Allusions/references To Actual History, Geography and Current Science
According to a plaque in the church of modern day Barthomley, there was indeed a siege of the church during the Civil War. The villagers were flushed out by fire and massacred.
The site of Mow Cop is not particularly isolated, in the sense that there is a village around the hilltop. According to local sources, there may have been a Roman watchtower there. The nearby A34 is a former Roman road. The folly was built to look like a ruined castle in 1754, and was used as a summerhouse for Randle Wilbraham of Rode Hall, 3 miles away.
Maps show Rudheath as a suburb of Northwich. Approximately 2 miles (3.2 km) southeast of this is an area called Rudheath Woods, near the villages of Allostock and Goostrey. There is a caravan park outside Allostock, with nearby lakes, as described in the novel. Alan Garner lives in Goostrey.
Read more about this topic: Red Shift (novel)
Famous quotes containing the words actual, geography, current and/or science:
“As our actual present world ... shows itself more clearly—our world of an aristocracy materialised and null, a middle-class purblind and hideous, a lower class crude and brutal—we shall turn our eyes again, and to more purpose, upon this passionate and dauntless soldier of a forlorn hope.”
—Matthew Arnold (1822–1888)
“Where the heart is, there the muses, there the gods sojourn, and not in any geography of fame. Massachusetts, Connecticut River, and Boston Bay, you think paltry places, and the ear loves names of foreign and classic topography. But here we are; and, if we tarry a little, we may come to learn that here is best. See to it, only, that thyself is here;—and art and nature, hope and fate, friends, angels, and the Supreme Being, shall not absent from the chamber where thou sittest.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The English language may hold a more disagreeable combination of words than “The doctor will see you now.” I am willing to concede something to the phrase “Have you anything to say before the current is turned on?””
—Robert Benchley (1889–1945)
“The trouble with tea is that originally it was quite a good drink. So a group of the most eminent British scientists put their heads together, and made complicated biological experiments to find a way of spoiling it. To the eternal glory of British science their labour bore fruit.”
—George Mikes (b. 1912)