Dear Wen: Romans…

Dear Wen…

Yeah, yeah… Romans!

I can’t get overly enthused, myself, despite the copious lectures I have had to endure…

Celts versus Romans is, for me, a little like Spartans versus Athenians… No contest.

And my time in Chester contemplating whether or not to apply for the job as a Roman Centurian patrolling the city walls.

For the tourists you understand. Hmm, let’s see now, I think I decided… Not!

It was quite good seeing the recycled roman columns at Chester Cathedral…

…and of course the floor tiles at Little Missenden…

…but for me they were never the main event, just side-shows.

The thought of setting out specifically for something Roman seems anathema especially since the elusive yet copiously signed ‘road’ over the Moors…

Which correct me if I’m wrong but we never quite found did we?

Quite happy to trip up North again…the ‘Loki bound’ stone is interesting… his head bindings could be snakes or even a jester’s cap…

And we always were going to get into Middleton, possibly on the way back to Whitby…

Wasn’t there a ruined Roman Temple in the precincts of Maiden Castle?

Dedicated to Minerva if memory serves…

Fan Mail… who needs it?

You have my permission to instruct the Beast in two new words.

‘Art’ and ‘Prostitution’…

Love,

Don x

***

I had been living in the area for years. I was aware of the hillfort hidden in the woods, could have pointed out the chalk-carved figures, shown you where the burial mounds were and explained how the Ridgeway had traversed these hilltops for the past five thousand years. Even so, the land had never come to life for me.

I am a Yorkshire lass. The moors of home were alive and calling. I needed millstone grit and bracken, peat-gold streams and a sea of heather before the land would sing to my soul.

Until, that is, my friend came to visit.

It was a day of pure magic and the land, no matter where we found ourselves, would never again be silent. By simply paying attention, it was as if the earth was illuminating itself from within, whispering secrets it had been longing to share for millennia and laying before us so many layers of history, story and myth that we were as excited as children in a sweet shop.

That journey would become the basis for The Initiate and all the ‘Don and Wen’ books that followed…

Joining Don & Wen

Stuart France & Sue Vincent

Don and Wen, two friends living hundreds of miles apart embark, all unwittingly, upon a quest through the ancient and sacred landscape of Albion…

The two share a passion for these prehistoric sites, seeing that their potential has not been erased by time, making them as vital and relevant in today’s society as they always were.

Through Don and Wen’s correspondence, learn how to read the clues hiding within the landscape and in the symbols of faith left by our forefathers in the mediaeval churches, stone circles and ancient monuments.

This is the second book in the series, ‘Finding Don and Wen’, but can stand alone. The book may act as a guide to show the reader how to engage with the land in a meaningful way… and how that engagement opens you wide to life in all its glory.