Lawrence Santoro (1942–2014)

This is an alternate history story, set in a world where religion died out in prehistoric times and time travel was invented during the 19th century. The story is set in 1902, at King's College, which was built in the middle of Salisbury Plain because it was an empty landscape and a lot of space room was needed for the time travel apparatus, which consists of enormous concentric rings around the college.

The literary historians, who are top of the academic hierarchy, use the time travel device to go back into the past to answer questions such as whether Queen Elizabeth was a virgin and whether Charles Dickens declared his love for Queen Victoria out of true love or expediency. The story begins as the literary historian Lesser Master Philby is about to be demoted, having been persuaded by his devious colleague Master Mary Mariah to go unprotected into the past, which is against all the rules, as it is feared that unprotected time travel will lead to changes that are noticeable in the future. But Mary Mariah has not just done this to spite him as he believes; she has a theory about time travel that she needs Philby's help to investigate.

I listened to this novella as a three-part podcast, and I must admit that I nearly gave up after the first part, as it was slow-going and fairly incomprehensible, but decided to continue because I wanted to find out the explanation for the discrepancies that I kept noticing. It wasn't until half-way through the second part when Master Mary Mariah explains her theory to Philby at the Prospect of Whitby (or wherever) pub, that the story really hooked me, and I did enjoy the second half.… (mais)