The Pixum Papers

England circa 1800ev. Certain deeds have a potential for creation or destruction, for life or death; each action resonates throughout the cosmos — destructive acts can deflect the Arrow of Destiny from its true course.

Thus it is deemed by Higher Orders of Beings to ever be in need of an occasional nudge back on course by the Feathers of Fate.

Mr Podmore Pixum, Mr Bertie Fox and The Teapot Man are The Feathers of Fate.

On their quest to prevent or put right these various transgressions, some earthly, some cosmic, they face danger and annoying disruptions, confront wrongdoers and fight for their lives.

Set in old London Town, East Anglia and Cornwall, these nine tales from within the pages of Mr Pixum’s journals take you into a candlelit world of the grotesque and the magickal, the malevolent and the weird, the transcendental and the mysterious, where the Feathers of Fate come face to face with the curious, the fantastic, the extraordinary and the absurd.

“William J Booker is a talented and versatile writer best known for his classic novel of youth and personal discovery, Trippers. It is a delight to have a second helping of a very different book, The Pixum Papers, a curious but compelling genre, featuring Mr Podmore Pixum, and his friends, Mr Bertie Fox and The Teapot Man.

Collectively known as the (three) Feathers of Fate, the members of this strange fraternity are said by the author to have been ‘chosen to maintain equilibrium across the univi by ensuring the Arrow of Destiny was kept upon its true course.’ The author has therefore given himself a vast, in fact a limitless, canvas upon which to paint these imaginative and wonderful tales.

Mr Pixum is the owner of Westrum Powers, an ancestral pile located in an undetermined part of the Eastern Counties of England. He also has a town house in London, near Hyde Park. He is looked after by his housekeeper, Mrs Enderby, who is also a cook of some distinction, thereby enabling Mr Pixum to entertain his friends in a manner to which they have become accustomed.

Mr Pixum is said to be a mage, mystic, scholar and prophet and he is the driving force of this engaging trio. Bertie Fox is said to be a bon viveur and an epicurean; he is also vain and self-indulgent at times, but the reader willingly overlooks such trifling weaknesses, recognising that he is also a brave and faithful companion. The Teapot Man, famous for wearing an upturned red glazed teapot on his head, is an enigmatic character, more cautious than Bertie Fox, but who has an intellect that sometimes rivals that of Mr Pixum.

The author skilfully conducts the three friends on a series of fantastical and bizarre adventures that constantly charm and surprise the reader. Mr Booker is a writer of distinction who is capable of fashioning language and logic in a manner that would have been applauded by the likes of Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear. The author also appears to be a man who has an appreciation and love of old inns and pubs and in one of the stories in this collection he sends the obliging Bertie Fox on an extended pub-crawl to a variety of oddly-named pubs and inns in order to free himself from a boring and tedious fellow.

It is impossible to classify or summarize these nine tales (and to do so would be to spoil the reader’s pleasure) and one tale in verse, or doggerel, as it is called by the author. If you wish to broaden your horizons, liberate your imagination and be charmed along the way, don’t hesitate – buy this amazing book. You won’t regret it.”

Somerset.wyvern