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The Light Beneath the Waves
‘The sea is alive. Oh, yes it is.’Mermaids are just in folk tales. They don’t really exist. Do they? The people of Anterwendt think they do – there’s one in the museum – and when Adam and Jana arrive on their way to the New World, they get caught up in local tensions, Imperial intrigue and some ancient and powerful folklore.And then the circus comes to town, but its array of self-proclaimed freaks aren’t the strangest new arrivals, inflaming old prejudices and exposing dark secrets in a fishing community where shipwrecks are a part of daily life and the beach is haunted by … well, no-one’s very sure really.They may be just in folk tales, but mermaid legends are nearly always tragic love stories. That’s practically what they’re for.
388 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 5, 2015
3 people want to read
About the author
Stuart Farquhar
4 booksStuart Farquhar was born at an early age and isn't dead yet, which he considers something of a bonus. He studied psychology at Stirling University (whose students may recognise many of the details of Phelan's University of Archebus) before working as, variously, a kitchen porter, a youth worker, an autism practitioner and sometime trainer. He was never sacked from any of those jobs and presumes they must just have been desperate for staff.
He later studied acting at Fife College where, through a combination of genuine hard work and being so much older than everyone else, he got lots of good parts including Banquo, Judge Hathorne, Sir Mulberry Hawk, child murderer Hans Beckert and anything involving sword fights. After completing the course, he and some mates formed The Imaginary Frends, which laughingly calls itself a professional theatre company on the basis that they split any money they make. They still regard their greatest triumph as being the time they were paid £500 not to perform at the Edinburgh Fringe. As well as acting and writing, Stuart directs, does the music, the artwork and the misprints that lead to the company name being "humorously" misspelled.
His one-act play Death Us Do Part was shortlisted in the SCDA's Play On Words competition and he also wrote a stage adaptation of The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde before co-writing the Imaginary Frends revue shows Faking History and Episode II: Attack of the Clowns with Phil Scary. The latter was written for a comedy festival, which got cancelled when the organisers realised what they were in for.
The Ultimate Dreamer is Stuart's first novel and was mostly written in the evenings after work during a year when his house fell down, a lot of people he knew died and the computer crashed leaving a garbled mess of half-finished paragraphs scattered randomly throughout each other, which he had to meticulously piece back together, although some would say that you can't tell the difference. It's not an editorial method he would recommend to anyone but he certainly knows every flaming word by heart. It may not be the book he originally wrote but it's certainly a book he wrote. Hopefully it's a better one.
He later studied acting at Fife College where, through a combination of genuine hard work and being so much older than everyone else, he got lots of good parts including Banquo, Judge Hathorne, Sir Mulberry Hawk, child murderer Hans Beckert and anything involving sword fights. After completing the course, he and some mates formed The Imaginary Frends, which laughingly calls itself a professional theatre company on the basis that they split any money they make. They still regard their greatest triumph as being the time they were paid £500 not to perform at the Edinburgh Fringe. As well as acting and writing, Stuart directs, does the music, the artwork and the misprints that lead to the company name being "humorously" misspelled.
His one-act play Death Us Do Part was shortlisted in the SCDA's Play On Words competition and he also wrote a stage adaptation of The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde before co-writing the Imaginary Frends revue shows Faking History and Episode II: Attack of the Clowns with Phil Scary. The latter was written for a comedy festival, which got cancelled when the organisers realised what they were in for.
The Ultimate Dreamer is Stuart's first novel and was mostly written in the evenings after work during a year when his house fell down, a lot of people he knew died and the computer crashed leaving a garbled mess of half-finished paragraphs scattered randomly throughout each other, which he had to meticulously piece back together, although some would say that you can't tell the difference. It's not an editorial method he would recommend to anyone but he certainly knows every flaming word by heart. It may not be the book he originally wrote but it's certainly a book he wrote. Hopefully it's a better one.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
January 13, 2015
Mermaids, selkies, finfolk and trows and so much more. If you like reading fiction about these mystical creatures - this is the book for you. Cleverly divided with real legends and folklore introducing each chapter, the book does NOT disappoint and you will keep turning the pages. The Light Beneath The Waves will captivate and take Adam and Jana to a seaside town to investigate a mystery, and uncover the truth. But in this case, truth may be stranger than folklore. Its twists, turns and humour will keep you turning the pages. A must-read!
Displaying 1 of 1 review