'A Fickle Pendulum assays belief and doubt through three historical figures - St. Thomas the Apostle, Galileo Galilei and Laura (Riding) Jackson - and uses them to pivot into wider thematic worlds. The writing is thoughtful, exploratory and never weighed down by its subject matter, and the language vibrant and rich in metaphor. The reader ineluctably mixes Paul Scully's meditations with his or her own.' (Publication summary)
'These voices that diarise from the crypts of the past have names already writ but identities riddled with doubt. For every one rendition of St Thomas there is three and for every St John there is two only to be mirrored and augmented by artistic interpretations through the ages. Opinion, fact, testimony: all jostle for dominance or collapse absentmindedly into song. There are “Postscripts” to the act of sermonising and quarrels over who said what and who is the more worthy of “fame”. Then along come the sweeping robes of others over the dust of roads well-travelled. A good Samaritan here, a “restful” bat there, a “brolga” morphed in legend to the form of a “young girl who gambolled like an aurora and dreamed/ herself wings in the fledging dawn”. A world of textbooks, memories and companionship you open up in book form to understand and close to contemplate.' (Introduction)
'These voices that diarise from the crypts of the past have names already writ but identities riddled with doubt. For every one rendition of St Thomas there is three and for every St John there is two only to be mirrored and augmented by artistic interpretations through the ages. Opinion, fact, testimony: all jostle for dominance or collapse absentmindedly into song. There are “Postscripts” to the act of sermonising and quarrels over who said what and who is the more worthy of “fame”. Then along come the sweeping robes of others over the dust of roads well-travelled. A good Samaritan here, a “restful” bat there, a “brolga” morphed in legend to the form of a “young girl who gambolled like an aurora and dreamed/ herself wings in the fledging dawn”. A world of textbooks, memories and companionship you open up in book form to understand and close to contemplate.' (Introduction)
