Sam Redlark

Over the weekend I had cause to venture into the unnerving, multi-level attic of our home, in a search for the origin of a disconcerting line of mottled damp that had appeared along a sloping section of the ceiling, just outside the bathroom. My cursory inspection of the point where the roof of the extension joins with the old roof provided me with no insight into the root of the problem, beyond my observation that there are no visible pipes that might be causing the leak. While I was shuffling backwards towards the loft hatch, over a collage of loose wooden boards, I accidentally knelt down on a shoebox, squashing it at one end. I took it with me into the spare room to inspect the contents and to see whether it could be repaired. Inside I found several bundles of very old, miscellaneous photographs, in an assortment of proportions and small sizes, none larger in length or width than three inches. They had been wrapped-up in loosely folded sheets of brown paper that turned out to be di...

Dear British Library, Attached to this email is a file containing my eBook, 'The Missionary Dune' which was published for the Amazon Kindle on the 30th June, 2021. I hope that this will satisfy my legal obligation to deposit a copy of the book with your organisation. It is only right and proper that future generations be given the same opportunity to ignore its existence as those who are currently living. Prior to writing this email, I had been advised by a member of your Digital Processing Team that a zipped copy of my book could be downloaded from my KDP dashboard. This proved not to be the case. I have since discovered that, because the book was produced using Kindle Create, it cannot be downloaded and previewed offline. I duly contacted Amazon requesting guidance. They sent me the link to the file that you now have in your possession. You will find the relevant part of the email that Amazon sent me trowelled onto the bottom of this communication. It is my un...

We (that is Neale Venise and myself) had been trying to work out what had changed in the Ténéré – an area of sandy plains located in northern-central Sahara desert. It is within the shifting topography of this desolate region that immense storms, manifesting as curtain walls of roiling dust hundreds of feet high, lay down their foundations. Once they grow beyond a certain critical mass they untether themselves and advance approximately westwards at a walking pace, until they hit the coast, at which point they deviate north or south, entering the subtropical zones as windless monsoons that leave incongruous dunes in their wake. These storms are slow to germinate, usually building to a peak over several months. Their roots lie in the electrical charge that is generated by sand particles moving against each other. These currents form meandering v-shaped channels in the sand that can stretch for thousands of miles. Typically when a gathering storm decamps it will remain close to the ground...