …’ (#u2d1bf8c3-93b6-502d-abdc-90d9f14b2446)