The Empty Frame (15 page)
Authors: Ann Pilling
When I read books for my own enjoyment I greatly dislike it when the plot is neatly tied up at the end, and absolutely everything is “explained”. “To see through all things is the same as not to see” said C S Lewis, and I agree with him.
The Empty Frame
is meant to keep you guessing. You will never know the real truth behind the story of the dead boy because, in real life, nobody did know. So the book ends with a question mark. The other thing I dislike in my books is an ending of unrelieved sadness and gloom. There is certainly a lot of suffering in
The Empty Frame
but at the end of the story the important things have been resolved and we go forward in hope. William and Magnus hold hands, if you like, across the centuries. The modern boy has laid the Elizabethan boy to rest and his poor tortured mother can have peace at last.
In an act of thanksgiving Lady Neale saves Magnus from death by drowning. Ghosts, as the three children discover, are “about time” and in the ghost's final action the time barriers are truly crossed. “Many waters cannot quench love neither can the floods drown it” wrote King Solomon. The story of
The Empty Frame
tells us that love is the strongest force in the world, and that it is indestructible.
Ann Pilling, 1997
Amber's Secret
The Beggar's Curse
Black Harvest
The Witch of Lagg
The Pit
First published in Great Britain by Collins 1997
Collins is an imprint of HarperCollins
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Copyright © Ann Pilling 1997
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EPub Edition © JUNE 2010 ISBN: 9780007392421
The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of the work.
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