Avalonians (The)

When The AVALONIANS was first published in 1993, it placed before the world previously unknown or unexplored aspects of the Glastonbury story and its personalities. The seminal figure who emerged from the shadows to become the prime mover and shaker of everything that followed was shown to be the medic and antiquarian John Arthur Goodchild who died in 1914. Under what seemed to be psychic direction, he placed a curious glass vessel within the waters of a spring outside the town known as Bride's Well. This took on the character of a kind of ritual enactment, requiring a woman to receive the inspiration to retrieve it. If she did, the world would be changed. In the later stages of this experiment he involved his friend, who bore the dual literary personality of William Sharp/Fiona Macleod. True to Goodchild's design, the object was indeed recovered as hoped for, and events took on a momentum of their own to draw in such young enthusiasts as Wellesley Tudor Pole and his “triad” of maidens. Others soon arrived to include the educationist Alice Buckton, the architect and psychical researcher Frederick Bligh Bond, the composer Rutland Boughton - much indebted to Fiona Macleod, and the occultist and white magician Dion Fortune. The author and publishers agree that the time has now come to review and expand the material originally presented in The AVALONIANS in the light of new information and research. While retaining much of the original text, every effort has been taken to ensure that this second edition is even more accurate than before, taking care to respect its deserved acclaim as the definitive account of the Avalonian revival.