Wednesday 20 November 2013

The Adventures of Barnaby Twickins

the first volume of the

Threepenny Tales
series: 
 
The Adventures of Barnaby Twickins

The 
Nonsense Adventures
of a
Clowning Prodigy
  
The first in the 
THREEPENNY TALES  series,
The Adventures of Barnaby Twickins 
was born of a desire for something light, 
after three serious novels.


  

No research was required, except for a little inspiration from the 17th/18th centuries.




Tuesday 29 October 2013

Dante's Gift

Fiorenza mio amore
 
  SPOILER ALERT: 
this post includes details which reveal
plot elements of Dante's Gift


The Dove was begging for a sequel; although it was not planned from the outset, it became clear while I was writing. The story did not end with the executions of the Goodmen and women and with Sibilia's escape. Others fled and carried their message abroad, the Goodmen's religion survived at least into the following century and their fate was possibly caught up with that of other persecuted groups such as the Templars. 


Bonshommes being banished from Carcassonne in 1209; some of those who survived would have fled to communities in northern and central Italy


Although Sibilia's mission would not be described in detail, it also seemed necessary to trace her legacy. There was the added temptation of transferring the sequel to Italy and Florence, and of introducing a protagonist I have revered for many years. I confess I hesitated to include him at all: it seemed impertinent at best and hubris at worst. Perhaps I have committed hubris, but it has been a great adventure doing so!


Sandro Botticelli's portrait of Dante Alighieri, 1495


Friday 18 October 2013

The Dove of Montségur


Medieval Musings


SPOILER ALERT: 
some details in this post reveal
plot elements of The Dove of Montségur


Although my first love at university was medieval Italy, hence Dante studies, the dolce stil novo, the Sicilian School, the history of Florence etc., I also took a course in Provençal (today more correctly called Occitan), the language of the population of Southern France, and hence of the troubadours, the poetic ancestors of the sommo poeta (the 'supreme poet') Dante Alighieri. The course was dull and poorly taught, but the subject matter was intriguing, the language of the troubadours rich and exciting, seemingly a blend of Spanish, Italian and French with original elements. And the troubadours were such innovators!


Can vei la lauzeta mover  'When I see the lark spread its wings' by Bernart de Ventadorn (circa 1145 - 1200) performed  here by Ensemble Alla Francesca

My first novel, Evin of the Trees, is set within a broad time frame (some time in the Bronze Age) and features extensive travelling. The next story had to be more circumscribed, to deal with one episode in a restricted time and place. What better than a mountaintop fortress during a siege? Research on Southern French history associated with the troubadours brought to light Montségur and the tragedy of the bonshommes, better known as Cathars. It seemed a fitting focal point.

It happened here, almost 800 years ago, in what was then the County of Toulouse

Saturday 28 September 2013

Evin of the Trees



The theory of a matriarchal society

 
SPOILER ALERT
this post contains details which reveal 
some plot elements in Evin of the Trees






I first came across Graves's The White Goddess in the late 70s. It is an obscure, complex work, at times confusing and alienating - those who quote in Ancient Greek without providing a translation come across as erudite yes, but also arrogant. Here is an admirable summary of his thesis from Wikipedia's entry on Ogham (pron. oyam), the alphabet of the druids:

Graves took his inspiration from the theories of the ogham scholar R.A.S Macalister...and elaborated on them much further. Graves proposed that the ogham alphabet encoded a set of beliefs originating in the Middle-east in Stone Age times, concerning the ceremonies surrounding the worship of the Moon-goddess in her various forms. Graves' argument is extremely complex, but in essence he argues that the Hebrews, Greeks and Celts were all influenced by a people originating in the Aegean, called 'the people of the sea' by the Egyptians, who spread out around Europe in the 2nd millennium BCE, taking their religious beliefs with them. At some early stage these teachings were encoded in alphabet form by poets in order to pass on their worship of the goddess (as the muse and inspiration of all poets) in a secret fashion, understandable only to initiates. Eventually, via the druids of Gaul, this knowledge was passed on to the poets of early Ireland and Wales. Graves therefore looked at the tree alphabet tradition surrounding ogham and explored the tree folklore of each of the letter names, proposing that the order of the letters formed an ancient "seasonal calendar of tree magic". Although his theories have been disregarded by modern scholars...they have been taken up with enthusiasm by the neopagan movement. 



Tuesday 17 September 2013

Why write? Why e-publish? Why blog?



                                        Why indeed?


Disclaimer: I do not credit myself with any great talent, particular inspiration or brilliance. I simply feel the need to write. Writing adds another dimension to life. Exploring and developing ideas for a story is stimulating. Creating new worlds, or one's own version of familiar worlds, is extremely satisfying.  And I love telling a story. I write stories that I would have liked to read as a child and young person. And that is almost enough.




An 'ulterior motive', in the more serious narrations, is an intellectual one: to examine how knowledge has been transmitted over the centuries, particularly through language and writing, how skills we now take for granted, in the past were unknown to most and secret to a few. Whether this exploration is imagined or factual is not really the point; the former can stand for the latter in a novel.