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The West Dorset Magazine, August 12, 2022
Culture
Writer Harry’s trilogy goes from Rust to Bones Author and journalist Harry Walton has brought out the second book in his series about life in a postapocalypse England. Rattle of Bones available on Amazon is the sequel to his first book, The Rusting Shires, and he is already working on the finale to this trilogy which he hopes to publish towards Christmas. The characters in Rattle of Bones face new challenges when they are sent to Scotland to see what life has survived there. But a deranged murderess leading a gang of cut-throats is threatening a new Dark Age as she preys on starving survivors in Edinburgh. John and Dawn Kane try to rally opposition to fight her unaware that
NEW BOOK: Harry Walton’s Rattle of Bones
their own little community in Cornwall is facing a terrible and very different threat. Harry, who lives in Weymouth, said: “I have always been interested in the idea of a dystopian society, what would cause it and the challenges that society might face to survive and try and recover. “I chose the Red Plague, a condition causing uncontrolled bleeding, as my decimator, but my real
interest lies in constructing how people try to stay alive in a world where only one in a thousand people have survived. “To put that in perspective, the population of Weymouth, Portland and Dorchester would be reduced to about eighty people and that’s before more lives are lost to murder, disease, accident, injury and hunger. “The more you think about it the more you realise that whole communities would be wiped out and that those who did manage to live for any length of time would have to band together for survival.” His writing schedule is packed with ideas and he has already roughed out a
novel about first alien contact with Earth taking place in Weymouth. That could be published in 2023. Harry said: “I am currently working on a second trilogy for my Rusting Shires and Rattle of Bones characters and there may be a third. On a completely different note, I am working on plot ideas for an historical trilogy set in England and Egypt. “It follows the transformation of a school bully into a top Egyptologist who begins to realise he may have found clues to the location of a vast lost treasure. “To round all this off I plan to write a love story with a difference, so the next six or seven years will be pretty busy!”
The following year he started a new studio on St Michael’s Trading Estate, before launching his own gallery, Bridport Contemporary, at 11 Downes Street in 2019. Over the years, Kit has become well known for his Drip Figure series as well as his Café Royal series as well as a series of paintings of the Marshwood Vale. Kit said: “The early stages of a painting tend to be quite raw with strong colours and vivid tones deliberately exaggerated so I can clearly spell out the grand themes of the painting. “Then it’s a process of patiently building up the many glazes (layers) of oil paint required, gradually toning down the colour
palette to achieve ever greater subtlety over the following weeks and months, improvising and adapting various elements of the painting. “This process means that none of my paintings are rushed, and, essentially, I take as long as I need to achieve the desired result. From there on, it’s all about my relationship with the painting which will continue to evolve and develop in its own way until it feels finished.” Kit will launch his new book at Bridport Contemporary Gallery from 2pm to 6pm on Saturday, August 13. He will also give a talk at Waterstones, Bridport, from 6pm on Wednesday, August 17.
Artist’s career so far brought to book
Landscape artist Kit Glaisyer has compiled 15 years of his paintings into a new book. The Marshwood Vale & Beyond is being published by Downes Street Editions and is available to buy from August 13. Bridport-based Kit’s love of painting began as a boy, accompanying his father on watercolour painting trips around Buckland Newton and Glanvilles Wootton. After leaving school, Kit did a Foundation Studies course at Bournemouth and Poole College of Art, and then started a Fine Art Degree at West Surrey College of Art and Design. He then moved to London where he started his own studios in derelict buildings in Camberwell and
LANDSCAPES: Kit Glaisyer in his Bridport studio
Borough, South London. Kit was later invited to exhibit at the Suzanne Ruggles Gallery in King’s Road, Chelsea. During a trip to the South West in 1998, Kit visited Symondsbury and moved into the Oakhayes Art Residency shortly after.
