By Bernie Bell

I first came across Duncan Lunan when he started a campaign to save the Sighthill Stone Circle near Glasgow.  Though this was a ‘new’ circle it was carefully placed, and had become recognized as a ‘place’.  In my view,  the ‘new’ circles matter as much as the ‘old ‘ circles.  If the folk who plan them and raise them know what they’re doing, it’s all the same thing. It doesn’t really matter when they were raised.  If people who know what’s what place these stones or structures in the right places and it ‘works’ – that’s what matters.

Duncan’s campaign was successful in that, though the circle had to be moved, as ‘Development’ is God these days, he was given the opportunity by Glasgow Council to find a fitting site at which to re-erect the stones – this re-siting was recently completed……..

Duncan and I kept in touch, and recently he sent me a copy of his book ‘Children From The Sky’. 

It’s partly an historical novel – albeit an intensely factual one.  It’s kind-of a detective story, as Duncan takes us through the evidence for the children having been there.  And kind-of science fiction, as they are believed to have ‘come from the sky’ and appeared near the village of Woolpit, East Anglia in the late 12^th Century.

Sci-fi stories often begin this way – not in a big city but in a small village, so that the rumours take more time to spread in the local area, and events take more time to develop. ‘The Midwich Cuckoos’ by John Wyndham comes to mind.

The tale ends with an intriguing idea – that, though the boy died within a year, the girl  grew up and married and so descendants of those children could still be here – may walk among us. For that to be possible they would need to have been essentially biologically human themselves – wherever they came from.  A thought to conjure with.

This tale is full of thoughts to conjure with – an immersive read for dreich days.