Clarke, (Victor) Lindsay 1939-

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CLARKE, (Victor) Lindsay 1939-

PERSONAL: Born August 14, 1939, in Halifax, Yorkshire, England; son of Victor Metcalfe (a warehouse foreman) and Clara (Bell) Clarke; married Carolyn Sara Pattinson, 1961 (divorced, 1972); married Phoebe Clare Harris (a potter), October, 1980; children: Madeleine Sara. Education: King's College, Cambridge, received honors degree in English, 1961. Politics: "Green and nonpartisan." Religion: "Nondenominational belief in spirit and soul."

ADDRESSES: Home—Somerset, England. Agent—A. D. Peters & Co., Fifth Floor, The Chambers, Chelsea Harbour, Lots Rd., London SW10 OXF, England.

CAREER: Senior master at high school in Akim-oda, Ghana, 1962-65; College of Further Education, Great Yarmouth, England, lecturer in English, 1965-67; Norwich City College, Norwich, England, coordinator of liberal studies, 1967-70; Friends World College, European Center, Norwich, co-director, 1970-78; freelance teacher, counselor, and writer, 1978—; University of Walkes, Cardiff, writer-in-residence, 1996, associate lecturer in creative writing, 1997—.

AWARDS, HONORS: Whitbread Prize for fiction for The Chymical Wedding, 1989.

WRITINGS:

(Author of foreword) Flowers, Birds, and Unicorns: Medieval Needlepoint, Abrams (New York), 1993.

Lindsay Clarke's Traditional Celtic Stories, Thorsons (London), 1999.

Parzival and the Stone from Heaven, HarperCollins (New York), 2001.

NOVELS

Sunday Whiteman, Jonathan Cape (London), 1987.

The Chymical Wedding, Jonathan Cape (London), 1989.

Alice's Masque, Jonathan Cape (London), 1994.

RADIO PLAYS

Cathal of the Woods, BBC Radio 4, 1994.

A Stone from Heaven, BBC Radio 4, 1995.

The Secret Sharer, BBC Radio 4, 1997.

Because of the Dollars, BBC Radio 4, 1997.

SIDELIGHTS: Lindsay Clarke once told CA: "If I have a lot of faith in the power of story it's because a good story sets the reader free to dream and—like a good dream—it can encourage the effort towards larger consciousness. Struck by the similarities between reading and dreaming (even down to the eyeball movements) I'm inclined to think that story matters to the waking spirit in much the same way that dream matters to the sleeping mind, and that deprived of either we would soon find ourselves less than human.

"It was an urgent and timely dream which reminded me, relatively late in life, that I had always wanted to write, and which gave me the motivation to persevere; so the stories I tell are an attempt to speak from and for those modes of apprehending experience which stand in complementary, connective relation to the dominant values of the rational intellect. They try to hold the ring between the claim of the inner and the outer worlds; but a novel comes to life only in the meeting of the writer's imagination with that of the reader. It is a collaborative enterprise, and one that can widen the flow of sympathy and remind us of what malleable stuff 'reality' is made. But it will do this only to the degree that its more or less complicated games give pleasure, so that, too, is what I try to do."

On the Web site Fix Studio, Clarke reveals that his writing comes from a desire that "was seeded very early by a copy of Grimm's Fairy Tales." Although these stories at first seemed strange and mysterious to him, he soon discovered that he also found something very familiar in them. "I believe now," he writes, "that the pleasures these old stories give have less to do with the fascination of strangeness than with the surprised delight of recognition, for tale after tale is about bringing something to life through the mysterious and difficult processes of self-discovery." It was through the fairy tales that Clarke discovered an "imaginative approach" to the "problem of how one becomes a whole person in a violent, complicated world." The tales offered a "balance between many of the apparently contradictory forces that rack out our lives." The fairytale form still influences his writing as does his love for medieval romance.

Clarke's first published work came in the late 1980s, after a long career in teaching. His work is noted for its innovations in subject matter and form. The fairy tale motif of a protagonist on a quest often surfaces in his stories as does a focus on topics such as alchemy, Celtic legends, African spirituality, and psychological theories as proffered by Carl Jung.

Clarke's first novel, Sunday Whiteman (1987), is based on his experiences teaching school in Ghana. The plot develops from a failed quest in the search for self, when the protagonist, Austin Palmer, suffers a psychological breakdown. Through the story, Clarke explores the concept of "otherness," such as when the protagonist has difficulty in trying to fit into the African culture as a white man, or in terms of his suppressed subconscious emotions. Although critics praised the book, there is little critical analysis of it.

In 1989, Clarke wrote his Whitbread Prize-winning novel, The Chymical Wedding. This story also revolves around a young male protagonist somewhat lost in psychological throes, this time of a failed marriage. Alex Darken retreats to Norfolk, in Eastern England, in order to heal his broken heart, where he becomes involved in the occult. The story takes place on two different time scales—contemporary and Victorian.

The mythical power of the Tarot along with that of dreams is interwoven throughout as the two time periods move closer to one another, seemingly, by the end of the story, happening simultaneously. Concepts of alchemy as well as Jungian theory are also present, as Clarke uses this novel to express his statement of his sexual and spiritual philosophy. One aspect of his philosophy is that by healing the inner, subconscious, one is also able to heal the outer reality. Another underlying theme in The Chymical Wedding is that a union between the conscious and the subconscious must exist in order for a writer to free the creative. The protagonist is a blocked poet, unable to write, as is his Victorian counterpart. The novel ends with both poets rediscovering their poetic voices.

In 1994, Clarke turned to romance with Alice's Masque, a story that involves Celtic fertility rites in which the protagonist, Alice, becomes a party. In this novel, Clarke relies more on the inner development of his characters than on outer reality. Investigation of mythological themes outweighs clearly defined plot points. Due to its nontraditional structure and heavy use of symbolism, critics concluded that it reads more like a poem than a novel. For example, Ruth Pavey, a reviewer for New Statesman & Society, wrote "with his intense, poetic prose, his ability to dovetail the imaginative with the down-to-earth, and his sparkling observation of the natural world, Lindsay Clarke is an exceptional writer." In addition to being impressed with Clarke's ability to write, Pavey stated, "the most striking aspect" of Clarke's story is his "empathetic treatment" of his female characters.

With Clarke's fourth book, Lindsay Clarke's Traditional Celtic Stories (1999), he moves away from novels and takes on the task of retelling several Irish myths. This book includes a long introductory essay in which Clarke presents a brief history of ancient Celtic culture as well as the relevance of each presented story.

In 2001, Clarke saw the publication of Parzival and the Stone from Heaven, a retelling of one of the most famous Arthurian stories—Parzival's quest for the Holy Grail. Once again, Clarke layers his story with a great adventure and the folly of war with a meditation on the inner self and love. The influence of Carl Jung continues in Clarke's writing, added together with the studies and conclusions of the great historian of myths, Joseph Campbell. Clarke has created this work with a focus on having the reinterpretation speak to contemporary times. "The story line may be familiar," wrote a Publishers Weekly reviewer, "but Clarke does a solid job of bringing to life the world of the Arthurian legends" for contemporary readers. This reviewer also praised Clarke for his comprehensive afterword, which "fill[s] in the blanks for modern readers who are unfamiliar with Arthurian culture." A London Times reviewer, Francis Gilbert, also mentioned the afterword, commending Clarke, who "convincingly argues that the story has much to say about our lives today."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Contemporary Review, July, 1989, Betty Abel, review of The Chymical Wedding, pp. 45-48.

Library Journal, October 1, 1989, David W. Henderson, review of The Chymical Wedding, p. 115.

New Statesman & Society, November 17, 1989, Craig Cairns, review of The Chymical Wedding, p. 33; January 14, 1994, Ruth Pavey, review of Alice's Masque, p. 38.

Publishers Weekly, August 11, 1989, Sybil Steinberg, review of The Chymical Wedding, pp. 442-43; November 12, 2001, review of Parzival and the Stone from Heaven, pp. 35-36.

Times (London), August 29, 2001, Bel Mooney, "Knight Who Can't Escape His Doom," review of Parzival and the Stone from Heaven, p. 15, Francis Gilbert, "A Knight's Tale," review of Parzival and the Stone from Heaven, p. 20.

Times Literary Supplement, December 18, 1987; April 14, 1989, Anthony Thwaite, review of The Chymical Wedding, p. 403.