Those who have followed my travails will be aware of my continuing academic disagreements in the field of durulzology, with no lesser a personage than Mr Keith Nellist. His residence in the Antipodes, home in itself to all manner of strange explorations in the durulzological sciences, has only exacerbated this rift.
In a letter to the Editor of the Glorantha Digest, Friday 3 February 2006, Mr Nellist stated that he was "going to compare [Dr Stansfield's] Caladraland stone heads to an Erich von Daeniken-style Chariots of the Gods theory - in other words, one that I do not really believe."
Though I personally think a comparison to the wholly eminent research of Herr von Daeniken is not pejorative in any sense, this resulted in a strident response from myself, to wit:
"If you are implying, [Mr Nellist], that the fact that I alone have met, befriended and caroused with the hitherto unknown Caladran duck tribe, ignored of anatopology; that I alone have been trusted with their secrets, for they will meet with no others; and that I have no photographic or representative evidence to prove my claims whatsoever, other than a quick sketch which curiously includes the word 'concept'... somehow invalidates the empirical basis of my research, then I'm outraged."
Nevertheless, Mr Nellist had a point. My evidence was somewhat limited; my recollection hazy. Therefore I embarked upon a new expedition into the Caladran jungles, and was overjoyed to bring forth new, wholly irrefutable evidence for my claims. I ask, gentle reader, whether such penetrating insights could possibly be the product of a madman or a charlatan?
