The Sussex Devils
By Marc Heal
The Satanic Panic Of The 1980s – A Memoir And A Mystery Story
Publication date: October 2015
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'Heartbreaking and breathtaking. The terrors of the real world are incomprehensible. Take a moment to consider preordering a copy of his book'. Comment on The Sussex Devils by Horror legend Clive Barker, author of Hellraiser
Thirteen years after I quit music, I stumbled across a yellowed fragment of The Guardian from early 1986 in the bottom of a trunk full of old studio tapes.
The cutting concerned the court case of a man named Derry Mainwaring Knight. He claimed that he was a senior member of a secret Satanic group operating at the highest levels of British society. Helped by a local priest, John Baker, vicar of the Sussex village of Newick, Knight had raised large sums from wealthy local gentry on the pretext of destroying powerful items of Satanic regalia and subvert the cabal from within.
I threw away the piece of newspaper. It made me deeply uneasy, and I did not remember why I would have saved it. But the story nagged at me. I started asking myself about the Knight affair. I recalled almost nothing about his trial – even though I had grown up at the epicentre of the story. My family had known the Reverend Baker well and I had been a close friend of his eldest son, David. I had witnessed the panic over Satanism and the contemporary hysteria generated in Sussex religious meetings: speaking in tongues, prophesy, and healing. Why did I know so much about the people in the story and yet I recalled so little about it?
Finally, I faced up to the reason for the blank: the trial had taken place in the weeks immediately after the defining trauma of my life.
In December 1985 an elder from my parents’ evangelical Christian church attempted to exorcise me from what he suspected was my possession by demons. I could hardly blame him. I was drunk, crazed and mumbling about a terrible city made of iron on a vast, featureless plain.
My parents were “born again” in 1981. I found their conversion to “Charismatic” Christianity alarming but to begin with it had little impact on my day-to-day life. But I was about to experience a very real psychological trauma. At a religious rally that I unwillingly attended in 1984 at the Loftus Road football stadium, I experienced the first of the panic attacks that were later to dominate my life. Anxiety is a relatively modern condition, now much discussed, but in 1984 I had never heard the term. In my dreams and eventually by day, my mind was invaded with monsters that assimilated all humanity, of tortures and wounds upon vast plains of human remains, the insane violence of the iron city, all garbled and choked in a never-ending loop. I became so disturbed that I fulfilled a symptomatic checklist of “possession”, and needless to say, that was the Evangelical diagnosis.
In THE SUSSEX DEVILS I first set out to write the story of Derry Knight and his allegations of a Satanic cabal at the heart of the British establishment. Yet, when I began the process, I found myself wondering what exactly had happened back then to me.
In the book I will tell these two stories in parallel. It is difficult to understand now but the Satanic moral panics of the 1980s were as powerful as the current panics about child abuse. Why, for a brief moment in history, did these fears dominate, and what did it mean – for me, my friends and the wider world?
As best I could, I pieced together the story – of Derry Knight, of my own coming-of-age, of the broader Satanic panic – and asked myself: who were the real Sussex Devils?
The Party
Pledge at the £40 level to receive your ticket to a party at Fortress Studios, London N1 in late March / Early April 2015 (plenty of notice will be given). Featuring 4 DJs, drinks, a signed copy of The Compound Eye EP, a 1st edition hardback of The Sussex Devils and more!
DJs
Jared Louche (Prude / Chemlab)
Raymond Watts (PIG)
Marc Heal (Cubanate / MC Lord Of The Flies)
Phil Barry (Be My Enemy / Cubanate)
You get…
Free Drinks until 11pm
Signed Copy of The Compound Eye EP (plus a digital copy)
Hardback of The Sussex Devils (plus a digital copy)
Compound Eye T-Shirt
Other stuff TBD
Quick select rewards
Hardback
Digital
Hi Marc, I'm trying to make my mind up on which option to buy and wondered if you could answer a couple of questions. What is the date of the launch party? What happens to peoples money if the target is not achieved? Where does it leave the publication of the book if the target is not achieved? Thanks, Andrew.
Hi Andrew, Thanks for getting in touch. I have answered your questions below: 1. We have the launch party when we have physical copies of the books, so unfortunately, until the book is fully funded and we have a publishing schedule, we cannot confirm the date for the party. We'll be sure to let subscribers know when this is as soon as possible though. 2. If the target is not achieved then your money gets returned to your Unbound account. You can then use this to support another project, or can contact us for a full refund. 3. If the target is not achieved and the book comes down from the site then Unbound won't be publishing it, but Marc is then free to get an alternative publishing deal. I hope this helps and if you have any more pledge related questions please don't hesitate to get in touch via unbound.co.uk/support. Best wishes, Caitlin - Unbound Community Coordinator
Hi Marc, it's unlikely I could make the party though the included perks sound great. If I pledge for this option is there a means of getting the physical elements without attending?
Yes, sure Jonathon. We'd be happy to send you the EP, shirt and book even if you didn't show at the party. The book might arrive separately (and later), the other stuff will be ready to go out in April.
Hi Marc, I'm a French fan and, like Jonathon, I won't be able to be with you all at the party (unfortunately !!!). But it's a real honor for me to contribute and support your work, no matter if it's about music or writing, because I know I will love it ! I wish you a great success for your book, and for the new Compound Eye too, and of course some good time during the party ;-)
Hi Jerome, sorry it's taken so long to respond. Thanks, I appreciate the support. Only a couple of months before advance copies of the book now.
Is there any word on the expected date of the physical book yet mark?
Hi Andrew, Thanks for getting in touch. We're aiming to have the special edition books ready for subscribers in autumn of this year. If there is anything else I can help you with please get in touch via unbound.co.uk/support. Best wishes, Caitlin - Community Coordinator
Hello Marc, This book looks really fantastic. I'd be really interested to know if you spoke to Michael Taylor as part of your research? Jenny
Thanks Jennifer. Although I interviewed many of the living participants for the main part of the story, The Taylors are actually a side note. (I wanted to offer people a flavour of the book in the Shed but not give away the core). So I didn’t interview Michael Taylor. But I did dig out extensive archives to source the narrative and quotes.