The Odyssey Of A Dogged Optimist Robert Meadley Robert Meadley read Colin Wilson’s autobiography, Dreaming To Some Purpose This is the result: The Odyssey Of A Dogged Optimist with an afterpiece called, ALMERIC WISTER , or THE BLIGHTERS BIT! Guest Appearances by JOHN AUBREY, GEORGE BORROW, the Poet VIRGIL, LUCY, and JOE ORTON; & the Long Arm of TESTICLES THE TAUTOLOGIST! Savoy Books Savoy Books 446 Wilmslow Road Withington Manchester M20 3BW offi
[email protected] www.savoy.abel.co.uk First published in Great Britain 2004 by Savoy Books Text copyright © Robert Meadley 2004 This book copyright © Savoy 2004 Also by Robert Meadley in Savoy Books A Tea Dance at Savoy (2003) 1. The Serious Business I left the crowd to gape and stare at the white marble Death Chamber, and, crossing South Fifth Avenue, walked along the western side of that thoroughfare to Bleecker Street. Then I turned to the right and stopped before a dingy shop which bore the sign: Hawberk, Armorer Robert W. Chambers, The King in Yellow the mystery of naming I was walking the dogs in Gledhow woods the other day, along the track by the lake, when we met a guy with a skittish young bitch, the sort of light-boned hound they send after foxes in the Lake District. The bitch stopped to play with my dogs, both male, and both unneutered, though no longer young. I’d have liked to discuss the bitch’s ancestry, but the man—who I’ve never seen before, or since—seemed a bit harassed and in a hurry, and walked on, calling the bitch to follow him.