Here it is, the cover for the first volume of my trilogy of historical novels on the kings of the north, The Northumbrian Thrones. Edwin: High King of Britain is due out in March 2014 from Lion Fiction and I am really rather excited.
It’s available to pre-order on Amazon, the Book Depository and Waterstones.
Current Archaeology magazine has reviewed Northumbria: the Lost Kingdom in issue 278. Reviews aren’t online, so they’ve kindly given me permission to reproduce the review here.
Once, Gething and Albert write, ‘Geordies ruled us all’. While not strictly true, there is no doubt that during its 7th- to 8th-century Golden Age, the Anglian kingdom of Northumbria was one of the great powers of Medieval England, home to ecclesiastical heavyweights like Bede and Alcuin, and to stunning artefacts like the Franks Casket. But these achievements are too often overshadowed by other kingdoms, particularly Wessex, the authors argue. To redress this, historical sources and archaeological evidence are woven together in a rich tapestry, using findings from the Bamburgh Research Project (CA 239) – of which Gething is a co-founder and co-director – and other excavations to expand our picture of Northumbria from the monastic and royal spheres that form the focus of most contemporary writings. This is interspersed with interviews from archaeologists and historians with expertise in a wide range of fields. A lively and interdisciplinary book.
The Bamburgh Research Project, which has done more than anyone else to bring to light the extraordinary archaeology and history of Northumbria, is looking for help and seeking it through crowdfunding via Sponsume. If you can help at all, either by contributing a small amount or sharing the link and spreading awareness, please do so.
I will be at the Current Archaeology Live! conference this Friday and Saturday, the 1st and 2nd March, at Senate House in London. Look for me at the Bamburgh Research Project table, where I will be sitting alongside Graeme Young (archaeologist and director of the BRP) on Friday and Paul Gething (co-writer, archaeologist and BRP director) on Saturday, talking about the work of the BRP, Northumbria and our book, the fruit of the BRP’s researches.
Northumbria: the Lost Kingdom will be on sale at a Conference special price of £12.99, which is 25 per cent off the normal RRP. It would be great to see you there. Tickets for the Conference are on sale here.
Now, pdfs and all the other technological and digital whizz bangs that allow files and pictures to be shared between computers and tablets and pills and potions and what not are all very well, but, believe me, there is nothing, absolutely nothing, to compare with holding the first paper copy of the book you’ve spent the last three years working on in your hands.
There it is, pictures, words, the whole blessed shebang: a real, actual, frankly all-but-breathing thing! You can take your Kindles and your iPads and all the other devices that depend on moving electrons around and shove them. Give me paper, give me vellum, give me inky fingers and pages you can flick through marvelling at the pictures, the design, the way the words sit upon the page.
So, here it is, Northumbria: The Lost Kingdom, held in my slightly shaky hands!
The good people at This Is Northumberland (www.thisisnorthumberland.com) are running a competition in which the prize is no less than a free copy of my very own Northumbria: The Lost Kingdom. So, if you want to diddle your dedicated author out of his hard-earned and frankly rather low royalties, get along to the site, enter your details and cross your fingers, that this time it’s you!
Now, as you may know (and if you don’t, I’ll need to make my self-advertisement even more blatant), my ebook on Tolkien, Professor Tolkien of Oxford, has just come out, and my old-fashioned paper book on the history and archaeology of Northumbria: The Lost Kingdom is out 1 October. What I had not known before is that other eyes than mine have seen the connection between the two. When places are touted as the inspiration for Middle-earth, the areas around Birmingham where Tolkien grew up (which were then bucolic expanses of greenery rather than suburbs) usually win out. But, it turns out, and this will not be a surprise to visitors, Northumberland fits better today. For the poster for The Hobbit features Gandalf striding across the Shire, but the backdrop is Northumberland. The ruined castle to the right of centre is Edlingham Castle. The hills are the Simonside Hills, according to folklore the home of dwarves, the duergar, who lead travellers astray.
So, Northumbria is Middle-earth. I knew it!
I’ve just finished going through the final batch of corrections for Northumbria: The Lost Kingdom. Emailed off this morning, Lindsey, our editor at The History Press, will input them on Monday and then off the file goes to the printers. It looks like we’re on track for the official publication date of 1st October 2012.
Gosh.
It’s been a memorable day. First, Professor Tolkien of Oxford comes out, and then I get to see the final version of the cover – front and back – of Northumbria: The Lost Kingdom. I like it.
It’s an exciting time: the History Press has sent me a trial cover for Northumbria: The Lost Kingdom. I quite like it, but what do you think?
