THERE IS STILL TIME TO HAVE YOUR SAY ...

And to have a chance of winning one of the first copies!
Designer Kate (also my daughter) is due to come and stay with us for a nice long visit bringing our new granddaughter for her first visit to the North Country Far. She will be doing all the design work on Bride of the Spear cover in exchange for some baby sitting!
Thank you to all who have commented so far: you have shown us that we are on the right track, but criticisms and suggestions have been noted too- especially about readability of the text. Here is the cover- front and back, in its newest incarnation (I can't desist from tinkering) - with cooler colours for the text- suggested by an earlier commentator!

DESPERATELY SEEKING THE RIGHT WATERFALL

The waterfall in the picture above is in Caldbeck, and is in fact the cold river from which the village takes its name. Although this is not the waterfall which will eventually appear on the cover of Bride of the Spear, it makes a striking design with the moon pendant.

I made this pendant for Kathleen when she was a highly successful author in the 1980s. A moon necklace, with the three aspects of the moon- waxing, full and waning, (representing the triple aspects of the Mother Goddess- Maiden, Mother, Crone) plays an important role in Queen of the Lightning, and this was my modern interpretation of it.

The Mothers are an important presence in the Northern Kingdoms Trilogy, and I feel the design is timeless and iconic. Kathleen thought so too, and can be seen wearing it in some of her author photographs.

So .... one element of the cover design is settled. Meanwhile, the search for the waterfall continues. Designer Kate is on board as is photographer Ian Carroll

CAN WE ASK A FAVOUR?

Julia and I are excited and delighted that so many readers have downloaded the free ebook of The Boy with Two Heads, and I am looking forward to gaining more readers on Sunday, when four e-books will be free to download from midnight to midnight PST (8.00 am on Sunday to 8.00 am on Monday here in the UK)

Can we ask you to do something in return for your free books? Please let us have some feedback. A comment/review on Amazon or Goodreads would be very welcome- and please be honest!

MORE FREE BOOKS

The London 2012 Olympics end next weekend. The Free Download for THE BOY WITH TWO HEADS was so popular that author Julia Newsome wants to give her young fans another chance to read it free. So next Sunday 12th August we will celebrate the end of a splendid Olympics by offering not just one free book, but four:

Editor's Choice Historical Novels Review

August 2009

PATHS OF EXILE is a wonderful story, one that conjures up this long-gone age in extraordinary detail and reveals a profound understanding of its politics, cultures, and religions based on extensive research. It may be true, as Nayland admits, that “solid facts are rare indeed in 7th-century Britain”, but these characters—some real, others pure fiction—are so solid and credible that they will stay with you long after you turn the last page....
Full review on the Historical Novel Society website

MOON IN LEO: 

 4.0 out of 5 stars A fabulous journey through the 1670's  24 July 2011

By 

Shazjera (Bournemouth) - (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

At the beginning of our journey through life in the 1670's, we meet our heroine Rosamund. Having sent out a `spiritual call' for her twin Stephen, she is waiting for him to return from his Grand Tour of Europe. Her father is an alchemist and we know she is eagerly awaiting her brothers' return to complete the Sacred Marriage. As she sees him crossing the dangerous sands in Morecombe Bay, something happens to unsettle her and Stephen's homecoming is not as joyous as she imagined. ...

I really enjoyed this story - the way we get to experience how life was lived in the 17th century (the author has painstakingly researched); how the politics of the day are portrayed and the underlying rebellion; the celebrations of the Sabbats (Sabbats are the yearly cycle of the earth's seasons and would have been important during the time the story is set); the magic; the characters and the setting!

If you like historical fiction, then you will enjoy MOON IN LEO


And finally, after three really big, meaty reads- a little gem: a previously unknown and unpublished tale, by respected scholar and novelist Kathleen Herbert, who retells Guinevere's story from her point of view.
THE ONCE AND FUTURE QUEEN gives us a a view of Guinevere which speaks to our age.
 

A NEW PIECE BY KATHLEEN HERBERT

This is a little morsel- but a tasty one. A single, richly complex, chocolate; a perfectly formed truffle dish; a minute crystal glass of a rare ice-wine-

We are privileged to be the custodians of all Kathleen's literary papers, and are gradually trawling through to see what there is of general interest. This retelling of Guinevere's story is a little gem. Written at the end of the last century, you could say it embodies Kathleen's ideas about feminism, and the almost completely male perspectives handed down to us in legend and history.

 The Once and Future Queen is just a foretaste of riches yet to come.

Ironic cover image

The background image for the cover is based on this lovely pre-Raphaelite painting by John Collier: Queen Guinevere's maying.  Of course, what you will find inside is an altogether tougher Guinevere than this traditional image would suggest.

NOTHING MUCH CHANGES; A NEW REVIEW OF MOON IN LEO

"... the intrigue within today's politics, the suspicion and distrust between indigenous and immigrant communities ..."
 
Recently I have been thinking more about sending out review copies of The Boy with Two Heads, and wrestling with the Kindle edition to think about the other books. However, I occasionally check them out on Amazon, and was delighted to find a new review of Moon in Leo. I print it here in its entirety as it's the first to highlight the book's relevance to today's audience, and it uncannily echoes some of Kathleen's thoughts in her letters to me.

I don't really read historical novels, but "Moon in Leo" came to my attention for two reasons. First, my wife was reading it and I was attracted by the cover and secondly it is set, albeit three hundred and fifty years ago, in the county where I live. Aldingham shown on the cover map is somewhere I used regularly to visit.
Right! So what did I make of the book? Well, it is well researched redolent of the period. One word "guffawing" (page243) jarred a little, I thought it a more modern word, but discovered it had been around for about hundred years at the time this book is set, so one-nil to Kathleen Herbert!
Here, I have no intention of providing a précis of the plot, but make a suggestion! Forget, as you read, when it is set, instead reflect on the intrigue within today's politics, the suspicion and distrust between indigenous and immigrant communities and as you read, you will come to the conclusion that not much changes – we just call things by different names.
This book had a number of problems with me; I've put it that way around deliberately. First, for my taste it is too long at 400 pages, and the font is quite small, I'm getting old and my attention span is not what it once was. Secondly, there are (again for me) too many characters. However, the publisher provides a handy list of characters at the front, to which I repeatedly had to refer. It would though, have been better if this list had been alphabetical.
The holidays are coming up, so go off to Spain, but take with you a small slice of Cumberland in the shape of this novel. It is excellent value, beautifully written and will provide you with an entertaining and educational insight of times gone by. Click on the "Buy" button and be hugely entertained.

This is what Kathleen wrote to me:

I have looked over my novel about Furness during the Popish Plot- which is firmly based on truth… during these last weeks, the story has suddenly become incredibly topical- … for the background  we have:

• a King called Charles, with a complicated marital and family life
• a society of the rich and famous who produce a new scandal with every edition of the newspapers
•   a government that is not only stale but starting to smell     
• an established religion that has run out of steam, and numbers of cults that are boiling with enthusiasm- some for good, some for evil, both inside and outside Christianity     
• and a large number of “alternative” Englands that are barely suspected to exist by “official” England     
• It’s 1678, but change the clothes and it could be today.

And later:

I wrote a novel about the different folk who have come to our islands (for good, bad, fear, food, etc) and how they are still coming. I put the story into the past, so no folk could be insulted or unhappy or frightened.

KINGDOMS OF THE NORTH

Following my visit to Sutton Hoo, and my ongoing work to republish Kathleen Herbert's first three historical novels- Bride of the Spear, Queen of the Lightning and Ghost in the Sunlight, I have been researching the history of Britain in the Heroic Age- after the departure of the Romans in the late 4th century. Kathleen uses two main sources for Bride of the Spear: the "Lady of the Fountain" story in the Mabinogion, and the life of St Kentigern by Jocelyn of Furness. Cynthia Whiddon Green's translation and thesis are excellent sources of knowledge!


Holme St Cuthbert History Group has also got some interesting information about St Kentigern in the context of the history of the Solway Plain. 

Kathleen's three books were variously known as The Cumbrian Trilogy and The Northumbrian Trilogy- probably because the middle book, Queen of the Lightning, which won the Georgette Heyer Memorial Prize, was about the dynastic marriage between Riemmelth, last princess of Cumbria and Oswy, prince of Northumbria.


Following the success of Queen of the Lightning, Bodley Head then published the other two books, but- shockingly, for such a prestigious publisher- described Bride of the Spear as the third book of the trilogy! This confused many readers and led some to think that one or more of the books had been badly cut or written in a disjointed way.


The settings for the books, when taken together, range from Edinburgh, through Cumbria and Northumbria, to North Wales, Cheshire, Yorkshire and Leicestershire. Whilst those of us who live in Cumbria and Northumbria relish the idea that Kathleen has a particular love for our part of the world, we want to make the magnificent scale of these novels clearer: therefore in their new editions we will use Kingdoms of the North as the subtitle to all three volumes. And we will publish them in the right order!

Readings from Bride of the Spear on 15th January  in Blencogo

St Mungo's Church, Bromfield. St Mungo is the familiar name of St Kentigern