Brian Gallagher Adds Graphic Art to The Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse

Summary: Brian Gallagher adds graphic art to The Winter Ghosts, historical fiction novel by Kate Mosse about Good Christians in 14th-century southwestern France.

"God talks to human beings through many vectors: through each other, through organized religion, through the great books of those religions, through wise people, through art and music and literature and poetry, but nowhere with such detail and grace and color and joy as through creation. When we destroy a species, when we destroy a special place, we're diminishing our capacity to sense the divine, understand who God is and what our own potential is." Robert Francis Kennedy Jr., April 19, 2023, Boston Park Plaza Hotel, Back Bay, Boston, Massachusetts.

“And there’s many people out there who want us to move to the next planet already and I’m like, hang on, let’s not give up on this planet yet," William, Prince of Wales, July 31, 2023, Sorted Food food truck, London, England, United Kingdom.

Graphic art by Brian Gallagher for the chapter Stories of Remembrance and Loss acknowledges how war-time actions by the Royal Sussex Regiment, with the motto Honi soit qui mal y pense ("Ashamed be who evil there thinks"), affect central character Frederick Watson emotionally and psychologically in The Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse; Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2019, 14:12, image of "Colour-faded emblem on the Drill Hall built 1914," Down Road, Bexhill-On-Sea, Rother District, East Sussex, South East England: Alexis Markwick (Dr-Mx), Public Domain CC0 1.0 Universal, via Wikimedia Commons

Brian Gallagher adds graphic art to The Winter Ghosts, historical fiction novel by Kate Mosse about Good Christians, acknowledged as Albigensians and Cathars (from Greek καθαροί, “pure ones”), in 14th-century southwest France.

The novel based in and near the French Pyrenees (from Greek Πῡρήνη, “fruit-stone” to Latin Pȳrēnaeī to French Pyrénées) begins with a map bearing Cathar-befriending birthplaces. The chapter La Rue des Pénitents Gris (“The street of the gray repentants”) configures the Saurat bookstore where central character Frederick Watson comprehends a cryptic communication. The chapter Tarascon-sur-Ariège depicts the Austin driven by Frederick Watson to an on-street parking space just before where one village road divides into a Y-delineated intersection.

The chapter The Storm Hits exposes that Austin endangered by a mountain-road blizzard and entombing Frederick Watson until the latter exits for Nulle village December 26.

The chapter The Path Through the Woods furnishes frighteningly dark trees, many with roots heaving maple- (Acer spp-) like, over which Frederick Watson somehow never falls.

The chapter The Village of Nulle guards Place de l’Église (“Square of the church”), with its tabac (tobacconist) with a steepled building and two winter-bare trees. The chapter Chez les Galy (“At the Galy[‘s, from Occitan gal, "rooster"]") has a bedroom whose blanketed bed heats Frederick Watson from his horrible-weather, mountain hike. The chapter The Man in the Mirror invokes the inn clock, whose indication of 10:00 p.m. informs Frederick Watson of his Saint-Étienne (“Saint Stephen [Day]”) invitation.

The chapter La Fête de Saint-Étienne (“The feast of St. Stephen”) joins imaged chapters jubilating graphic art with words in The Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse.

The chapter Stories of Remembrance and Loss keepsakes the Royal Sussex Regiment emblem with Honi soit qui mal y pense (“Ashamed be who thinks evil there”).

The chapter Under Attack leads Frederick Watson, with Fabrissa, to the town-hall door to the tunnel lying under Ostal (from Latin hospitāle, “inn” to Occitan ostal). The chapter The Yellow Cross manifests the tunnel that mounts ever steadily to its meeting with the outside world whose monitors murder those with second yellow crosses. The chapter Exodus niches a bridge near a mountain village in which nestles a lone church steeple even as Cathar-nurtured villagers need non-partisanly spirit-nourishing nooks elsewhere.

The chapter At the Break of Day offers gray-green forests snow-peaked Roc de Sédour under a big, risen sun in The Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse.

The chapter The Breillac Brothers presents a blackbird (Turdus merula) poised on a flower-, foliage-, fruit-less branch even as Frederick Watson possibilitizes a robin (Erithacus rubecula).

The chapter An Idea Takes Hold queues the Baedeker (“travel-guide maker”) tourist book with its map quartering Miglos (from Occitan Miglòs, “[temple-god] Mercury”) and Nulle (“nobody”). The chapter The Cave Discovered reveals the mountain plateau and ridge, near gray-green trees and with the entrance still retained despite six centuries of rough weather. The chapter Bones and Shadows and Dust shelters the coarse-woven, rough-textured parchment that Frederick Watson shows to Librairie Saurat (“bookstore smoke”) staff specialized in Occitan script.

Graphic art by Brian Gallagher for the chapter Return to La Rue des Pénitents Gris transmits Saurat bookstore interiors in The Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse.

Graphic art by Brian Gallagher affirms, for the chapters Tarascon-sur-Ariège and The Storm Hits, how automobiling in a yellow Austin Seven November and December 1928 agrees with the mountain-air agenda to which his doctor alerts central character Frederick Watson to alleviate personal and professional anxieties. The years 1920 to 1939 announce automobile production of the Austin Seven; Sunday, Feb. 15, 2009, 12:00, image of yellow 1928 Austin 7 at Classic Car Show, Trentham Gardens, Trentham Estate, village of Trentham, southern Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, West Midlands, west central England: 111 Emergency from New Zealand, CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Graphic art by Brian Gallagher for the chapter Stories of Remembrance and Loss acknowledges how war-time actions by the Royal Sussex Regiment, with the motto Honi soit qui mal y pense ("Ashamed be who evil there thinks"), affect central character Frederick Watson emotionally and psychologically in The Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse; Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2019, 14:12, image of "Colour-faded emblem on the Drill Hall built 1914," Down Road, Bexhill-On-Sea, Rother District, East Sussex, South East England: Alexis Markwick (Dr-Mx), Public Domain CC0 1.0 Universal, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Royal_Sussex_Regiment_emblem,_Drill_Hall,_Down_Road,_Bexhill.jpg

Graphic art by Brian Gallagher affirms, for the chapters Tarascon-sur-Ariège and The Storm Hits, how automobiling in a yellow Austin Seven November and December 1928 agrees with the mountain-air agenda to which his doctor alerts central character Frederick Watson to alleviate personal and professional anxieties. The years 1920 to 1939 announce automobile production of the Austin Seven; Sunday, Feb. 15, 2009, 12:00, image of yellow 1928 Austin 7 at Classic Car Show, Trentham Gardens, Trentham Estate, village of Trentham, southern Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, West Midlands, west central England: 111 Emergency from New Zealand, CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Classic_Car_Day_-_Trentham_-_15_Feb_2009_-_Flickr_-_111_Emergency_(53).jpg

For further information:

Dictionnaire de l’Occitan Médiéval. DOM en ligne. Munich, Germany: Bavarian Academy of Sciences..
Available @ https://dom-en-ligne.de/dom.php?lhid=4dqN83calp4xbiz5Nsx8Wu

Lepage, Denis. 2024. Avibase – Bird Checklists of the World France.” Avibase – The World Bird Database > Checklists > Avibase – Bird Checklists of the World > Europe > France.
Available @ https://avibase.bsc-eoc.org/checklist.jsp?region=FR

Marriner, Derdriu. 26 January 2024. "Kate Mosse Adds A Fictitious Place to Real Places in The Winter Ghosts." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2024/01/kate-mosse-adds-fictitious-place-to.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 19 January 2024. "Kate Mosse Assembles Fictitious and Real People in The Winter Ghosts." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2024/01/kate-mosse-assembles-fictitious-and.html

Mosse, Kate. October 2009. The Winter Ghosts. London UK: Orion Publishing Group.