This had been gathering dust on the (teetering) TBR pile for years when I remembered the other week how much his later novel The Image of a Drawn Sword had fascinated and unsettled me, and my recent return to the writing of Denton Welch reminded me I had more of Brooke to explore. Like a less waspish Welch (whose journals he would later go on to edit) his was the voice of the outsider who sees the uncanny in the familiar, the mysticism in the landscape, the dangerous allure of the other, the romance of the strange, and the alchemical balm and sting of memory, all underpinned by the twin obsessions of fireworks and orchids. Having finished this haunting trilogy, I now feel like I have to leave a decent interval between this and starting the next book, so as to let it properly sink in and its imprint to remain within me, like the juices from a flower pressed in a book... #jocelynbrooke #orchidtrilogy #militaryorchid #mineofserpents #goosecathedral #orchids #botany #pyrotechny #kent #sandgate #bishopsbourne #dover #italy #war #landandsea #liminallandscapes #memory #pastoral #dentonwelch #gayliterature #books #bookstagram #bibliophilia https://www.instagram.com/p/CBihO0eneha/?igshid=1gdiq0c7zu5iz