John Harrison wrote three novels about Viriconium, 'The Pastel City' (1971), 'A Storm Of Wings' (1980) and 'In Viriconium' (1982), plus a series of short stories collected in 'Viriconium Nights' (1985). Viriconium, as Audsley King notes in 'In Viriconium', "is all the cities that have ever been", glorious, crumbling and decadent, situated in the vast decaying wastelands in the last days of the Earth. John Harrison understands this, and this is what he explores vividly and evocatively in his Viriconium stories. Cities, especially those with a rich history, are hyper-real, a conglomeration of history, legend, and different people's experiences and interpretations of them, all superimposed over the physical buildings and streets. I realised in that moment how different my London and my father's London was. As we walked down the road from bookshop to bookshop, he told me about the places he used to visit as a child and young man, and how much the city had changed. I had studied in London for a year in 2011, but my father had grown up there in the 60s and 70s. Recently I was walking down Charing Cross Road with my father. "Viriconium is all the cities that have ever been." "Where the city is at its emptiest we find ourselves full." The dumb stones perform an unending act of recall.'" "'Viriconium', remarks Ansel Verdigris in his last ironic essay Allies, 'is a world trying to remember itself. "Time is erosion: an icy wind blew constant abrasive streams of dust over the bare rock of the ridge: it had been blowing for a thousand years."
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