Clarke, Lindsay
Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author.
(1939- ) UK poet and author whose work in general navigates the water margins of Fantastika; though sf elements cannot be said to dominate, his narratives are in fact complexly polyvalent [for a somewhat different take on his work, see his entry in The Encyclopedia of Fantasy under links below]. Clarke's first novel, Sunday Whiteman (1987), examines dilemmas of Imperialism through the fantasy-tinged experiences of a white do-gooder in a troubled independent African country. The Chymical Wedding (1989) features a complex Timeslip between nineteenth-century and contemporary figures, plus an elaborate presentation of an alchemical quest for the epiphanic marriage of true understanding or Transmutation evoked by the title (see also Johann Valentin Andreae; Frances A Yates). The female magus of Alice's Masque (1994) seems to be imposing an arduous Godgame upon the frustrated middle-aged male, her former lover, who has landed on her doorstep in remote Cornwall; a ritualized remoteness casts a formal chill upon proceedings, especially at moments which obscurely replay a cruel Year-King sacrifice. Parzival and the Stone from Heaven: A Holy Grail Romance Retold for our Time (2001) is an effective rendering of this tale from the Matter of Britain [for Arthur, Grail, Matter and Perceval again see The Encyclopedia of Fantasy under links below].
The War at Troy/Troy Quartet sequence beginning with The War at Troy (2004) focuses heavily on human participants, though the gods can be felt throughout. Green Man Dreaming: Reflections on Imagination, Myth and Memory (coll 2018) is nonfiction. [JC]
Victor Lindsay Clarke
born Halifax, West Yorkshire: 14 August 1939
works
series
The War at Troy/Troy Quartet
- The War at Troy (London: HarperCollins, 2004) [The War at Troy: hb/]
- A Prince of Troy (London: Harper Voyager, 2019) [ebook: first half of the above: Troy Quartet: na/]
- The War at Troy (London: Harper Voyager, 2019) [ebook: second half of the above: Troy Quartet: na/]
- The Return from Troy (London: HarperCollins, 2005) [The War at Troy: hb/]
- The Spoils of Troy (London: Harper Voyager, 2019) [ebook: first half of the above: Troy Quartet: na/]
- The Return from Troy (London: Harper Voyager, 2019) [ebook: first half of the above: Troy Quartet: na/]
individual titles
- Sunday Whiteman (London: Jonathan Cape, 1987) [hb/Briony Jenkins]
- The Chymical Wedding (London: Jonathan Cape, 1989) [hb/uncredited]
- Alice's Masque (London: Jonathan Cape, 1994) [hb/Briony Jenkins]
- Parzival and the Stone from Heaven: A Holy Grail Romance Retold for our Time (London: HarperCollins/Thorsons, 2001) [hb/from Odion Redon]
- The Water Theatre (Richmond, Surrey: Alma Publishing, 2010) [pb/]
nonfiction
- Green Man Dreaming: Reflections on Imagination, Myth and Memory (no place given: Awen Publications, 2018) [nonfiction: coll: pb/]
works as editor
- Essential Celtic Mythology: Stories That Change the World (London: HarperCollins/Thorsons, 1997) [anth: pb/]
- Lindsay Clarke's Traditional Celtic Stories (London: HarperCollins/Thorsons, 1999) [anth: vt of the above: pb/]
- The Gist: A Celebration of the Imagination (Bideford, Devon: The Write Factor, 2012) [anth: fiction/nonfiction/poetry: pb/]
links
- Lindsay Clarke
- Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- The Encyclopedia of Fantasy: Arthur; Lindsay Clarke; Grail; Matter; Perceval; Waste Land.
- Picture Gallery
previous versions of this entry