FRANK'S father digs peat near Glastonbury. As the soil is gruesome stories emerge of Jesus' blood caught in the Holy Grail, Merlin buried alive in a gold coffin, Abbot Whiting crucified for refusing to give up the abbey to Henry VIII and the 1685 Battle of Sedgemoor when the peat channels ran red with blood.
On his deathbed Frank delves into his own past, recalling these stories and a darker, deeply buried episode when his older sister believed a tale so literally that it had terrible consequences.
Closely observed and earthily humorous Black Dirt perfectly catches a rural childhood.
Beautifully and economically written, it is a small masterpiece.
Frances Perkins
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