I got waylaid for about a year just reading around the subjects involved in The Perfect Fool. Here's a list of books that helped. If you only read 4 read….

Bourke, John G - Snake Dance Of The Moquis - Arizona
Doran, Jamie and Bizony, Piers - Starman, The Truth Behind The Legend Of Yuri Gagarin - Bloomsbury
Wachhorst, Wyn - The Dream Of Spaceflight - Basic
Waters, Frank - Pumpkin Seed Point - Swallow Click here for a Bibliography of Audio Recordings

ACID ROCK

Derogatis, Jim - Kaliedoscope Eyes - 4th Estate Lively overview of the kind of characters that inspired Luther. Erickson, Roky - Openers II - 2.13.61 Collection of lyrics and writings by the former 13th Floor Elevators frontman, with biographical stuff. Joynson, Vernon - Fuzz, Acid & Flowers - Borderline Borderline as in 'borderline autistic', this is the definitive record collector nerd guide to psychedelic music. No comment. No gloss. Just pages and pages of facts. Ace. Unterberger, Richie - Unknown Legends Of Rock And Roll - Miller Freeman Another lively overview of the kind of characters that inspired Luther Watkinson, Mike and Anderson, Pete - Crazy Diamond, Syd Barrett and The Dawn Of Pink Floyd - Omnibus Press Biog of acid-casualty frontman.

AREA 51

Campbell, Glenn - Area 51 Viewer's Guide Available from http://www.ufomind.com/area51/links/ this is a sceptical look at the Airbase by a local sceptic. Piccard, George - Liquid Conspiracy, JFK, LSD, The CIA, Area 51 and UFO's - Adventures Unlimited Press This free-ranging rant is a great read, and due to the number of subjects covered in the title alone, represents good value. Thomson, David - In Nevada, The Land, The People, God, And Chance - Little, Brown and Company Good, dryly humorous descriptions of Area 51 fallout.

ARIZONA

Frommer's 2000 Arizona - IDG Books Worldwide USA The Rough Guide - Rough Guides McMurtry, Larry - Roads, Driving America's Great Highways - Simon & Schuster McMurtry is best known for his fiction but this book of essays about driving around the USA is great, and includes lots of good stuff about the South West. His book on Crazy Horse, called Crazy Horse, is phenomenal and burns with a controlled sense of injustice.

FREEMASONRY

I used various real Masonic ritual books to get the flavour of The Hampstead Man's way of thinking and speaking. They'll probably sell you one if you go to a Masonic Regalia shop. All the really secret bits are left blank anyway.

HOLY GRAIL/KING ARTHUR ORIGINAL TEXTS

Anon - Pearl, Cleanness, Patience, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight - Everyman Nice edition of the text in middle english, as used, I suspect, by the over-educated Marvel comics writer Dan Abnett for his early 90's series The Knights Of Pendragon. Anon - Three Arthurian Romances - Everyman Good translation of three minor entries in the cannon. De Troyes, Chrétien - Arthurian Romances - Everyman Sadly this densely typed edition of the thieving Frenchman's 1170's take on our stories doesn't include the unfinished fragment, Perceval. Malory, Thomas - Complete Works - Oxford Yeah, like I read all 810 pages of the rapist's complete works in middle English? Matching up the bits I wanted with a translation saved me some clearance fees. Mallory's out of copyright.

HOLY GRAIL/KING ARTHUR THEORIES

Ashe, Geoffrey - The Traveller's Guide To Arthurian Britain - Gothic Image A fun guide to Arthurian sites by Geoff 'King Arthur' Ashe Barber, RW - Arthur of Albion - Barrie And Rockliff/Pall Mall Press Sadly, this goes way back to my O Level history project (B+). Published in 1961 it pre-dates the colonisation of Arthurian study by crystal gazing Glastonbury types. Who did carve the Arthurian scene on the Porta della Pesceria, Modena Cathedral, years before any of the Arthurian Romances had been written down? Berthelot, Anne - King Arthur Chivalry and Legend - Thames And Hudson Looks like a new age rip-off book but is actually really good. Loads of great pictures. Dunstan, Victor - Did The Virgin Mary Live And Die In England? - Megiddo Press Privately published by a businessman who heads a £7,000,000 group of companies, in 1885, this book theorises wildly about 'the Jesus family' and their links to Britain. By the same author - The Ultimate Personal Success Programme, and How To earn Big Money Selling. Knight, Christopher & Lomas, Robert - The Holy Grail - Weidenfeld & Nicholson Flimsy easy to read pamphlet which concludes that the Grail is in Roslin chapel and includes floor plans to prove it. Gardner, Laurence - Bloodline Of The Holy Grail - Element The usual madness Laidler, Keith - The Head Of God - Orion Theorises that the severed head of Jesus, rather than the Grail, is buried at Roslin chapel. Matthews, John - Elements Of The Arthurian Tradition - Element Spiritualist/symbolist study of the story. Phillips, Graham - The Search For The Holy Grail - Century Respectable looking tome claims the Grail is hidden in Shropshire

HOPI CULTURE

Bourke, John G - Snake Dance Of The Moquis - Arizona Though obviously coloured by the attitudes of the time it was written (1884), military man Bourke's 1st hand account of his time with the Hopis is a brilliant read and often unintentionally hilarious, as the ridiculous prig struts around busting into places where he clearly isn't welcome, and then wonders what he has done to cause offence. Emory Sekaquaptewa's introduction to the current edition laments the fact that Bourke's text made public a lot of things his people would rather were private, but is philosophical and forgiving. Brugge, David M - The Navajo Hopi Land Dispute, An American Tragedy - University Of New Mexico Press This is hard going but makes those ITV documentaries about Neighbours From Hell look kind of inconsequential. Courlaner, Harold - The Fourth World Of The Hopis - University Of New Mexico Press Waters and James (below) cover the same ground better. Erdoes, Richard & Ortiz, Alfonso - American Indian Myths & Legends - Pimlico All the Pimlico books about Native American Culture are pretty good, and this one provided the italicised, quoted myth sections dotted throughout The Perfect Fool which make it seem more important and well thought out than it is. I don't see how any credulous Western believer can read through the beautiful, useful, functional myths contained here-in and continue to assert that the bible is the best way of making sense of the world. Jacobson, Howard - Seriously Funny - Channel 4/Viking The book of Jacobson's freewheeling TV series about comedy was the first place I ever found out about pueblo clowns, and is full of fascinating, if tenuously linked, facts and theories. James, Harry C - Pages From Hopi History - University Of Arizona Press James collates other source material in a history that runs from the mythical emergence from the underworld, through invasion by the Spanish, The Navajo and the white Europeans, to the present day. Page, Suzanne & Jake - Hopi - Abradale Large format book of amazing photos from couple who seem to have had unprecedented access. Powell, Major JW - The Hopi Villages - Filter Press In 1870, the explorer Major JW Powell became one of the 1st white men to meet the Hopis, and went on to plead their case to the Bureau Of Indian Affairs. This is a reproduction of the pamphlet he wrote about his experiences. In the period illustrations, the villages look much the same as they do now. Waters, Frank - The Book Of The Hopi - Penguin Waters is a brilliant writer who makes everything shine and I'm glad writing the Perfect Fool helped me to discover him. His study of Hopi culture and myths was done in partnership with the people themselves and, despite being out of print for years, remains the definitive text. Waters, Frank - Pumpkin Seed Point - Swallow Waters' book about his time in the 60's spent researching The Book Of The Hopi is absolutely beautiful, and is better than any novels I've ever read about different cultures trying to find a common ground. Whiteley, Peter M - Deliberate Acts, Changing Hopi Culture Through The Oraibi Split - Arizona In 1906, the inhabitants of Oraibi, the oldest continuously inhabited settlement in the whole USA, split into Traditionals and Progressives, the latter of whom cleared off to found a new village, Hotevilla, which today has a very nice post office. I didn't read all of this, but think of the story in terms on New and Old Labour and it soon makes sense. Strangely, I never saw this book in the USA, but there were 2 copies of it in the same 2nd hand book shop on Stoke Newington Church Street. Wright, Barton - Clowns Of The Hopi - Northland This has some great photos and a breakdown of all the different classes of pueblo clowns. Wright, Barton - Hopi Kachinas, The Complete Guide To Collecting Kachina Dolls - Nortland Personally I'm not that interested in collecting dolls, unless they are superhero action figures, but this is also a good guide to the Kachina spirits the dolls depict. Various Artists - Parabola Volume IV, No. 1 - Tamarack Press This academic publication from The University Of Arizona contains the essays, One More Smile For A Hopi Clown by Emory Sekaquaptewa, Wisdom Of The Contrary by Joespeh Epes, and Boundaries of Belief by Barabara Tedlock, which were the most useful articles I came across anywhere for information about pueblo clowns.

LAS VEGAS

Time Out Guide To Las Vegas - Penguin Anderton, Frances and Chase, John - Las Vegas, A Guide To Recent Architecture - Ellipsis All the Ellipsis books about the architecture of various cities are great, and they're design classics too

PEYOTE

Aberle, David F - The Peyote Religion Among The Navajo - Oklahoma This was good for legal info, but is essentially pages and pages of dense documentation about how appalling American treatment of the natives was, and continues to be. Gottlieb, Adam - Peyote And Other Psychoactive Cacti - Ronin A concise and readable guide to the art of cultivating peyote. Mount, Guy - The Peyote Book, A Study Of Native Medicine - Sweetlight Mount describes himself as 'Editor and Earthperson', so you know what he's all about immediately.

RELIGIOUS MADNESS

Godwin, Jeff - The Music's True Master - Chick Unintentionally comic overview of Satanism written by a man who thinks Spinal Tap are a real band. Includes the following sentence; "Homosexuality and Satanism are the two main reasons you should burn any Hall and Oates records and tapes you may own"

SPACE TRAVEL

Doran, Jamie and Bizony, Piers - Starman, The Truth Behind The Legend Of Yuri Gagarin - Bloomsbury This is such a great book. Tells you all about the early days of space travel and makes you weep for the failure of Communism. Someone's probably optioned it for a film starring Ben Affleck by now. Wachhorst, Wyn - The Dream Of Spaceflight - Basic This is a beautiful book of essays about attitudes to space and spaceflight that reads like it's poetry.

WANDERING JEW

Stableford, Brian - Tales Of The Wandering Jew - Dedalus. Great summary of all the Wandering Jew myths, which helped me get the Peter Rugg character together.