A colony of moss does not express preferences for certain people, living or dead. But if such a colony of moss did decide to reveal its favourites, let us just say this: You might be surprised. In 2018, a young forensic scientist, homesick and adrift in the North of England, is heading to a coroner’s office to identify a body. In 50 BCE, a female druid is travelling to a city in the South where she will appear before the new king. And underfoot, all along, a teeming colony of moss is opening its wet mouth, waiting. In this wonderfully strange, multi-layered story, the unexpected discovery of an ancient bog body becomes a pinprick of light in the depths of humanity’s history.
