To the Eel Island

Many people as they get older have to face leaving a village or town they have loved, a place redolent with memories and connections, to relocate somewhere more – as they say – 'manageable.' It is different for everyone, and not always easy, for our ghosts go with us.





But everything connects with everything else. There is no such thing as a new beginning. Such a move need not be a matter for repining and regret, but a new adventure.





This book records just that journey, of having to learn that new place to which Time is bringing you – and populate it with its own stock of private memories.





Charles Moseley writes about his move from a fenland village to the nearby historic little city of Ely and breathes life into the history, natural world and people who have made his new home what it is today.



Charles Moseley grew up on the Lancashire coast, went up to Cambridge to read English, and never left. His varied career includes being a printer, a publisher and a peasant, but has mainly been teaching literature in Cambridge and attempting to persuade his victims to take this pursuit seriously. He has lived in a little Fenland village for a very long time. He also writes books.



Stirring my Stumps        9



Transit and Moonrise    15



The House in Cow Lane               31



Waterland          52



The River             73



Eel Island            91



Peregrinations  97



Getting About   107



Oak, Willow, Stone        118



Saint and Protector        146



Tawdry is as Tawdry Does          158



On Jam and Marmalade, and Other Things        171



A Sea of Bishops, A Forest of Deans      180



Power and the People   209



Frost at Midnight             233



Taking Root        238



Diversions and Distractions      250