By Rob Derry
The Waterman’s storyline spans several centuries, as far back in time as The Celts, but in truth there was never any such peoples, just lots of independent tribes all over the British Isles who may have once originated in mainland Europe and travelled West at the end of the last ice age 10,500 years ago. Most of what we know about the people who came before the Romans – who invaded England in 100AD – comes from the invaders who wrote a very biased history of these supposedly ‘savage’ people and named them The Celts. The Roman occupation pushed them to the very edges of England, which is why the Welsh, Cornish, Scottish and Irish are still considered to have Celtic roots, as some tribes managed to survive there, indeed the Scots north of Hadrian’s wall were named The Picts by the Romans or the ‘painted people’ as their bodies were covered in tattoos and were never conquered.
The Waterman originally had a Prologue, but I was told that many people are put off by these and so I removed it, though it was a key element in my idea as it described the riverbank scene long before the Bridge was ever built and hinted at a mystical power that existed from the very beginning of time from where The Waterman’s story really begins. The Celts believed that water was a gateway to the Otherworld – the realm of spirits – and so to this day we still find fountains in town centres filled with coins, offerings if you like, to the water spirits. The tradition goes back thousands of years and in England many rivers are found with all sorts of ancient artefacts that have been thrown in as votive offerings to the Gods, including swords, coins, bracelets and … human heads.
The Waterman has a couple of ‘loose ends’, and both are intentional:
- The second world war story – it ends abruptly in the book with the statement “It’s over”! I know what happened and it will be explained in Blackouts.
- The story of Thomas Radcliffe himself – I don’t want to say too much on this as it will give away the plot of The Waterman, but I intend to explain all in Bridge Ward Within, which will be set in the 17th century. I intend to go back much earlier, though I’m not yet sure how far.
So, in the end, I am planning on it being a trilogy, but I didn’t want to state that up front as I wasn’t sure if The Waterman would be well received or not and so I wanted to make it a stand-alone story as far as possible and then to write the two prequels. I would love it if I could write all three as independent novels, to be read and enjoyed in any order, but that will be difficult. We will have to see how it pans out.
My ambition like most authors is to become a full-time writer in my retirement, and though I am taking some time off now to finish a few projects, I can’t say that I have achieved that yet. There is still a long way to go before The Waterman trilogy will be completed, but I am hopeful based on several early reviews which have been very positive.
