Historical

The first chapter from my first novel which I hope to be finished by the end of March this year (2011). The novel develops the character of Wickham from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.

This is an extract from the first draft of a novel I am writing about Denmark in the Dark Ages. The adventures in this chapter are based on Saxo Grammaticus' Gesta Danorum (Deeds of the Danes) c. 1185.

Another story set in the Dark Ages - sorry, I know it's a minority interest, but that's my thing...

After the defeat at Hastings, many of the housecarles left England to take service in the Varangian Guard in Constantinople. This is the story of one of them.

Dick or Simon meet(s) William in Tangiers.

This is a retelling of another account of a Viking raid on England - only this time, the Anglo-Saxons win.

This story is my retelling of the Anglo-Saxon poem 'The Battle of Maldon'. The poem is a fragment, so I have added a beginning and end based on information in the Anglo-Saxon chronicle. The story is told through the persona of the only survivor.

In this the final part of the story, which is based on the 'Finnsburgh Fragment', the Angles are subjected to a surprise attack.

Widsith and Cerdic entertain the warriors, but old grudges come to the surface.

This story is based on fragments of Anglo-Saxon poetry, in particular, the 'Finnsburgh Fragment', which tells of a battle in Frisia before the Anglo-Saxons ever came to England. The intriguing thing about this fragment is that one of the characters, Hengest, is thought to be the same Hengest named by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as the founding father of the English nation. The story is in three parts.