I hadn't realised that there was some scrawl in the back cover of my edition. I reproduce it here without comment, except a vague sense of concern over those initials. Surely a coincidence? It's well known that the Author never visited this country, except for the obvious occasion and I hardly think that he had time to vandalise a text book.
Our second piece is astonishing. I received a package from a contact who prefers to remain anonymous at this time. I'll quote from the note they included:
"...it was after I left LOCATION REMOVED AT AUTHOR'S REQUEST via the main front gate, that I started to feel an odd sense of disassociation, the strangest feeling...the main road, always so busy normally, was weirdly quiet and even the infamous commissionaire on the gate seemed to not be aware of me....
...it was at this point that I became aware of a ringing telephone. This was startling enough; even at this point (around 19**) public telephones were becoming a rarity, through vandalism and lack of use. There was something oddly insistent about the ringing of this one though, do you know what I mean?
They rang off, of course. They always do. But on the shelf, was a single reel-to-reel tape, labelled in Chinograph. It sounds ridiculous, but I swear to you, it felt just as though my blood ran cold when I saw the name. It couldn't be chance. How many other people would know what that name meant? One thing I couldn't tell you is why I picked the damn thing up.
The second I did, the phone started ringing. But I knew who it would be now - at least I thought I did, seems now like there's more than one it could have been - and I knew I wasn't strong enough to answer, no matter which of them it was.
Listening to it, knowing the story...the Nine Faces. I can't help but envy her."
The first extract is available at the link below.
