Table of Contents
List of Plates 9
Map: Sandaig 12
Preface 13
Prologue: Encounter with a Guru 17
Part I The Quest for Avalon
1 The House on the Moor 35
2 Mowgli with a Gun 44
3 Breakdown 53
4 The Celtic Fringe 61
5 To the Low Arctic 70
6 A Call to Small Arms 78
7 Harpoon 98
8 'Muldoan!' 112
9 An Artists Life 132
10 The Man of Light 147
11 The House by the Sea 163
12 Writing Man 173
13 The Sicilians 183
14 Into the Great Marshes 198
15 Mijbilm Basra 212
16 Mijbil in London 220
Part II Avalon Found
17 The Bay of Alders 229
18 The Death of Mij 245
19 Writer at Work 252
20 The Ring and the Book 267
21 To the High Atlas 279
22 Avalon Besieged 295
23 Ring of Bright Water 313
24 The Haywire Winter 326
Part III Avalon Lost
25 End of the Idyll 349
26 The Habitat of Marriage 366
27 Break-up 382
28 Finale 398
29 A Chapter of Accidents 413
30 A Pattern of Islands 433
31 On the Rocks 453
32 Bitter Spring 465
33 The Curse 477
34 The Rearguard Action 488
35 Revived Fortunes 498
36 Fire and Ice 508
37 The White Island 514
38 Opting Out 525
39 A Bright Bitter Sea 540
40 No Coming Back 554
41 The Tunnel 564
Notes 581
Acknowledgements 583
Bibliography 585
Index 597