Moleman of Hackney

William Lyttle, the so-called 'Moleman of Hackney', died last week. I have written about him briefly in The Folklore of London and the new edition of Subterranean City (book went to the printers before his death was announced). He is also one of the many characters in Hackney, That Rose Red Empire which I consider Iain Sinclair's return to top form after some rather meandering and dull work. In the book Sinclair seems to suggest that it may not only be inanimate objects that Lyttle buried in his tunnels and also claims to have penetrated one of the tunnels to emerge next to the railway line in a tunnel at Dalston - part of his novelist's skill no doubt.