Masquerade

The baffling resurrection of a golden hare

When I was a kid I was given a book called Masquerade by Kit Williams. The book represented a puzzle, the solving of which would lead the reader to the location of a bejewelled golden hare. Something like that anyway. I never had much chance of finding the hare, but liked the quirky artwork.

For some reason a couple of weeks ago this book popped into my head out of the blue in what was presumably one of those inexplicable wanderings of the mind. I posted on the internet my curiosity as to whether anyone had ever found this golden hare. I deleted the post relatively quickly as I decided it wasn’t really that interesting, and thought no more of it.

A few days later we were watching Coronation Street. In a conversation in the Rovers Mary was making an ardent point in her usual intelligent but slightly batty style. In doing so she used the analogy of the book Masquerade by Kit Williams, and its mysterious golden hare.

Say what?

There is no possible way I could have somehow picked up beforehand that Masquerade by Kit Williams would be mentioned in a Coronation Street script. It isn’t some pop song that I might have heard without realising before the episode was broadcast. It’s a relatively obscure book from decades ago. Yet within days it’s in my head, then mentioned in passing in a soap opera.

How did this happen?
Or perhaps why?

I’m a writer, editor, and Royal Literary Fund Fellow.
Find out more, tweet me, or email.