London Bone

Michael Moorcock

This was a collection I'd been waiting for, the one I'd hoped would come along and bring together the various short stories Moorcock released during the nineties. They are drawn from disparate sources, yet all fit together surprisingly well. A common theme is of reminiscence and history, both of London and other places around the world. The places in which they occur are central elements to most of the stories within the collection.

The opening story, "The Winter Admiral", is a very short piece where a woman subtlety alludes to a painful memory which perfectly sets the mood for the collection. "London Blood" is something a family history, reminiscences about a spirited lost mother whose presence is still felt in the old family home.

"Doves in the Circle" is one of the most powerful short stories Moorcock has written, set in the Houston Circle, a community surrounding a park in New York. It is a close knit community, based around a pub and a church, a community based on secrets, both ancient and modern. The story skirts between beauty and ugliness, with more than a little redemption thrown in for good measure. It is a piece that expands far beyond its twenty nine pages, has such a presence that it feels more like a novel than a short story. At its center is a story based around two people, a young woman and an old man, exchanging secrets and finding solace in one another's company.

In "The Clapham Antichrist" a journalist finds himself returning to interview an infamous character he'd first interviewed as a younger man, a friend he'd thought long dead. There are echoes of recent novel, King of the City in this story, the tale of a vicar who finds himself ostricised after an angelic vision causes him to start saying the wrong things at the altar, but who enjoys a popular television and radio career. The Blitz hovers over the story, as does the development of London, the selling of its land from beneath the people who live there. The latter theme finds itself explored at greater depth in the superb "London Bone", the tale of a scalper, a buyer and seller of what the market demands. He concentrates mainly on Andrew Lloyd Webber tickets, selling them to the tourists at inflated prices, those who absolutely must see Cats before they go home. He's finds himself offered a new commodity, one with great potential that he only really sees after the Webber meltdown of 2003, one that is so desirable that high prices are paid. Being the sole supplier he finds himself in complete control of the market, and it is only when he discovers the true nature of what he is selling does the full meaning of it all really sink in. It's a wonderful story in its own right, but also a brilliant satire.

"The Cairene Purse" sees the action shift to the shores of the Nile, a man going to Egypt to work on a dam project, but to also visit his sister who has seemingly vanished. An Egyptologist, she was working on uncovering a newly discovered pyramid, but disappeared amongst rumours of her involvement with a local witch and a hippy flying saucer cult. It's a story that represents the best kind of modern science fiction, the story played out in the not to distant future with just a few subtle differences. The writing is both beautiful and subtle, languid and poetic, not all light and noise.

After that, the shift back to London and an old woman's story of her special relationship with "Furniture", goes more smoothly than you'd expect. Not just ordinary furniture, the high quality handmade furniture that can change your life. This was first broadcast on Radio 4, delayed in 1999 because of a war breaking out, but finally making its way into print.

The closing story "Through a Shaving Mirror" is a very short, strange story about Engelbrecht, the dwarf metaphysical boxer, owner of the Surrealist Sporting Club. All that's left is a short non-fiction piece about "Lost London Writers", from John Scott to Jack Trevor Story. It's apt, because the influence of London is very visible within the stories, it acts as a living breathing backdrop that influences most of the stories in an intimate way. It shows London as a city that changes its inhabitants, and how its inhabitants and their history represents the very soul of the city. It's wonderful, inspiring work, and contains so many very strong and enjoyable pieces that I'd recommend it above all his other short story collections. It represents the best of his recent short work, and the sharing of themes makes it feel far more complete than your average compilation of an author's short fiction.