The Mdina Touch by Edward J Kelly

An Interview With The Author

Q. What would you say is the most difficult part of writing a book?

A. There are two parts of writing that I find the most difficult. I always find it difficult to settle down and start writing. I may have all my notes prepared and even have something in mind about what I want to write but for some reason I seem to find a thousand and one things to do before I feel comfortable. This can be anything from making a cup of coffee to tidying my desk.

The other thing I find difficult is actually accepting that the work I have done is finished. Once I've eventually settled down to write I find it incredibly difficult to satisfy myself that the work is complete. I'll often edit chapters numerous times and still not be satisfied.

A. Yes - absolutely. I'm not an out and out extrovert who craves public adoration but like any author I rely on feedback and enjoy hearing what my readers like.

I particularly enjoy having an in-depth debate about some of the topics or subjects I write about. Who knows - the next person I talk to could give me an idea for my next book.

A. I normally have two or three books on the go at one time. One of them will be some sort of reference book or non-fiction, usually to do with Ancient Egypt or esoteric religious mysteries. Another book will be a novel of the action adventure type or perhaps a new author I'm trying out. I tend to have favourite authors and follow their work rather than choosing a book by it's cover, so to speak. The third book, if I'm lucky, will be one of the latest novels by one of my favourite authors. Also the National Geographic can often be found laying about and I love dipping into it for the wealth of information that is presented on a whole range of different topics.

Amongst my most favourite and most read authors are Ian Fleming, Wilbur Smith, Frederick Forsythe, Len Deighton, Mario Puzo, Michael Connelly, Ian Wilson and Barrie Schwortz (outstanding researchers), Colin Wilson, Robert Bauval, Graham Hancock, Keith Laidler and Clive Prince (for some thought provoking reading).

A. Well for once I must disagree with you. The Ancient Egyptians were fascinated with life and nature and the whole of creation. The evidence for this can be seen in their tombs. This is particularly true in the tombs of the nobles where the attention to detail and the wonderful portrayal of every-day life is simply astounding.

The reason why so much time and effort was spent in building and preparing tombs was that they loved life so much they wanted to ensure that their souls would continue to live on in the afterlife. This was much more than a simple belief - they had an absolute certainty that they would continue into the afterlife if they had made the correct provisions. Even more than this though, the relatives of the deceased visited the tombs of their loved ones to make offerings and celebrate their life, or indeed continued life on the other side.

A. Well yes that is true from a certain point of view. They actually believed that once a person died they had two souls, the Ka and Ba, that would leave the body and these had to be re-united together with the deceased's body in order for them to continue to live in the afterlife. An aspect of this is that they believed one of these souls, the Ka, was able to continue to live and move about freely as it did when the person was alive. The statues they crafted were for the Ka and were made in the likeness of the deceased. It was believed that a person's Ka would inhabit these statues and receive nourishment from the offerings of food, beer and wine that was presented in funeral feasts.

An interesting thought is how the Ancient Egyptians came to believe that the Ka spirit could move about freely. If we saw a person's Ka today would we call it a ghost?

A. It started with two photographs that were taken by two different people, at separate locations, who were helping me with some research. The two photographs were taken about six to eight months apart but I actually received them within two or three weeks of each other.

The first photograph was taken by Lee of an obelisk in Sefton Park, here in Liverpool. The film sat in his camera for six months or more before it was developed. When he eventually developed the film and handed me the photographs I noticed on one of the pictures what at first appeared to be a sun flare on the lens, but on a second glance I could clearly see the image of a face and what appears to be two arms crossed in the manner of death.

The second photograph was taken by Wayne and it is of the tomb of George St. Claire, Earl of Caithness, in Rosslyn Chapel, Edinburgh. Right on the sealing wall of the tomb is what I can only describe as a ghostly face. The face appears to be that of a young boy but could easily be described as almost demonic as well. I've been able to do some research into the background of George St. Claire and it turns out that he was considered to be an evil man. He was responsible for imprisoning his young son in Rosslyn Castle and for several days fed him only on salted beef - keeping all water from the boy. After few days he provided the boy with brandy to drink. The boy's thirst by this time was obviously so great that he drank the neat brandy and died - no doubt, as a result of alcohol poisoning.

I can't help wondering if it is more than coincidence that the ghostly face on the photograph of this tomb appears to be that of a young boy.

A. No, definitely not. I obviously wanted answers to the many questions I had after those first two photographs. I set out to try and either prove or disprove the existence of ghosts or spirits. I ended up taking literally thousands of photographs trying to reproduce these strange faces and I also did some research into orbs.

Briefly, it is said that orbs are spheres of energy that can be the beginning of a ghost or spirit manifestation. You will see on the web site many photographs of orbs that I have taken using different cameras and under different conditions. I can say that I am unable to produce these at will on a photograph and I have found no way of determining when they will show up. Within a sequence of photographs there could be many pictures with no orbs then a few will appear and disappear again in later pictures.

If anything, I would have to say that my research was inconclusive, but surely the fact that these things seem to appear totally at random and outside of our control is an indication that there is something extraordinary about them.

I do believe that there are things which we are not meant to know about in this life or at least not interfere with and if something is going to happen of this nature it will, just like the two photographs that started all this. I for one would advise against people trying to call up spirits because I believe that, instead, you might just get a demon.