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The Reluctant Ascent of Nevil Warbrook, in his own words: Volume One, Intimations of Mortality
A must-read alongside the author’s acclaimed restoration of This Iron Race
Edenborough Review of Books
Born in 1957, Nevil Warbrook was the only son of the poet Thomas Warbrook. Author of The Deeper Well and The Wandering Minstrel he was a respected authority on Scottish literature and Sir Tamburlaine Bryce MacGregor. His most recent work was the restoration of MacGregor’s novel, This Iron Race, published by Hare & Drum and intended to debunk conjuror-turned-psychic Hendryk van Zelden’s claim that MacGregor was a sorcerer. Divorced, Nevil shared a house with two bad-tempered Persian cats in the Wiltshire village of Avebury, famous for its ancient stone circle, and was a much-loved member of the church and community.
Intimations of Mortality describes Nevil’s first encounter with O’Brien, Hare & Drum’s mysterious and otherworldly proprietor, before a week tutoring at a Creative Havens writing retreat in Glastonbury ends in hospital. At home in Avebury he is a steadfast supporter of tradition at St James’s Church, Avebury, and celebrates Easter with a dawn procession. Publicity duties promoting This Iron Race do not go well and then a week at a health farm in Malvern brings pain, unexpected reward, and a prophecy. Meanwhile, encounters with a spectral white horse come to a head during a second writing retreat at Uffington before dreadful news at St James’s leaves him questioning his mortality.
Nevil leaves behind a son, Gerald, who volunteers at a refuge in Sumatra for the rehabilitation of orphaned orangutans.
His present whereabouts are unknown.
Best damned writer I’ve had
Desmond Catterick, his agent
We are working on several lines of enquiry into Nevil Warbrook’s disappearance but have no news to report
Detective Inspector Plum
Edenborough Review of Books
Born in 1957, Nevil Warbrook was the only son of the poet Thomas Warbrook. Author of The Deeper Well and The Wandering Minstrel he was a respected authority on Scottish literature and Sir Tamburlaine Bryce MacGregor. His most recent work was the restoration of MacGregor’s novel, This Iron Race, published by Hare & Drum and intended to debunk conjuror-turned-psychic Hendryk van Zelden’s claim that MacGregor was a sorcerer. Divorced, Nevil shared a house with two bad-tempered Persian cats in the Wiltshire village of Avebury, famous for its ancient stone circle, and was a much-loved member of the church and community.
Intimations of Mortality describes Nevil’s first encounter with O’Brien, Hare & Drum’s mysterious and otherworldly proprietor, before a week tutoring at a Creative Havens writing retreat in Glastonbury ends in hospital. At home in Avebury he is a steadfast supporter of tradition at St James’s Church, Avebury, and celebrates Easter with a dawn procession. Publicity duties promoting This Iron Race do not go well and then a week at a health farm in Malvern brings pain, unexpected reward, and a prophecy. Meanwhile, encounters with a spectral white horse come to a head during a second writing retreat at Uffington before dreadful news at St James’s leaves him questioning his mortality.
Nevil leaves behind a son, Gerald, who volunteers at a refuge in Sumatra for the rehabilitation of orphaned orangutans.
His present whereabouts are unknown.
Best damned writer I’ve had
Desmond Catterick, his agent
We are working on several lines of enquiry into Nevil Warbrook’s disappearance but have no news to report
Detective Inspector Plum
- GenresFantasy
324 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 18, 2023
4 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
December 14, 2023
Nevil Warbrook's diaries are designed to be read alongside 'his' newly edited versions of Sir Tamburlaine MacGregor's nineteenth century trilogy, This Iron Race.
Nevil's busy working on the second volume of MacGregor's work, and is finding that his notes and original draft are even further from the published version than was the case with the first volume. This causes him some consternation, as he only really got involved in the first place to clear up the wild accusations that MacGregor knew more about the practices of magick than might be deemed acceptable in an educated man of his time. (And for the money.)
Despite his erudition Nevil can be quite stupid - and his life is an often awkward and uncomfortable affair as he tries to negotiate a world he finds more confusing than he generally likes to let on. Despite his small-c-conservative nature and endless inability to read people effectively, I am quite fond of him. He tries (reasonably) hard to be a good editor, a good neighbour, and a good member of the parish council and the dominoes team. The strange experiences he's been having lately are clearly not supernatural or paranormal in any way. That would be ridiculous.
The diaries, like This Iron Race, are set in an alternative version of Britain and I love the slightly off-kilter historical and social details. You really do need to read Volume One of This Iron Race first, though, or much of this will be opaque to put it mildly.
Nevil's busy working on the second volume of MacGregor's work, and is finding that his notes and original draft are even further from the published version than was the case with the first volume. This causes him some consternation, as he only really got involved in the first place to clear up the wild accusations that MacGregor knew more about the practices of magick than might be deemed acceptable in an educated man of his time. (And for the money.)
Despite his erudition Nevil can be quite stupid - and his life is an often awkward and uncomfortable affair as he tries to negotiate a world he finds more confusing than he generally likes to let on. Despite his small-c-conservative nature and endless inability to read people effectively, I am quite fond of him. He tries (reasonably) hard to be a good editor, a good neighbour, and a good member of the parish council and the dominoes team. The strange experiences he's been having lately are clearly not supernatural or paranormal in any way. That would be ridiculous.
The diaries, like This Iron Race, are set in an alternative version of Britain and I love the slightly off-kilter historical and social details. You really do need to read Volume One of This Iron Race first, though, or much of this will be opaque to put it mildly.
January 21, 2024
Fascinating continuation of a very original self-published fantasy series. This is the second book, the first being This Iron Race: Book One, although you may not infer that at first glance from their titles or supposed authorship.
Just a reminder: the first book is an unusual mix of a historical fiction written by a renowned 19th century Scottish author with notes and some asides by his contemporary editor (both these characters are created by the real, unnamed author of this series). At the end of book 1 the editor has reconstructed about a third of the historical fiction which had been much altered at publication by its 19th century publishers, mainly because of references to ‘magick', a generally disapproved of background feature of this alternative version of our world.
Onto book 2 and quite a change. Not the same thing at all! It’s entirely about the life of this modern day editor, Nevil Warbrook, via a daily journal he keeps. It details his routine life in the quaint English village of Avebury (real and not far from where I live), known for its Neolithic stone circle. He’s divorced, scrapes a living editing literature (mainly that featured in This Iron Race: Book One) and working at writer’s retreats. He’s a stalwart of the limited social life of the village, a church goer and member of the parish council, and rather too fond of a drink which concerns his doctor. Personally, I didn’t find Warbrook’s character sympathetic, reminding me of a relative I once knew who I really didn’t get on well with. Very representative of a ‘small c’, conservatively minded, old English gentleman stuck in his ways as he gets older.
Nonetheless the author shows some character development for Warbrook, sometimes in a amusing manner. And hidden in the background is the presence of something magical, for want of a better word, with the mysterious events that keep cropping up in Warbrook’s routine life. He’s mostly oblivious to them though, as he is with any attempts by others to broaden his dull domestic life.
The book finishes with Warbrook about to travel to Scotland to further research material on the 19th century novel he’s attempting to reconstruct from original sources. Unlike in This Iron Race: Book One we’ve learnt no more of that story in this book.
Really, this and its predecessor form a very unusual storyline when combined. Cleverly constructed. With hindsight it seems the plot is moving at a snail’s pace, with so much about Nevil’s routine life described between items of unusual note. However, I still found it an interesting read; this tension between Nevil’s routine life and the certain something that’s just not right in the background.
As I said, I didn’t find Nevil sympathetic and one moment jarred a bit for me when he fondly remembers a black pet dog named with the ‘N word’. Sadly, people of a certain generation, consistent with Nevil’s insular conservative outlook, would have done that some decades ago, without thinking (no doubt this is borrowed from an English WW2 war hero who did just that with his dog), so I assume this is part of the character construction. Though it would have sat better with me if the author had made such a comment rather than leaving it open. Family and a more diverse youthful background than Nevil’s make me sensitive to causal use of words like that, even when done to support character development.
Overall, the slow pace of the plot almost moves me to a 4* rating but in the end the sheer originality of the storyline, here and coupled with its predecessor, the very easy reading prose too, mean I have to give it 5*.
Just a reminder: the first book is an unusual mix of a historical fiction written by a renowned 19th century Scottish author with notes and some asides by his contemporary editor (both these characters are created by the real, unnamed author of this series). At the end of book 1 the editor has reconstructed about a third of the historical fiction which had been much altered at publication by its 19th century publishers, mainly because of references to ‘magick', a generally disapproved of background feature of this alternative version of our world.
Onto book 2 and quite a change. Not the same thing at all! It’s entirely about the life of this modern day editor, Nevil Warbrook, via a daily journal he keeps. It details his routine life in the quaint English village of Avebury (real and not far from where I live), known for its Neolithic stone circle. He’s divorced, scrapes a living editing literature (mainly that featured in This Iron Race: Book One) and working at writer’s retreats. He’s a stalwart of the limited social life of the village, a church goer and member of the parish council, and rather too fond of a drink which concerns his doctor. Personally, I didn’t find Warbrook’s character sympathetic, reminding me of a relative I once knew who I really didn’t get on well with. Very representative of a ‘small c’, conservatively minded, old English gentleman stuck in his ways as he gets older.
Nonetheless the author shows some character development for Warbrook, sometimes in a amusing manner. And hidden in the background is the presence of something magical, for want of a better word, with the mysterious events that keep cropping up in Warbrook’s routine life. He’s mostly oblivious to them though, as he is with any attempts by others to broaden his dull domestic life.
The book finishes with Warbrook about to travel to Scotland to further research material on the 19th century novel he’s attempting to reconstruct from original sources. Unlike in This Iron Race: Book One we’ve learnt no more of that story in this book.
Really, this and its predecessor form a very unusual storyline when combined. Cleverly constructed. With hindsight it seems the plot is moving at a snail’s pace, with so much about Nevil’s routine life described between items of unusual note. However, I still found it an interesting read; this tension between Nevil’s routine life and the certain something that’s just not right in the background.
As I said, I didn’t find Nevil sympathetic and one moment jarred a bit for me when he fondly remembers a black pet dog named with the ‘N word’. Sadly, people of a certain generation, consistent with Nevil’s insular conservative outlook, would have done that some decades ago, without thinking (no doubt this is borrowed from an English WW2 war hero who did just that with his dog), so I assume this is part of the character construction. Though it would have sat better with me if the author had made such a comment rather than leaving it open. Family and a more diverse youthful background than Nevil’s make me sensitive to causal use of words like that, even when done to support character development.
Overall, the slow pace of the plot almost moves me to a 4* rating but in the end the sheer originality of the storyline, here and coupled with its predecessor, the very easy reading prose too, mean I have to give it 5*.
February 12, 2024
"The Reluctant Ascent of Nevil Warbrook, In His Own Words: Volume 1 – Intimations of Mortality" is set in a Britain in an alternative universe strikingly similar to our own, with notable exceptions that keep the reader’s nose to the page. For example, there is magick (as Crowley spelled it) but one or two other clues less obvious. In all other regards, village life in this England’s West Country is near-identical to Nevil’s, largely concerning the neighbours, the church and the pub. (There are quite a lot of pubs in Nevil’s life, not because he drinks a lot – see below – but because of the sport of choice for middle-aged, small-c academics.)
The book is narrated in the first person. Nevil’s original reason for keeping a diary was, at his GP’s suggestion, to record the amount of alcohol he – Nevil that is, not his quack – drank in a week. (To be honest, I know people – perhaps too many – who’d consider the author’s weekly intake as a decent warm-up prior to a Saturday night out.) In fact, booze figures among the sacrifices Nevil makes for Lent, under the unsympathetic eye of fellow lay member of the parochial church council, Prue, who ropes him into writing a series of addresses linking their village to aspects of Lent. (This proves an ill-conceived assignment and meets with the displeasure of several parishoners.) He plays dominoes for his pub’s team and occasionally gets himself into hilariously awkward scrapes.
Due to the poor typographical choice of a local radio’s logo, Warbrook finds himself accidentally arguing with a new-age shock-jock over the nature of Victorian author Sir Tamburlaine MacGregor, whose works he is being paid to restore. For, by dint of his conservative (and, I suppose, Christian) character, Nevil is keen to underplay the role of magick in MacGregor’s life. This is thrown into sharp relief by Nevil’s nemesis, Hendryk van Zelden, a stage magician who claims MacGregor was far more invested in the world of magick than his publisher let on.
It’s a bit tricky to put your finger on the genre of the novel. Literary fiction perhaps best suits, so long as one allows for intrusions from historical fiction and fantasy. By turns dark and mysterious, then drily hilarious in the situations Nevil gets himself into, The Reluctant Ascent of Nevil Warbrook: In His Own Words Volume 1 – Intimations of Mortality is an easy and fulfilling read. I enjoyed it and immediately followed with the first book of the restored text Nevil had been working on before his disappearance, "This Iron Race".
The book is narrated in the first person. Nevil’s original reason for keeping a diary was, at his GP’s suggestion, to record the amount of alcohol he – Nevil that is, not his quack – drank in a week. (To be honest, I know people – perhaps too many – who’d consider the author’s weekly intake as a decent warm-up prior to a Saturday night out.) In fact, booze figures among the sacrifices Nevil makes for Lent, under the unsympathetic eye of fellow lay member of the parochial church council, Prue, who ropes him into writing a series of addresses linking their village to aspects of Lent. (This proves an ill-conceived assignment and meets with the displeasure of several parishoners.) He plays dominoes for his pub’s team and occasionally gets himself into hilariously awkward scrapes.
Due to the poor typographical choice of a local radio’s logo, Warbrook finds himself accidentally arguing with a new-age shock-jock over the nature of Victorian author Sir Tamburlaine MacGregor, whose works he is being paid to restore. For, by dint of his conservative (and, I suppose, Christian) character, Nevil is keen to underplay the role of magick in MacGregor’s life. This is thrown into sharp relief by Nevil’s nemesis, Hendryk van Zelden, a stage magician who claims MacGregor was far more invested in the world of magick than his publisher let on.
It’s a bit tricky to put your finger on the genre of the novel. Literary fiction perhaps best suits, so long as one allows for intrusions from historical fiction and fantasy. By turns dark and mysterious, then drily hilarious in the situations Nevil gets himself into, The Reluctant Ascent of Nevil Warbrook: In His Own Words Volume 1 – Intimations of Mortality is an easy and fulfilling read. I enjoyed it and immediately followed with the first book of the restored text Nevil had been working on before his disappearance, "This Iron Race".
July 21, 2025
Intelligent, gentle and often very funny, these 'journals' provide an exceptionally entertaining accompaniment to This Iron Race: Book One and This Iron Race: Book Two. Nevil might be a fictional author but he's very entertaining company. The world he occupies is perhaps even more interesting. It's a close parallel to our own - a familiar mix of pubs, pets and parish councils - but its rules are subtly different and history has taken a different course. The differences, scattered within the narrative, are at once fascinating but understated. It makes for an engrossing read, and I recommend it. (So too its sequel: The Reluctant Ascent of Nevil Warbrook, in his own words: Volume Two, Blood & Water.)
October 9, 2024
If you think the journal of a stodgy, middle-aged editor and academic would make for dull reading, at least in this case, you would be very wrong. Formatted as a series of slice-of-life episodes as Nevil edits a new edition of This Iron Race (an 1860s novel), works as a tutor at writing retreats, attends a new-age health spa, plays dominoes, and serves on his church’s council (and tries to improve his diet), the story builds into something more mysterious and magical than the narrator realizes.
I enjoyed this detailed view of an ordinary life in a seemingly ordinary world (that is not quite our world), with a fantastical undercurrent. Nevil values tradition and order, but his life keeps being upended by events large and small. He seems to not realize himself how much he longs for magic and mystery, even as they are creeping up on him from all sides. There is gentle humor and pathos throughout, which make Nevil an agreeable companion. I had previously read the first volume of This Iron Race, and recognized much of what Nevil wrote about in this journal. I applaud the imaginative author of both projects—it’s fiction all the way down.
I enjoyed this detailed view of an ordinary life in a seemingly ordinary world (that is not quite our world), with a fantastical undercurrent. Nevil values tradition and order, but his life keeps being upended by events large and small. He seems to not realize himself how much he longs for magic and mystery, even as they are creeping up on him from all sides. There is gentle humor and pathos throughout, which make Nevil an agreeable companion. I had previously read the first volume of This Iron Race, and recognized much of what Nevil wrote about in this journal. I applaud the imaginative author of both projects—it’s fiction all the way down.
November 3, 2023
I had the honor of beta-reading this book. Let me put it like this: Imagine an almost archetypical boomer kind of guy, conservative as anything, who sets out to edit a book in order to prove the author was just as conservative as himself, only to find himself slowly but surely surrounded by subtle threats, by hints of magic, slipping further and further into something beyond his control, beyond his imagination, beyond his capabilities. Neville is the sort I probably wouldn't know what to talk about with in real life, but reading about his struggles was strangely captivating.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews