Man and Other Natural Disasters

“it’s the myth, not the fact, that always proves strongest in the end”

I recently received a beautiful hardback novel in the mail. It came from a Canadian author, Nerys Parry, and she’d sent it to me because the idea for the novel had come from reading one of my uncle’s books.

Through reading Supernature, Parry came up with the character of Simon: a reclusive man hoarding an encyclopaedia of bizarre facts in his brain. In the acknowledgements for Man & Other Natural Disasters, Parry writes:

The inspirations for this book are many and multiple. From a tattered version of Lyall Watson’s ‘iconic’ 1974 Coronet edition of Supernature, salvaged from a garage sale many summers ago, the character of Simon was sprouted. Many of Simon’s theories emerged from Watson’s research into the paranormal, including the references to water’s memory, Ted Serios’ thoughtography, spontaneous human combustion, the climax state, and incidents of coincidence, or “synchronicity”. I am indebted to Watson, who passed away in 2004; he was a visionary, one of those few who are truly unafraid of the unknown and the unknowable. I hope his work continues to surprise and inspire us to see the world with new eyes.

On its own, this would be a lovely tribute but, in the context of reading the whole of Man & Other Natural Disasters, it is a truly glorious re-imagining of Lyall’s work. The novel is compulsive reading. I finished it in a 24-hour period on my Christmas holidays, while listening to the wind roaring through the trees, pounding up a swell on the normally placid lake we like to visit.

There were many beautiful lines that I stopped to re-read for the joy of savouring them, rolling them in my mouth like a taste I didn’t want to finish. “It is not so easy, here, to shake off the long months of cold. They cling to you like guilt, and for so long, you almost can’t believe there is such a thing as the forgiveness of spring.”

Thank you Nerys Parry for writing such a beautiful book and acknowledging my uncle’s influence on its inception. And thank you for gifting me with a copy.