Merrily's Border: The Mysterious World of Merrily Watkins - History & Folklore, People & Places

What TS Eliot did for Canterbury Cathedral Rickman does for Hereford' - Jane Jakeman Merrily's Border explores the real world of Phil Rickman's Merrily Watkins series. The novels are all set in actual locations - mostly in Herefordshire, but also in Shropshire, Worcestershire, Gloucestershire and over the border into a region that remains one of Britain's best-kept secrets. This new and extended edition includes the settings of The House of Susan Lulham, Friends of the Dusk, All of a Winter's Night and For the Hell of It. With their uniquely authentic blend of crime and the paranormal, Phil Rickman's addictive Merrily Watkins novels, about the diocesan exorcist for Hereford, have virtually established a new fictional genre. But the fiction is never far from an often surprising and sometimes disturbing reality. Revealing the sources and inspiration, Merrily's Border takes readers into a land where ancient mystery is never far below the the Knights Templar and the Green Man; the secret lore of apples; the lair of the real Hound of the Baskervilles; a pentagram of churches; a serial killer's dark legacy; the unchronicled links between the composer Edward Elgar and Alfred Watkins, discoverer of ley-lines. Phil Rickman is the acclaimed author of 15 Merrily Watkins thrillers and 11 other novels. He was born in Lancashire, but has spent most of his adult life in Wales and the Marches, and now lives near Hay-on-Wye. John Mason has worked with Phil Rickman over the years to produce cover images for his books, and is noted for his atmospheric photographs of haunted Britain and use of infra-red photography.