ALISON'S AXIOMS
The novel is about two teenage sisters. It begins with Alison sitting on the doorstep of 24 Leinster Gardens in London, waiting for Emily. The curious thing about this house, as you will see if you Google the address, is that it is merely a facade in a row of terrace houses. But when the white rabbit appears, and attempts to open the door, Alison explains that the Circle Line runs underneath, but because it used to run steam trains it had to have open sections to let the smoke out, and one such open section lies behind this facade. Brother Charles, a monk with a white robe and a twitching nose, says that this is all very interesting but proceeds to open the fake door and goes inside!
Alison follows him and discovers that she's in a large station concourse. She follows him to a platform and onto a train. But the carriage is quite old-fashioned and Alison discovers that she's been transported back into the early ninety hundreds.
After changing trains with Brother Charles she finds herself on the District Line, on the way to Upminster where Brother Charles' monastery is located. She discovers that at St Huberts, Brother Charles prays and does mathematics to the glory of God. Alison is amazed to find Emily getting on the train at Upney. She had been told where Alison had gone but had accidentally got off at Upney instead of Upminster.
At St Huberts they meet Galois, a talking beaver who carries a sword and is dressed like one of the three musketeers. He tells Alison that he is on a quest for the lost Ring of Ramanujan. Whoever wears this ring is supposed to have great mathematical insight.
There is one scene from the future, where food has taken the place of sex as the great taboo, at least eating is something that should only be done alone or between consenting adults and preferably only among married couples. But the food is brightly coloured, tasteless manufactured stuff, only available on prescription and programmed for the specific individual. Real food, especially apples, are banned. Look what chaos apples caused at the beginning of the world!
Just as Lewis Carroll wove into his story a good deal of the logic that he taught to his undergraduates, so I have woven a considerable amount of advanced mathematics into my story. However, like Alice in Wonderland, these references are hardly noticed by the average reader (I hope). Yet there are the proofs of at least six mathematical theorems embedded in the story as well as a lot of other mathematical references. You don't need to know any mathematics to enjoy the story but anyone with a mathematics degree might enjoy these many references.
