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- Time, A
Falconer
- A Study of Sarban by
- Mark
Valentine
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- In this new biographical study Mark Valentine
enables us to understand more of John William Wall (1910-1989), the
diffident, compassionate, highly intelligent and sensitive man who wrote
under the pseudonym Sarban.
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- Until recently very little was known about the
writer. His three published books, Ringstones (1951), The Sound of His Horn (1952) and The Doll Maker (1953) hinted at a complex
personality, and the little available information has only added to the
fascination he has exercised. The Sound of His
Horn, a cult classic, explores the possibilities of
what would have happened if Germany had won World War Two, and was much
admired by Kingsley Amis. This science fiction fantasy has been often
reprinted, but until recently all that readers were allowed to know of
Sarban was that he 'worked in the East and longed for England'.
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- Mark Valentine, however, has delved into the
author's own archive and is now able to present us with this study and
introductory biography of Sarban. Valentine follows Wall from his
working-class roots in Yorkshire through a scholarship to Cambridge
University and a distinguished diplomatic career in the Foreign Office
and subsequent postings in Cairo, Jedda, Tabriz, Isfahan, Casablanca,
Salonika and Paraguay. After leaving the Foreign Office in 1967, Wall
worked at GCHQ Cheltenham before his final retirement. And all through
his working life Sarban wrote fascinating and subtle fiction of the
fantastic.
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- ISBN 978-1-905784-26-4
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- Time, A Falconer
is a sewn hardback of 138+vii pages, printed
lithographically, with silk ribbon marker, head and tailbands, and d/w.
Illustrated.
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- Limited to 400 copies.
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- Price
£25/$45 inc. p&p.
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- Reviews:
- "It is somewhat unsettling
to imagine this quiet man sorting out visa applications or attending
dull formal receptions and all the while brooding on the taloned
cat-women." Robert Irwin, The Literary
Review.
- "Insightful...
[Valentine] illuminates his study of Sarban's fiction with
observations gleaned from the author's private diaries and
correspondence, and offers particularly cogent insights on how the women
in Sarban's life shaped the mystique of female characters in his
fiction." - Publishers Weekly
- "A
sensitive and sympathetic portrait … [Valentine] weaves his analyses of
Sarban’s fiction seamlessly into the broader tapestry spun from the
known biographical facts. The result is a thoroughly engrossing account
of the writer’s intellectual growth and interests in the course of his
lifetime." Stefan Dziemianowicz, Locus, June 2011
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- "... a handsome volume
with numerous illustrations, and a welcome addition to any library of
scholarship on the supernatural." - The Stars at
Noonday.
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Also
available:
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The Doll
Maker -
and Other Tales of the
Uncanny
by Sarban
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 Ringstones
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and Other Curious
Tales
by Sarban
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The Sound of His Horn
Page updated 21st March
2011 |