Medieval tomb time

I haven’t written or edited a word of my novel today. The 170,000 word document remained unopened for the first time since I set myself the goal at the beginning of March of getting it completed within 90 days. This was in part due to today being another Ikea flat-pack assembly day (a white bedside table to go next to the four poster bed – turned out perfectly first time for a change). The lack of writing progress was also due to a more interesting cause, which was that I finally made it over to Chichester cathedral to take a close look at the Arundel tomb to see how I can incorporate it into the plot of The Sphinx Scrolls.

The Arundel tomb, in common with most of my self-assembly furniture, has a few bits broken off. A carving of a dog is missing its nose, giving it a distinctly porcine appearance. The knight himself has a rather unconvincing replacement nose which is black (the rest of him is grey stone) giving him the look of a dark-nosed drink enthusiast. The stone sword that once lay by his side has clearly met with an unfortunate end, and only its hilt remains. His wife is lacking a finger. Other than that they’re in pretty good shape considering the effigies were carved about 635 years ago. Philip Larkin’s poem is hanging on a pillar next to the tomb, and very few people paid it any attention.

Here’s how the tomb looks:

And this is a close-up of them holding hands:

One of the most interesting features of this cathedral is the remains of the significant Roman building that lies beneath it. The cathedral was built almost 1,000 years ago, and by then the Roman ruins they built over were already themselves 1,000 years old. The sheer scope of history visible in this place is phenomenal. Here’s a picture of the Roman mosaic and pottery found beneath the floor of the cathedral:

The fact that this cathedral was built over the remains of an earlier civilisation is an interesting parallel to one of the themes of the novel, so I think I’ll bring this into the story somewhere.