I love Avebury - it's much more impressive than Stonehenge. I've visited the village within a stone circle ever since I was a child and now my own children love exploring this ancient, almost magical, landscape as much as I ever did.
It is a hugely inspirational place, and I'm clearly not the only one to think so. Take the makers of the '70s TV show Children of the Stones. I only caught five minutes of Children of the Stones when it was originally broadcast in 1976 but that brief exposure haunted me and I've watched the whole series on DVD only recently to exorcise those particular demons.
Avebury - or at least the ancient Wiltshire countryside - has cropped up again and again in my own books over the years. It's most obviously apparent in my Doctor Who Decide Your Destiny gamebook The Horror of Howling Hill but it's also appeared in everything from my first ever published book Spellbreaker through to my short story Fear to Tread that was first published in 2011.I've explored Avebury in all weathers, most recently in the snow, and as a result I now have an idea for a new story, in which the village will become one of the main characters. I will, of course, let you know how I get on with that one in due course.
Until that time, here are some photographs...
