Phil Rickman signing latest Merrily Watkins mystery

1:58pm Thursday 2nd October 2008

PHIL Rickman’s 10th Merrily Watkins mystery, To Dream of the Dead, has, as always, a very local theme.

“But this time, it’s closer than ever to real events,” says Phil, who found life imitating art when the Rotherwas Ribbon, near Hereford, was discovered on a site set for development.

“Two books ago, I had a plot line about Hereford Council planning to grant permission for an estate of executive homes across an ancient neolithic site,” he explains.

“About a year later, they discovered the Rotherwas Ribbon, and it was exactly the same situation, with the council wanting to develop across an ancient sacred site.”

In To Dream of the Dead, Phil has renamed the Ribbon the Dinedor Serpent – “the ribbon sounds too feeble” – and has been careful to invent fictional councillors who could not be confused with any living representatives of the council.

Another of Herefordshire’s concerns also features when Ledwardine, home to Merrily Watkins, floods and is cut off.

l Tomorrow (Friday), Phil will be signing copies of To Dream of the Dead in Foxwoods Bookshop, Leominster from 11am and at Castle Bookshop, Ludlow, from 3pm.

The official launch of the book takes place at Hereford Library on Saturday at 10.30am and from 1.30pm Phil will be signing copies in Waterstone’s. Other signings: Three Counties Bookshop, Ledbury at 3pm on October 11; Forest Bookshop, Coleford, at 11am and Ross Bookshop, Ross-on-Wye, at 3pm on October 18; Abergavenny Bookshop at 11am and Monmouth Bookshop at 2pm on October 25.

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