Robin Pritchard

The Urban Mystic Robin Pritchard

Set in dystopian society, where organised religion has died out and politics are at meltdown, Gregory is kidnapped by the Dean of a remaining cathedral to serve as resident mystic. Noticed by his abductors for winning an award for his poem, Chosen, Gregory fights confinement in a cell deep in the heart of the ancient St. Arburn's Cathedral. So harsh are the Dean's methods that they break his spirit and health initially. We share Gregory's rite of passage, coming to terms with his mission as he tries to prove or dismiss the divine, renewed by transformative relations, first with the Dean, then with Bailey, the Dean's sadistic henchman, and last with Little, the Dean's empathetic daughter. As the political situation worsens and the UK splits into city-states Gregory's enlightenment restores St. Arburn's ancient name for spirituality. This causes envy in the nearby Persfeld city-state, so that Gregory is forcibly rescued and held in a Persfeld cathedral. Here Gregory suffers further brainwashing at the hands of the cathedral Intelligence Officer, passed off to Gregory as his valet. Now heading a cities-based spiritual revival, Gregory is emerging as national figure, when we learn that the Persfeld 'experiment' has failed to conform Gregory to the mission to sideline St Arburn's. The Persfeld cathedral chapter has Gregory certified to a mental asylum, which Gregory escapes from thanks to the Dean of St. Arburn's, who stages Gregory's triumphal release and return, to resume his St Arburn internship. Political and social chaos outside leaves St Arburn's internally undisturbed so that only civil war's onset presents Gregory with a way out. By now mystical experiences and empathy with pilgrims who flock to confide in him make it easy for him to will startling changes in his own behaviour. A momentous example is Gregory's meek and willing return to his cell to the St Arburn team's open-mouthed astonishment. War now traps the protagonists within St Arburn's and Gregory's personal magnetism radiates change in those near him - his and Little's mutual attraction turns to love, and friendship displaces the enmity with the Dean. The book ends with Gregory's combat with the maniacal Bailey and the final battle in the country's civil war.