The late David Wheldon was a medical doctor who specialised in the treatment of multiple sclerosis, successfully devising a protocol to treat his wife, the artist Sarah Longlands, so that she could live a full life and continue to paint. He also wrote novels and short stories, initially to acclaim, but latterly in something like obscurity until, by the good works of writers Aiden O’Reilly and David Rose, his more recent stories began to find homes, culminating in the publication by Confingo Publishing of the collection mentioned above.
The Automaton, like most of Wheldon’s fiction, is best described by a term I think first coined by O’Reilly – ‘ireal’, since it’s a story very much of this world, and very much not. To this end, Wheldon is a master of specifics and tone, able to convince his readers while leading them guilefully into the unforeseeable.
The story, set in 1905, is narrated by a grammar school boy, the son of the manager of an ailing theatre. A preface tells us the narrator fell in battle near the end of the First World War. Thus the narrative has the flavour of a memoir, presumably discovered after his death.
First published as a chapbook by Nightjar Press in 2017, and then in the collection The Guiltless Bystander, Confingo Publishing 2022
The automaton in question is a waxwork of a beautiful woman, dignified and unknowable, clothed in finery that has seen better days. She is also an unbeatable chess master, who sighs gently before manipulating her pieces in a manner designed to perplex her opponent. She is introduced – borne upon a sedan by an impresario of questionable character – to the theatre in the hope of saving its financial future.
There’s a gradualness to Wheldon’s storytelling which adds to its richness. His use of dialogue is mannered and leisurely but, in its own time, revealing. Because of this, I feel that all I should say further is that the boy forms a relationship with this beguiling, unworldly creature, and that the term sentience is introduced and repeated artfully as the story develops. This is an enigmatic, troubling, and deeply moving story that leaves a lasting mark on the reader.
A Personal Anthology 