A Unicorn's Word

by G.M.B Maynard

ISBN: 978-1-903908-88-4

Grave-robbing is no longer the global phenomenon it was. You find the odd pocket of it, picked in Egypt, by the rude archaeologist. The genealogist in his ivory tower, archive, on the other hand - that of the quick or collateral dead - is having a field day. A ball. The cannibal that he is... he feeds on blood - a bloodline - not with his canine; he does it, gets away with it, murder, in the broad daylight of academia. A man will lose his ancestor and his ancestor, his reputation. Here, now there a character is assassinated, like the villain of a piece, soap opera. For what? The celebrity of the most anonymous of men, that of the living dead, the genealogist. To play God - genealogist - with a family's genetic heritage, whether the deed is done in the open with a spade, or with a footnote, is an act tantamount to sacrilege. And it is what happened to a member of my own family - to a man whose now broken fingers, if not his spirit, can no longer write his letter of protest. The Unicorn's Word is written with him in mind, touch, if not quite in the full moonlight. It is his book.