An original paperback

first published in 1995 by Fern House

19 High Street, Haddenham, Ely, Cambs CB6 3XA

01353 741229

© Copyright Rodney A M Dale 1995

All rights reserved

ISBN 0 9524897 0 8

Said Benjamin Disraeli: 'When I want to read a novel, I write one.' That was how About Time came into being - I wrote the sort of work of fiction that I'd like to read. And writing it forced me to crystallise my ideas about so many things.

The central figure of About Time is Chaite (pronounced with a hard 'CH', and to rhyme with 'mighty') who is killed in a car accident on Wednesday 16 July 1986, the day after her twenty-eighth birthday. And here is a clue to the title, for the book is indeed 'about time' - on the one hand the time fixed by the precise dates which are necessary for the coincidence and synchronicity and sequentiality of life; on the other the timelessness of attitudes and conversations.

Through description and conversation the book observes and explores many topics: from the building of Stonehenge to the afterlife; from the birth of a child to the nature of God; from crematorial ceremony to the loss of a limb.

In About Time we recognise both our importance and our insignificance; things cannot happen other than the way they do. The work recounts Chaite's relationship with Colley, the technical director of a small electronics company. We see them through a window, as others see us in our environment. We can but speculate (if we so wish) on their existence outside the confines of the book - Bishop Berkeley lives.

About Time is constrained between Thursday 30 July 1987 and Cup Final Saturday 21 May 1983, in that order. It is thus 'about time' in another sense - time turned about. A further constraint is that we are in the world of the 1980s; the behaviour and language are those of those times. But as well as being constrained, the book is timeless; here are the hopes and insights and blind spots of Chaite and Colley; they are as human as the fictional Charles Pooter and the very real Samuel Pepys - two others about whom we both know and don't know a great deal. 'There's no such thing as the present: it's merely the interface between the past and the future.' No wonder the more things change, the more they remain the same.

The work has already drawn much interesting and perceptive comment. Tom Rosenthal's observation ('The essentially schematic nature of the book is too intrusive upon the reader's well being') encapsulates what I look upon as success - I'm not seeking to provide an easy read - at least in a philosophical sense. But perhaps Tom was following Colin Haycraft's dictum: 'Sometimes make a friend of an author; never make an author of a friend.' Or, to quote another Haycraftism: 'The easiest thing to say [as a publisher, to someone submitting a book] is "no" - it saves you a lot of trouble, and it seldom turns out that you were wrong.'

I should mention two innovations. First, I have introduced certain typographical devices for setting conversations and thoughts therein - on which much of the book depends. Second, there is an 'interactive index', which provides a literary game, linking allusions (in the text) to their sources (in the index).

Finally, I know that there is an apparent preoccupation with food and drink, but one does spend a lot of one's life considering, preparing and enjoying it.

I hope that you find none of this too intrusive upon your well being.

Rodney Dale

Fern House, Haddenham

February 1995