Storylines

Real life is not much like a novel. No one lives their life simply as “the villain” or the “trusty best friend” – everyone is the hero of his own story. Nor does a life play out as one tidy arc, with a series of growing crises, a climax, a resolution, and some sort of victory or sense of growth at the end.

Real life is messy and jagged. Real life has ups and downs and boring flat parts. Sometimes people die before their own Act Two. Sometimes “Happily Ever After” begins to fall apart shortly after “I do”.

The story I tell on this site is more like real life than like a novel. It’s not the story of anyone. There’s no real beginning (as fans of the never-​​seen romance of Alred and Matilda will tell you) and there’s no programmed end. It is best described simply as the Chronicle of an imaginary place at an historical time, as told through an intimate view into the lives of its inhabitants.

Like real life, it is a tangle of everyone’s stories: they cross in places, sometimes run together a while before splitting up again, and affect each other in complex ways. Sometimes it is quite difficult to follow.

Sometimes, however, certain threads and certain stories are clearly visible running through, and with this section of the site I hope to tease some of them out and make them easier to read.

If you’re a new reader and aren’t certain whether you want to invest your time in the entire story, this would be a good way to get to know some of the characters, and to have a look at the style of my storytelling. You may end up intrigued and want to read more.

And for long-​​time readers this will be a fun way to revisit some of the best-​​beloved stories-​​within-​​the-​​story.

I do not claim that any of these storylines would stand alone as a novel or short story – none of my characters’ lives are planned with a single arc in mind, and their stories are simply too interwoven for that. Furthermore some of these storylines are still being written. I simply want to offer my readers an opportunity to experience the story in a new way. Enjoy.