Phil Rickman

 I've just seen on Facebook that local author Phil Rickman has died.  I think he'd been ill, but it was still unexpected.

Phil wrote the Merrily Watkins series of mysteries, set around Herefordshire, including The Magus of Hay, with one body turning up in Cusop Dingle.  Merrily Watkins was the Herefordshire Deliverance Minister - or exorcist, and a lot of local folklore was included in the books.  There's even a tie-in book called Merrily's Border, which explores all the real local places mentioned in the books.

He also appeared several times at Hay Festival, and at smaller local events, sometimes with our other local author Barbara Erskine.  One of his book launches was at Hay Castle, with Rob Soldat dressed as a Knight Templar, which was great fun.  (I'm pretty sure that was the book that was set around Garway).

His other books include the Dr John Dee series and the Marco series for children, set around Glastonbury, and stand alone novels like The Man in the Moss.  He had another mystery series with a Welsh shaman/trans character called Cindy Mars-Lewis, which also included local settings.  In fact, I was reading Mean Spirit, which is partly set around Malvern, only last week.

He lived in Urishay.