Inspired by the discovery of the bones of King Richard III under a car park in Leicester, this story tells of how the soul of King Richard is trapped in the afterlife. In this case, in one of the secret tunnels of Oxenbridge. He’s waiting for his guide, a talking Raven, and an angel, to take his soul to heaven. The angel, Dedalus, once a monk at Stern Abbey, Oxenbridge, is also incarcerated in a tunnel under Oxenbridge House.

We switch to 2013 and Oxenbridge House is owned by Molly Stern. Molly recently lost her father and split up with her boyfriend, so she’s sad and lonely. She is lucky to have Peggy and Frank, her uncle and aunt, who raised her together with her much-loved father. There is mystery surrounding what happened to her mother.

Molly is drawn to the cellar in which her father died where one night she encounters Dedalus who has been waiting there for a few hundred years. He’s thin, dirty, and bedraggled, so she invites him upstairs for a cup of tea. And then one thing leads to another …

The language is beautiful and poetic. The story is quirky, full of pathos and suspense, and just when you’re holding your breath, something funny happens. The descriptions of 15th-century Dedalus, exploring a 21st-century village are hilarious; ‘things keep falling into his eyeballs’. Every character is a delight.

This is a story about what survives us when we are gone and, in the end, what matters most, love and family. It is unlike anything I’ve read before. Although a little bizarre, it’s enchanting.

Reviewed by Sue Stanbridge

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Christine Paice is a poet, and writer. Her poetry has featured four times in Best Australian Poems series by Black Inc. A runner up in the Newcastle Poetry Prize, she won (yes won!) the prestigious national Josephine Ulrick Award for poetry in 2009 with The Ministry Of Going In. She was Poetry editor and political writer for Old Trout, An American Review, for one glorious year.

Her work has been read on ABC Jazz Alive and Poetica, Radio National. In 2010 she became the University of Wollongong’s inaugural Janet Cosh Poet, resulting in the work, Collecting The Collector. She facilitates creative writing and poetry workshops and works as a mentor with a talented indigenous poet. Christine has no friends, two sons and one daughter and bribes her family to live with her in Kiama, New South Wales.