The cathedral is a wonder, and even though I am more accustomed to white-washed walls in churches, it never fails to give a nudge of the sublime. I began with The Gallows Pole when I was part of the panel that longlisted the book for The Republic of Consciousness prize in 2018. The stories we tell one another are all that shall remain when time dies and even the strongest sculpted stones crumble to sand. The first section is perhaps the most innovative, with prose poetry mixed with a story told from attributed quotes from various sources, ancient and modern, on which Ben Myers has drawn.

The five books and a prologue span just over a thousand years and drop us into vignettes from the dead saint’s life and legacy.When Viking raiders arrived, Cuthbert’s body was taken to the mainland by a band of loyal monks, generations of whom traipsed around with it while battles raged until a sign from God (or simple fatigue) told them to stop on a hilltop. My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George, about a city boy who runs away to the Catskills, sparked something inside, as did Danny the Champion of the World by Roald Dahl. Ediva’s narrative in book one dances off the page in a free-flowing, discursive stream, forever on the point of coalescing into more formal poetic structures. As you read you initially feel impressions of the story rather than discerning any plot but as the parts move on the stories become more concrete.

Despite being one of the few bands in the scene that was not straight edge, Sour Face became the mascots, with their third performance seeing them open for NOFX. Books are often described as “bold”, and it is usually held in punctuation mark pincers, to mean “but I didn’t like it”. I read Book I with enthusiasm, its verse-like format and fragments of historical detail building a picture of his 10th-century followers ("this colourful caravan of committed Cuddy acolytes / this coffin-carrying cult, forever on the flit, / forever making camp and breaking camp") as they travelled with his remains and envisioned a home for them at Durham. As Michael comes to realise, he too is part of a never-ending history, “one more link in a chain of people … a continuum”.Distinguished speakers investigate those things in which we believe deeply – and for which we would be prepared to make a costly stand. Even though I’m not a religious believer, I grew up surrounded by the ideas of these saints who were all part of the older kingdoms of the north of England, and who shaped the country as we recognise it today: Aiden, Bede and, most significantly, Cuthbert. But through all the changes the one voice that never leaves is that of the saintly Cuthbert who never quite seems to get his wish to be left alone to worship God. And can we create authentic and believable characters who are different from ourselves, in terms of race, gender, sexuality? But, they are of course linked by a shared sense of place and a history which ultimately binds them together, if not as seamlessly as one might expect.

I loved how Cuddy was an element of all of the parts which are spread over history from the 900’s through to 2019, but the way he was referenced was unique each time. Because of this, it feels like four disparate stories that have been cut and paste next to each other, rather than like four stories working together as one. It seems as if, as Faulkner said, the past is not over, it’s not even past yet, as spectral chimes from previous chapters intrude upon the present.He began life as a lowly boy shepherd and ended it as a famed religious hermit, holed up on a rocky island off the Northumbrian coast. Published by Bluemoose Books, it won the inaugural Gordon Burn Prize [8] and was longlisted for 3:AM Magazine.