Black Swans and the Value of the Unknown – Katherine Roberts

black swan

Not that long ago,  Europeans assumed all swans were white. Until the sighting of the first black swan in 1697, when Willem de Vlamingh explored the Swan River in Western Australia, nobody other than the Australians thought a black one could ever exist. Now we know black swans do exist, and they are beautiful as you can see.

Apart from this post being a good excuse for some pretty swan pictures, I'd like to introduce you to a book a friend recommended called Black Swan. In it there's an interesting concept called an “anti-library”, which argues that the unread books in your library are more valuable to you than those you have read.

Now, I know all the history lovers out there are going to say wait a minute! Surely the more books you read, the greater your knowledge, which makes all those books you have read valuable? Books, after all, define our history.

But even if you have read all the books in the world, then what about the knowledge – the “anti-history” if you like – that has not yet been discovered, or has been lost/burned/suppressed/forgotten along the way? Isn’t this anti-knowledge just as important? In fact such undiscovered knowledge, when it comes to light, can often change what was once widely accepted as true. Once, remember, everyone believed all swans were white. Now that black is known to be just another colour of swan, the current “anti-swan” is the pink swan nobody has yet seen… which is not the same thing as saying a pink swan does not exist, of course.

Ok, before you get too excited, I’ll admit to some digital fakery here.

 

But what in the green river, I hear you ask, do coloured swans have to do with the History Girls?

Once upon a time (i.e. 15 years ago, when I started my professional writing career), there was no blogosphere. Authors wrote books, and – if they were lucky or talented or persistent enough – got their books published, after which the publisher did all the PR, and booksellers did the bookselling. The author had very little to do with this side of things, except for turning up to do a reading now and again. I even remember my late agent telling me that I couldn’t write an article about my first book for a magazine, in case this clashed with something my publisher was doing, such as selling an exclusive extract to a national newspaper (er...in my dreams).

Over the past few years, all that has changed. Authors are expected to have an online platform and be available to their readers online. Fine maybe if those readers - like the lovely reader who has made it this far through my post - come to them. But not so fine if the author seeks out potential readers and hammers on their virtual doors (just think how you feel when a pushy double-glazing salesman calls!). I think publishers can just about get away with this, especially if they are giving away freebies such as review copies of hot new titles, but authors doing their own PR need to take care not to put their foot in it - the virtual door, I mean.

white swans

Let's go back to the swans. On publication day, that exciting debut author you know nothing about and are therefore rather curious to find out about, must become known - in the process losing some of their value. Whether this value is to booksellers in the form of actual sales figures, to their fans in a less-than-airbrushed photograph showing the odd wrinkle or two, to school librarians who might be disappointed to see their hero is actually shorter than they thought and wears glasses, or to potential readers exposed to a thousand and one blog posts, tweets and Facebook pages... the author is now part of the white swan crowd, doing the same things all the other white swans are doing. And as we all know, beautiful as white swans are, only the black ones (or the pink ones?) tend to stick in people’s memories.

So - paradoxically - unless you are a celebrity of some sort or have written a best-seller the world already loves, perhaps the best way to remain valuable as an author is to stay as mysterious as possible. Retreat behind a pseudonym, write under initials, use a digitally-enhanced photo, wear sunglasses, maintain online silence, paint yourself green, whatever it takes.

 

green swan anyone?

 

Which is why this post talks about swans and contains only a tiny bit of history. Please express your horror below.

 ***

Katherine Roberts has just finished her Pendragon Legacy series published by Templar, where King Arthur's daughter sets out on a quest for something that should not exist in this world... no, not a pink swan! Watch the trailer HERE

For more details of this series and Katherine's other books visit www.katherineroberts.co.uk

Have written a fairytale. Will travel? Not always! – Katherine Roberts

In less than a month, Grail of Stars, the final book of my Pendragon Legacy quartet for young readers about King Arthur’s daughter, will be published – at least it will be published here in the UK. But not as yet in the US, since this series is considered “too English” for the American market.

Too English!

King Arthur

Well, yes... this series is based on the legend of King Arthur, who was inescapably an English king and/or warlord, if he existed - of which there is some doubt. But King Arthur is killed in battle the day before the first book begins, so my series is actually about his daughter Rhianna Pendragon, a purely fictional character, and her three young friends – also invented by me, one of whom is a fairy and decidedly un-English (though I have to admit he’s not exactly an American fairy, either!)

And yes, as a traditional background for Rhianna’s quest, I did place my Camelot in Somerset on Cadbury Hill, and I located one of the gateways to the enchanted isle of Avalon a few miles away at Glastonbury Tor – although Avalon itself, being fairyland, could be anywhere, even in America. Other ‘English’ scenes are my battles, one of which takes place at Hadrian’s Wall (so possibly our northern cousins would dispute that), and there are plenty of dragon capers around the Welsh valleys in the third book - again not really English. Some of the action in the books takes place on the shores of Avalon, and the fourth book takes my characters across the sea to the Grail Castle - another enchanted location, and maybe somewhere you can reach by boat from English shores, which leaves things wide open, though my bet’s on France.

But I can see what American publishers mean. After all, this is not the first time one of my creations has failed to travel across the Pond. My Seven Fabulous Wonders series - a mixture of fantasy and history based on the old gods and monsters of the time - also failed to sell to an American publisher, since although these books are not English, they were considered “too European” for the American market.

Too European!

The Great Pyramid at Giza, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World (my own painting).

They were maybe even a bit too European for the English market, according to a recent survey reported by the Daily Mail. Apparently, only 61% of the British population can name one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the most popular choice being the Great Pyramid (though asking which of the three pyramids at Giza is the actual Wonder might reduce that percentage - if you're curious, it's the oldest one on the right, also the largest, the tomb of Khufu). Only 21% can name a second Wonder on the list, and a mere 6% can list all seven. In fact, an embarrassing 12% of Britons today cannot name a single one, and consider these monuments listed by the ancient Greeks as the wonders of their world to be boring! I suppose the clue is in that word “ancient” – those largely vanished old temples and statues have a bit more competition now that we have so many more modern wonders to marvel at. Also, remember, the world of the ancient Greeks was based around the Mediterranean and Persia, which did not include America.

If you are a US publisher, you'll probably gently remind me at this point that publishing decisions are based on other factors than geographical boundaries, that it’s an increasingly cut-throat business, and everyone is watching the bottom line these days. All of which I understand – I’m no starry-eyed debut author, and I'm not picking on our American cousins by any means, since the same could be said of books that do not travel to China, or even fail to make the short hop across the channel into modern Europe - although in their case there is an extra cost involved with the need to translate the story into a different language. Happily, my Seven Fabulous Wonders did eventually make it into 12 languages, perhaps proving their European appeal, and the Pendragon Legacy is making a good start with French and Turkish deals agreed and others hopefully in the pipeline.

Yet it seems this failure of fantasy stories (which are essentially fairytales, and therefore ought to travel quite easily) to cross geographical boundaries is not a recent thing. I bought this book from a second-hand bookstall the other day, because I fell in love with the beautiful cover:

It is a collection of the original fairytales by the Brothers Grimm, who lived in 18th/19th century Germany, and contains some of perhaps the most famous fairytales of all time. There are detailed notes on the stories in the back, and I was particularly fascinated by the “omitted tales”, and the reasons they were thrown out of this collection at some stage.

These omitted tales include:

Too French!

The Nightingale and the Blindworm, Puss in Boots, Simple Hans, Bluebeard, Okerlo, and Princess Mouseskin were all omitted in 1819 because of their French origins. (Any historian out there hazard a guess as to why?)

Too Scottish!

The Hand With the Knife was omitted in 1819 because of its Scottish origins.

Too Dutch!

The Castle of Murder was omitted in 1819 due to its Dutch origins.

Too Mongolian!

The Faithful Animals was omitted in 1850 because it came from a collection of Mongolian tales.

And a couple of other reasons not really to do with geographical boundaries, but more with culture:

Too Historical!

The Children of Famine and Saint Solicitous were omitted in 1819 because they were too much like legend. (Um, King Arthur's daughter, are you listening?)

Too Gruesome!

How some Children Played at Slaughtering, The Stepmother, and The Children of Famine (doubly unpopular, that one, it seems.)

As you've probably noticed, the omitted tales include some of our best-known fairytales such as Puss in Boots and Bluebeard, so clearly fashions change over time, and also change when stories cross geographical boundaries. How Some Children Played at Slaughtering could even be an early forerunner of  The Hunger Games, one of our most popular YA series today!

So maybe I should not be too upset by “too English” and “too European”, or even "too historical" and "too gruesome"? I am after all an English author and have always felt more European than American culture-wise, even if we do share a language. Perhaps that is why my muse is drawn towards European legends and history? Also, writing something European does not necessarily mean it won’t be published in America – it just has a harder time over there. For example, my Alexander the Great novel from the horse's mouth I am the Great Horse, which one American reviewer (the 2 star one if you follow the B&N link) slammed as unsuitable for children due to its gruesome battle scenes and suggestion of homosexuality, had a hardcover American edition. It did not in the end make it into paperback over there – although I am happy to report this book is now available worldwide as an ebook (see below), crossing geographical boundaries at the click of a key.

The main downside of such labels, of course, is financial. The American market, love it or hate it, is essential in terms of making a living at this writing business. I am now in that scary space between books when I need to decide what to write next, and embarking on new work that I know is going to slam into a geographical wall is probably not the most sensible thing for my career right now.

Of course, in hindsight, I could have set my Greek gods and monsters from the Seven Fabulous Wonders in an American summer camp (like Percy Jackson), or put King Arthur’s daughter and Avalon in space (like the other Pendragon Legacy), shaking off their “too European” and “too English” objections at the outset. No doubt the same approach would work for many other English or European ideas. But they would have lost some of their essential culture and soul along the way. The book that is really begging me to write it next – the one I started last week, meaning to do an hour maybe and ended up writing into the night – is set in ancient Rome. European history again, arghh! I haven’t dared tell my publisher about it, because I do have more American-friendly fantasy series idea, although in the wayward manner of my muse I’ve not written a word of that one yet.

I just know what my editor is going to say...

***

Katherine Roberts writes fantasy and historical fantasy for young readers.

Visit her website for more details www.katherineroberts.co.uk

If you are a slightly older reader, you might like to try her Alexander the Great novel,

now available as an ebook from:

Amazon for Kindle

Apple itunes

Kobo

Nook

Legacies – Katherine Roberts

Legacy – n. sum or money or article bequeathed; material or immaterial thing handed down by predecessor.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the things we leave behind us, where we leave them and why. In my fantasy quartet for young readers, King Arthur leaves Excalibur in an enchanted lake after his mortally-wounded body is taken to Avalon, as well as three other magical objects scattered about the world of men. That's possibly why Templar chose to call my series The Pendragon Legacy. As heir to the Pendragon throne, his daughter Rhianna is also part of the legacy Arthur leaves behind - since she's all that stands between the glory of Camelot and her evil cousin Mordred, who seeks to destroy everything the king and his noble knights created.

"Which book is your favourite?"

Some books contain magic as strong as that of the four Lights, hit the bestseller lists and are made into films for everyone to enjoy - but all books, however humble, are legacies bequeathed to the world by their authors. I often refer to my books as my children, since they each take about nine months to grow from the seed of an idea to a fully-fledged manuscript ready for editing, and every child is special to its parents and deserves just as much love and care, no matter how well it performs in the world. Also, it’s a good answer to the question young readers like to ask: “Which of your books is your favourite?” because I can say “It’s like asking a mother to choose between her children,” and they understand right away what I’m talking about.

But having just added the final full stop to the proofread of the final book in the Pendragon Legacy quartet, I felt the need to leave something extra to mark its completion (and obviously a girl has to do something while she waits for the film deals to roll in).

My study when I started the Pendragon Legacy series, with my unicorn muse overseeing things from the chimney breast.

Released from deadlines for the time being (except for this blog post – Ms Hoffman is very strict with us!), I’m tackling the redecoration of the chimney breast in my study, where water ran down the wall when my roof started leaking last winter. In the constant rainstorms we had, there was not much I could do at the time except turn my back on the unsightly mess and clamber up into the loft every morning to squeeze out the rags I’d stuffed in the roof, until I could persuade someone to come out and fix it. But now it’s stopped raining at last, so my thoughts turn once again to legacies.

Desperate measures were needed.

The fact my chimney breast needs redecorating is partly due to the Pendragon Legacy books, which I was so busy writing at the time that I failed to notice how bad the chimney leak had become, until desperate measures were needed. So off came the poster of my unicorn-muse, who had valiantly hidden the worst of the leak for a while with his magical horn. Off came the red-painted woodchip wallpaper that used to scare potential house buyers away, in more or less one satisfying sheet - there are some advantages to having water running down your wall all winter! Off came half the paint underneath as well, leaving the patchy wall with its filled-in fireplace, legacy of a previous owner who clearly didn’t want the fuss of a real fire. And off came some of the ceiling too, ending up all over me.

Confronted by my bare wall (with patched ceiling)...

At this point, covered in plaster dust and confronted by my bare wall, I paused, reminded of when my parents got around to stripping the old wallpaper in their dining room just before they sold their old house. It was the first time they’d redecorated that room since we'd moved into the place when I was seven. Behind several layers of wallpaper, they discovered graffiti dating back to 1932. The house was built in the 1920’s, so that might even have been the first time it was papered. The original decorator – and also later ones, following the tradition – had signed the wall. The latest date we found on the wall was 1967, which suggests the décor was refreshed just before my parents bought the house, and survived until 2010 when they downsized. I didn't have my camera with me at the time so I haven't got a picture to show you, but I did persuade my dad to sign the wall as well before the new wallpaper went up.

... I couldn't resist drawing a dragon.

Although my current house was built in 1936, my chimney breast had collected no graffiti - until now! I couldn’t resist drawing a dragon and adding my own signature to show that The Pendragon Legacy series was responsible for the redecoration. What future owners will make of this when they strip off the new paper I'm about to paste over it, I don’t know! But it seemed an appropriate legacy to leave behind.

Have you ever left a legacy in a house, and if so where?

***

You can meet Rhianna in the first Pendragon Legacy book Sword of Light, and she's an old enough "book-child" now to have made her way on to the Tower Hamlets shortlist.

Find out more about the Pendragon Legacy series at http://www.katherineroberts.co.uk 

From Anne Frank to War Horse: children's historical books sell! - Katherine Roberts

I’ve reached that stage between projects when I don’t quite know what I’ll publish next. I’ve got several files of half-worked ideas, including two novels not yet contracted, mostly historical fantasy for younger readers since that’s where my passion lies. But what of the editor who told me bluntly a few years ago that “historical fiction for children does not sell”? I have ambitions the same as the next author, and certainly don't want to waste everyone's time, including my own, writing something that has no hope of selling because of its subject matter.

So here's the million-dollar question: is it possible to write historical fiction for younger readers that hits the Top 100? (Which I assume is what the editor really meant by "sell".)

In the interests of research, let's analyse the best-seller lists. I began with the Kindle best-sellers, since I can do that lying in bed with no danger of heavy-historical-tome-reader’s-RSI.

Sadly, there 's only one historical novel on the list when I look*, in at number 20: Winter in Madrid by CJ Sansom. It’s not a children’s book, at least I don't think so. Even more sadly, it’s one of those 20p-is-that-all-our-work-is-worth? promotional efforts on behalf of its publisher. In fact, looking at the Kindle bestsellers, I decide this list is flawed because it’s clearly driven by price and not much else, with only two of the ebooks in the Top 20 costing more than £1. Besides, apparently only about 20% of readers – and even fewer younger readers – actually own a Kindle at present, so there obviously isn’t much point me looking there for inspiration... at least not for another few years.

All right, let’s take a peek at best-sellers in (adult) historical fiction.

Wolf Hall & Bring up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

The Lifeboat by Charlotte Rogan

Dominion by CJ Sansom (interestingly, not Winter in Madrid…)

Pillars of the Earth & World Without End by Ken Follett

HhHH by Laurent Binet and Sam Taylor

The Fever Tree by Jennifer McVee

The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton

Some of  the above would interest me an adult reader, but none really count as children’s books, even though I can imagine teenagers and young adults enjoying them for the adventure. In fact you have to scroll down to number 143 on the historical list to find The Once and Future King by TH White, which also happens to be one of my all-time favourites from when I was a teenager.

one of my favourite books as a teenager

This is quite encouraging, since my Pendragon Legacy quartet about King Arthur’s daughter is a similar legend-based fantasy for children set in an Arthurian world - and I'm happy to report that the third book in my series Crown of Dreams overtook "The Once and Future King" on amazon last month, so the Arthurian legend still looks promising if you're considering it. But since authors start work on a book a couple of years ahead of publication, I need to get started on a new project even while my publishers are busy bringing out my last one (this is the reason authors sometimes forget the plots of their own books when they are on publicity tours... their head is already starting to spin with the next idea!)

So let’s get a bit more specific and find out what does sell to a younger readership.The current best-selling children’s books in fiction come up as:

Diary of a Wimpy Kid (series) by Jeff Kinney

Beautiful Creatures series (film tie-in) by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl)

The Hunger Games (trilogy) by Suzanne Collins

Looking for Alaska by John Green

Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
The Gruffalo, Room on the Broom (picture books) by Julia Donaldson

Harry Potter (series) by JK Rowling

Holes by Louis Sachar

Wonder by R J Palacio

A mixed bag here, covering all ages from picture books to YA. I loved Holes (if you haven’t read this yet, it’s one of those wonderful crossover titles that appeal to a wide readership). And I was blown away in a slightly envious "damn, why didn't I write that?" way by The Hunger Games - what self-respecting SF/F/H fan wouldn’t be? But only two on this list can really be counted as historical, and I suspect both of those are on a curriculum somewhere as required reading, since neither seem to me the sort of book a child would seek out for fun - and Diary of A Young Girl of course isn't  fiction. Although diaries do seem to have an edge, so maybe I'm wrong? Does the diary format make historical subjects more appealing to a child reader?

Ah ha, perhaps the problem for younger readers lies with the actual reading, not the subject matter. So how about the most popular movies of last year?

8th most popular movie of 2012

The top 10 movies of 2012 (according to box office takings) were:

1. The Avengers
2. The Dark Knight Rises
3. The Hunger Games
4. Skyfall (James Bond)
5. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.
6. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn
7. The Amazing Spider Man
8. Brave
9. Ted
10. Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted

This is encouraging. Science fiction and fantasy settings dominate, as do films aimed at younger audiences, with "Brave" keeping up the historical side by winning Best Animated Film at the recent Oscars. I noted in a previous post on this blog how these three genres have a lot in common, and Brave's heroine is very similar in character to my heroine Rhianna Pendragon, so I'm on target there. But WAIT - this is last year’s movie list, and I was just reading on a famous literary agent’s blog how “dystopia” is now a rude word in publishing circles, when not that long ago it appeared to be all publishers were looking for following the success of the Hunger Games. So this list might work for books already written, but is pretty pointless for the one I haven't started yet.

Right then, let's get to the nitty-gritty and look at the top 10 in children’s historical fiction. Rather tellingly (and surprisingly, because I'd rather assumed it would be there), amazon doesn’t list “historical” in its subcategories under children’s fiction. The closest is “myth/legends”, which is heavily skewed towards fantasy titles such as my Pendragon books, followed by "westerns", which includes fellow History Girl Caroline Lawrence's Western Mysteries in the top 100.

I'd love to have done this list a few years ago, when historical fantasy such as Susan Price's fabulous tale of the border reivers The Sterkarm Handshake won the Guardian Children's Fiction Award, and Celia Rees' Witch Child wowed the world. But these classic titles seem to have slipped out of the lists in favour of Michael Morpurgo's backlist currently riding high on the success of War Horse. Failing to pull up anything sensible by typing "children's historical fiction" into amazon's search box, I call up the list of bestsellers in children's books (general), and work through it by hand looking for historical themes. Given that I'm not a computer algorithm, this is what I came up with:

No. 1 bestselling children's historical title

Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Time Riders by Alex Scarrow
Dodger by Terry Pratchett
Heroes by Robert Cormier
Heroes of Olympus by Rick Riordan
War Horse by Michael Morpurgo
Goodnight Mr Tom by Michelle Magorian
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne
Gladiator: Son of Spartacus by Simon Scarrow

The top-selling title on this list comes in at number 313 in the total books chart, and the final one at number 1,850. Not at all bad, when you consider how many books are listed on amazon's site. And the subcategory 'children's historical fiction' might not (yet) be there for readers, but it is for publishers when you list a book in the Kindle store. My backlist historical novel "I am the Great Horse" (reissued as an ebook last month) made it into the top 100 of the children’s historical fiction subcategory in the US in its first week... and no, it wasn't 20p at the time!

,

Climb on my back, if you dare...

From which I can only conclude that the editor was wrong when she told me that children don't read historical books, because the ones listed above obviously do sell, and I'd guess from looking at their rankings that they are not only selling, but selling enough copies to make their publishers a profit... although from the current children's historical list above, I suspect it helps if you are (a) male and/or (b) writing about a World War.

For a bit of fun, I'll leave you with some History Girl strategies to consider if you write historical fiction for young readers but the big sales are not happening for you yet:


1. Have a sex change (bit drastic maybe).
2. Use a male pseudonym - or better still, initials to keep everyone guessing.
3. Write about a horse (already done that!) in one of the World Wars (ah...)
4. Get on the adult Top 10 historical list first and then write a children's book (talk about making life difficult for yourself.)
5. Forget all of the above, and just write a damn good story!

*Top 10 book and Kindle lists courtesy of amazon.co.uk, correct as of 24th February 2013

I’m away at the moment on tour for my publisher Templar (I do still remember the plots of my Pendragon books, I do, I do...) So if you have any thoughts on the above, please leave a comment below and I’ll get back to you at the weekend when I return.

Meanwhile, happy historical bestseller browsing!

***

Katherine Roberts is an award-winning children's author.

Her Pendragon Legacy series about King Arthur's daughter is published by Templar:
Book 1 SWORD OF LIGHT
Book 2 LANCE OF TRUTH
Book 3 CROWN OF DREAMS 
Book 4 GRAIL OF STARS  (coming October 2013) 

More about her books at www.katherineroberts.co.uk
Her unicorn muse blogs at http://reclusivemuse.blogspot.com
Twitter: @AuthorKatherine and @PendragonGirl

In search of King Arthur’s crown – Katherine Roberts

Crowns come in all shapes and sizes. Kings wear them. Queens wear them. Little girls like to wear them when they dress up... and so do big girls! Since a crown appears as a magical object of power in the third book of my Pendragon Legacy series "Crown of Dreams" I had the perfect excuse to buy this shiny jewelled version to wear at events. ( Note to potential muggers: it’s plastic and came from the local pound shop, so those emeralds and rubies are NOT REAL… authors cannot afford to buy real crowns, ok?)

The packet claims this to be a “Tales of Olde England" crown, which seems perfect for my books… but is it genuine? What kind of crown would the real historical King Arthur have worn?

To find out, let's go back a few thousand years...


No crowns from the pre-Christian era have survived, but we know what some of them looked like from studying other historical records. Perhaps the best known ancient crowns are the White crown and Red Crown of Upper and Lower Egypt, recorded in hieroglyphs. These were combined into the distinctive Double Crown worn by the Pharaohs of Egypt:

The "Double Crown" of the Two Lands (White Crown and Red Crown worn together)

Then there was the radiant crown of the sun god Helios, otherwise known as the Colossus of Rhodes - one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, which was destroyed by an earthquake in 226BC. Today, the same crown is worn by the Statue of Liberty in New York.

Statue of Liberty

In classical times, crowns were usually a simple ribbon called a "diadem". The ancient Greeks wore a white ribbon to indicate kingship, while the Persian Emperors wore a more elaborate blue-and-white diadem.

diadem

Also in the ancient world, it was customary for winning athletes to be crowned with laurel leaves. In the early Christian era (around 300AD) Emperor Constantine adopted this idea, and so we see the laurel diadem worn by rulers of the Roman Empire with its (previously real) leaves beaten out of gold.

Roman laurus crown

Moving on a few hundred years, the oldest surviving European crown is the Iron Crown of Lombardy. This was fashioned in the Early Middle Ages (i.e. around the time of King Arthur, maybe?), and consisted of a circlet of gold fitted around a central iron band, which according to legend was made out of one of the nails used to crucify Christ.

The Iron Crown

This looks a bit different from my plastic version, but is probably a more authentic Arthurian crown. (I’m pleased it has jewels, because they are important to my plot!) The iron band in the middle having a religious connection is fascinating, and something I missed for my book – although other magical objects in the Arthurian legends have a spiritual connection, the most obvious being the Holy Grail, which becomes the Grail of Stars in the final book of my series.


Crowns represent both worldly and spiritual power. According to the Bible, Jesus wore a crown of thorns at his crucifixion, and this has become a common symbol of martyrdom.

Crown of Thorns.

while in Roman Catholic shrines, Virgin Mary statues are ceremonially crowned in spring to commemorate her ascent to Heaven.

Crown of Immortality

So perhaps it isn’t entirely unreasonable of me to crown King Arthur with a "Crown of Dreams" bestowed with magical properties? Being a legendary king, Arthur reigns in the enchanted mists between fantasy and history, with one eye on the Holy Grail and the other on the Dark Age barbarians rampaging across his lands. A crown that combines magic with kingship would seem to fit well on his head, even if he wasn’t strictly a king as we know it!

King Arthur, maybe.

What do YOU think King Arthur’s crown would have looked like, assuming he wore one?

***

Katherine Roberts writes fantasy and historical fantasy for young readers.

The third book in her Pendragon Legacy series about King Arthur’s daughter Crown of Dreams is published this month in hardcover by Templar.

Book 1 Sword of Light (nominated for the Carnegie medal) and Book 2 Lance of Truth are also available in hardback, paperback and ebook.

Thanks to Wikipedia for the pictures used to illustrate this post.

Quest for Camelot – Katherine Roberts

By the time this post goes up, I’ll be in Wales doing publicity in schools for my new book Sword of Light. A rather strange choice for an author tour you might think… until you realise my book is about King Arthur’s daughter and part of it is set at Camelot. Since there isn’t a Geography Girls blog (at least not as far as I know... are you out there, Geography Girls?), I hope you won’t mind this post on Arthurian geography as a change from Arthurian history – after all, archaeological digs are a good way to uncover history!

Wales has long been associated with King Arthur. If you consider the red dragon on the Welsh flag, it makes perfect sense that Arthur Pendragon - the “head dragon” - should have lived and ruled there. But even Geoffrey of Monmouth, whose statue stands in the atmospheric Circle of Legends at Tintern station along with King Arthur's, admits that Arthur originated in England and the legend spread across the border.

Circle of Legends: www.thecircleoflegends.co.uk

Arthurian names abound from Cornwall, up the length of England and Wales, and as far as Scotland. In some parts of the west country you can't walk your dog without tripping over an "Arthur's stone", but as yet no historical evidence has been found of King Arthur's court and its Round Table. So where exactly was the famous Camelot?

1. Caerleon, Wales.
A popular choice with its Roman remains and mention by Nennius. Many Arthurian novels have been set here.

2. South Cadbury Castle, Somerset.
Another popular location, and the site of a dig by the Camelot Research Committee in 1966... they discovered evidence of an iron age hill fort but not of King Arthur. From this flat topped hill, you can see Glastonbuy Tor (sometimes called the ancient Avalon), and the village of Queen Camel is nearby. The River Cam could have been the location of Arthur's final battle against Mordred.

3. Kelliwic, near Padstow, Cornwall.
This is close to the River Camel and Camelford, which is another possible location for King Arthur’s final battle on the field of Camlann against his nephew Mordred.

4. Scotland
Many locations in Scotland have Arthurian names, and "Arthur’s Seat" is in Edinburgh. I favour Scotland for the villain of the story, Prince Mordred, but that might be because I'm a west country girl!

5. Hollywood
The fabulous medieval Camelot Castle of our much-loved Arthurian films is probably pure fantasy, but certainly very romantic.

6. In the sea
I recently came across this location in the TV series "Camelot", which placed Arthur's castle teetering on the edge of a nameless windswept cliff… the theory being that Camelot and its Round Table has long since crumbled away and fallen into the sea, which explains why we have found no trace of King Arthur’s court. Quite a neat idea.

7. Camelot Castle, Tintagel.
You can stay there today. Really. This one is not a ruin, and it's on my wish list for a Pendragon Legacy event... or, if the books sell well enough, maybe I'll book a night or two there to celebrate the end of the series!

So where did I decide to set my Pendragon Legacy series? Well... if you haven't guessed yet, you’ll have to read the first book to find out!

SWORD OF LIGHT (Book1 of the Pendragon Legacy) is now available in hardcover priced at £9-99, and if you're very quick there is still time to enter the History Girls February competition to win a FREE copy by naming a fairy horse (competition closes tomorrow, 7th March).

More details of the Pendragon Legacy quartet and Katherine's earlier books can be found at www.katherineroberts.co.uk

and you can follow Rhianna Pendragon on Twitter at www.twitter.com/PendragonGirl