This looks interesting. And what a name! Merlin Sheldrake, sounds like a combo’ of Arthurian legend, psychedelia, ‘natural philosophy’ and twitching, all rolled into one wonderfully florid name.
I’d never heard of this guy, till I received an email from Topping Books, in which he’s one of several forthcoming author/book talk attractions. Of course, I’d heard of his dad, Rupert Sheldrake. More on this later.
Most of the (more stylish) pics on this post come from Merlin’s own very attractive and interesting website. Including this beauty:
As already alluded to above, a little bit of online research unearthed the result I anticipated: Merlin, and brother Cosmo, are the sons of Rupert Sheldrake.
Merlin is also, like brother Cosmo, a musician, playing piano and accordion. But, whereas with Merlin music is not what he’s famed for, brother Cosmo is first and fivemost (as my dad was fond of saying) a musical artist. His website is also worth checking out.
Returning to Merlin’s book (his first!), I actually prefer the cover of the illustrated edition, pictured below. And ours in support of this that’s he’s touring with the current crop of talks. Indeed, this is the book you get if you pay the hefty (£30) full ticket price.
We got the cheaper (£8) sans book tickets. And we, Teresa and I, are going with a pal (and her ‘plus one’). Something we have almost never done before! If I were more flush with capital, I’d unquestionably have got the gorgeous illustrated version. But straitened times won’t allow it right now.
Unsurprisingly, there’s a link with psychedelics. That may be problematic for me, as my experiences in that area, which started out ecstatically, rapidly descended into frightening bouts of extreme depression and paranoia.
But from a broader perspective – and hearing that Sheldrake may talk as much music and philosophy in this book as he does fungi – this looks very much like my cup of Java.