Some things can't be owned.
A novel set in Open week at St Andrews, and on a links nobody remembers.
Samuel Carrick was the prodigy who walked away from the game. Now a lecturer in history, he comes back to St Andrews for the one week of the year when the whole world is watching it.
Waiting for him are a caddie who keeps the old ways, a greenkeeper who still reads the ground, and Magnus Vane, a man who believes everything about golf can be measured, managed and owned. Running underneath the week, in journals from the 1920s, is the voice of Lachlan Cairn, the Keeper of a lost nine-hole links called Burningbrae.
An old word for a belonging that isn't bought or earned: the bond between people and the place that made them. The book is built on it.
The card that started it.
In June 1921 a nineteen-year-old from Atlanta went out in 46 in the third round of the Open at St Andrews, took six at the tenth, and at the eleventh he picked up. The legend says he tore up his card. Six years later he won the Open on the same ground, and came to love it above anywhere.
| Hole | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Out | 10 | 11 | 12 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Strokes | 46 | 6 | · |
Anthony Barton
Anthony Barton farms a stretch of land on a river bend, where he keeps cattle and bees and is slowly bringing tired ground back to life. He has played golf for as long as he can remember, and has always cared more about the ground under the ball than the swing above it.
The Valley of Sin is his first novel. It grew from two long obsessions: the oldest form of the game, played along the ground on the links where it began, and an old Gaelic word for the kind of belonging that ties people to a place.
He writes in the early morning, before the work outside begins.
Letters from Burningbrae.
A fortnightly letter on the old game, the ground it's played on, and the history under the book. It's where everything appears first: the cover, the films and the clues.
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Subscribe on SubstackThe true history the novel stands on.
Short films from January, alongside The Keeper's Practices: eleven lessons in playing with less, told with hands, ball, club and ground.
- The boy in the bunker, 1921History film
- The return, 1927History film
- Lost linksHistory film
- HickoryHistory film
- Dùthchas: a word that can't be ownedHistory film
- The hollow in front of the eighteenthHistory film
- Three holes for everythingHistory film
- The Keeper's Practices, 1 to 11Lessons
Watch the last frame of each one closely.
Write to the house.
Every letter is read, and every reply comes from Anthony Barton. Choose the address that fits and include who you are, what you have in mind, and when.