The Road to Corlay

The Road to Corlay (1978) by Richard Cowper, the pen name of Colin Murry, is the first novel in his White Bird of Kinship series, set in Britain long after a catastrophic rise in sea levels have reduced the land to a scattered archipelago and a repressive theocratic order enforces conformity across the surviving communities. The novel grew out of Cowper's novella "Piper at the Gates of Dawn," included in his collection The Custodians (1975), and that story is reprinted here as a prologue. A young piper named Tom possesses a gift for music that carries something beyond ordinary talent, drawing followers and alarming the ecclesiastical authorities. The series continued with A Dream of Kinship (1981) and A Tapestry of Time (1982). First edition published by Victor Gollancz. 

Hardcover. First Edition, First Printing. Octavo, bound in red paper covered boards with gilt lettering on spine. London: Victor Gollancz, 1978. ISBN: 057502481x. #11202.
Fine in fine dust jacket.