Andrew Sinclair

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The major achievement of Andrew Sinclair (Britain, 1935) is the "Albion trilogy": Gog, Magog and King Ludd. These three historical novels, full of historical references and metaphorical events, reexamine England's past and England's mythology.

"Breaking of Bumbo" (1959)

synopsis forthcoming

"My Friend Judas" (1959)

synopsis forthcoming

"Gog" (1967) + is a fantastic flight of imagination that takes the reader for a tour of mythological and historical England while describing a biblical battle between good and evil.

At the end of WWII a gigantic sailor is washed ashore (naked) in Scotland, after his ship hit a mine. He has lost his memory and only remembers his name, Gog, that is tattoed on one hand. On the other hand, he has tattoed "Magog", a name that elicits anger in him. He is taken to a hospital but soon escapes. Heard from the populist Maurice that the Labor Party has won the election, Gog decides to travel to London, that is now ruled by the "people". But, first, he meets the Bagman, a prophet inspired by the poet William Blake and who interprets Gog's mission as a biblical endeavour. The Bagman prophesizes that two cities will be destroyed and then London will burn down unless the BBC (the British radio) is turned over to him. Then Gog realizes that he is being followed by a woman, Maire, who makes fun of him, and then meets the pixie Cluckitt. Soon Gog discovers that Cluckitt's name is Miniver and that he knows Maire. He is in fact Maire's lover. Gog is afraid of his enemies, the agents of Magog, who surely are trying to kill him. As he continues his pilgrimage to London, Gog's adventures get more and more surreal and often occur after he falls asleep, which may imply he is merely dreaming. Thus, it is not clear whether Maire makes love with her bisexual chaffeur Jules/Julia or it all happens only in Gog's dreams. Ditto for the evil Crook, whose abominable acts include the sodomization of Gog, which occurs, again, while Gog was asleep. Gog also has the vision of an orgy led by Magog. And is convinced that numerous events are assassination attempts, as if someone did not want him to reach London.
When Gog meets Cluckitt again, Cluckitt pretends last time they met was seven years before and that Gog is in reality historian George Griffin, who used to be obsessed with prehistoric British mythology and, in particular, was conducting a research on Gog and Magog. Cluckitt turns out to be an old colleague of his, one who slept with his wife Maire. Did Gog dream the previous events, distorting his past in a Freudian manner, or are Cluckitt and Maire taking advantage of his amnesia? Maire confirms that she is his wife and that she has been playing with him to see if he really lost his memory and how much he remembers. Gog learns that he has indeed a half-brother, whose name is Magnus and that he calls him Magog.
Little by little all the pieces of the puzzle fall in place.
Gog meets his own mother, Merry. Gog has a vision of his son Arthur and then meets a Fat Girl, a simple-minded country maid, who claims to be the mother of Arthur. Gog's son Arthur is therefore a bastard as much as Gog's hated brother Magnus.
Maire drugs Gog (in fact she has used alcohol instead of a drug, but it works fine) to force Gog to tell her everything he remembers. It is revealed that Magnus is a very successful politician who has a strong influence on the government.
Gog meets his own teacher Evans, the man who introduced him to ancient Druidic wisdom, and learns that he, George Griffin, had based his research on how "gogmagog" split into "Gog" and "Magog" on an ancient gaelic text but lost the original and only produced his own english translation. Of course, nobody believed that the gaelic text existed. So Evans fabricated that text.
After meeting again Maurice, also on his way to London, Gog is caught in a bar brawl and Maire has to help him out of jail. Maire tells him that he cannot escape her, because she is inside his mind and he is simply walking back to her in London.
After meeting his mother again, who is now the lover of a wealthy hunter, and visiting holy places (Canterbury) and mythical places (Stonehenge), and being warned by Evans against the Bagman (who is a false druid, while he, Evans, holds the keys to the archives of druidic wisdom that contain all past events and all future events, including the truth about Gog, but which are accessible only to druids), Gog finally reaches London. The first person he meets is the Pardoner, who is running a carriage service to London and abusing a poor donkey so much that Gog punishes the Pardoner and then carries the donkey across the bridge into London.
Gog wakes up in his house. Maire is there and knows nothing of his journey: she was in the ambulance all the time that took him from Edinburgh to London. Jules and Julia are there, respectable servants who are offended by his remarks. Maire tells him that he has not met any of the characters of the novel since before the war. He has imagined everything. Maire checks on the story that he has a bastard son and only finds out that he has adopted a child by the name Arthur.
As Gog walks around the streets of London, he cries to see so much rubble due to the German bombs. The news that the Americans have dropped two atomic bombs on Japan (the Bagman's prophesy) and that Japan has surrendered cause great excitement in the population but terror in Gog, who remembers the Bagman's prophecy: London is about to burn down.
George finally meets with his stepbrother Magnus who reproaches him and tells him he is simply jealous of Magnus' own success, of how smart and handsome Magnus, the illegitimate child, is. Magnus reminds him that he, George, owes everything he owns to a large inheritance from a relative. Magnus has become a close friend of Maire and sides with her in condemning George's spiteful, hostile behavior. Magnus confesses that he was happy about the bombing of London because he believes that London must be destroyed in order to be rebuilt (he is minister for city planning). George drinks too much and loses his temper. Attacked, Magnus runs. George chases Magnus through the city, passing in front of all its legendary places, falling into the den of the Fat Girl from which the Crook emerges naked, and ending in the offices of the BBC, where Miniver is about to interview the Bagman. George thus witnesses the Bagman's self-destruction in the attempt to blow up the BBC. George resumes his mad chase through the streets of London till he breaks into the Parliament and gets on the throne. Finally arrested, George hears Maire and Magnus whisper behind him that they will seize his assetts. But George takes advantage of the huge crowd of drunk people celebrating in the streets and escapes. A bunch of sailors kidnap Maire and George imagines them being subjected to all sorts of orgies, while Magnus gets run over by the crowd.
At the peak of the fervor and the apocalypse, George finds a new meaning in life, as he realizes that he does not believe in the people anymore, he believes in individuals, and even Magnus/Magog is an individual. As he reconsiders the purpose of his life, George is faced with a fork: one way leads back to where he came from, a search for himself; the other way leads to his house, where probably Maire and Magnus are waiting to tell him that he imagined everything again. As he reaches the fork, Gog does not know which way to go.

In Gog's own words: "does it count as a pilgrimage when you're in search of yourself, not of God?'

"Magog" (1972)

synopsis forthcoming

"King Ludd" (1988)

Just before WW II, Gog is a student who is writing his thesis at Cambridge University. He meets sinister people, who turn out to be spies, and his twin brother, Magog, and goes on a pilgrimage to Stonehenge. During the war he successfully employs an ancient Druidic formula to decipher the nazi secret code.