A return to Moonfleet
I enjoy good music. I enjoy a good book. When I can find a reason to combine the two, that’s just… good. And today, although neither the book nor the record album are new, I found myself immersed in the two. While on the bus. That’s also good.
First, the book. It came first, and we go back a long way together. Back all the way to 1967, when the book was already close to 70. In people years. Books don’t age in the same manner. We were sitting in a high school English class, and the novel was part of the required reading list. And behold, the book was good. We sat, period after period, while the teacher read aloud to us. Multimedia, in that age. The book was Moonfleet, by J. Meade Falkner. We learn about candles with a pin that would drop to mark a future moment. We learned about coffins, floating in a crypt under the parish church. We learned about smugglers. We were carried to a time before cars and planes and phones and radios, and we were spellbound. I may have a copy of the book, downstairs. I certainly have an ebook copy, and I do go there from time to time. Good books are like that.
Second, the music. An album by Chris de Burgh, entitled Moonfleet and Other Stories, inspired by the book. I saw Chris in concert, a long time ago in Halifax. A city of smugglers and pirates and possibly floating coffins in a crypt. I’m not sure. Anyhow, I grew up listening to the man, and any new music (albeit released back in 2010) is a reason to return and listen. I have.
The album is great. Pardon my bias, but I’m impressed by his taste in literature.
