Cranky Ladies of History

Sometimes we have a theme running through our posts for a month. Since this March, International Women's History Month celebrates Women of Character, Courage, and Commitment, and March 8th, International Women's Day, has the theme Inspiring Change, we are linking to a site that is attempting to crowdsource a book on Cranky Ladies of History. The editor of the book will post about it here on 22nd March.*

Not all our posts will be about this and we have had some discussion about what "cranky" means and interpreted it in our own way.

It links in well with our launch of Daughters of Time, which I wrote about on the first day of the year. That contains thirteen stories by members of the blog suitable for young readers of nine years and upwards, about women in English history, some whom might have been considered "cranky" in their time according to one or other definition.

My own choice, Lady Jane Grey, was not, in my opinion the helpless pawn of ambitious men and their political manoeuvrings. She was stubborn as a mule. After all, she could have saved her life by converting to Mary Tudor's religion but refused to - a rejection of clemency which saw her executed in the Tower of London.

Other contributors will write about their own "daughter of time" this month and next.

And four of us will be appearing at the Oxford Literary Festival to talk about the women in our stories, including Mary Wollstonecraft, Emily Davison and the protesters in the Peace Camp at Greenham Common. If you're in the area, do make a date for 2pm on Sunday 30th March.

Here I am putting flowers on the grave of Aphra Behn, who features in the book in a story by Marie-Louise Jensen:

We did this a few days ago in Westminster Abbey, following Virginia Woolf's advice:

“All women together ought to let flowers fall upon the tomb of Aphra Behn, for it was she who earned them the right to speak their minds.” (A Room of one's own) Seven History Girls came here with our publishers from Templar Books, who had organised the bouquet.

And we are pretty good at speaking our minds.

Eva Reckitt


But here I'd like to write about my own "cranky lady'" Eva Reckitt, in whose house I lived for four and a half years and who was a very influential person in my life. Obviously in that time I got to know her quite well, although she was eighty when I met her and I was twenty-five. But when I searched the Net for her there was only one rather unflattering photograph taken in her youth and some stern reports on how her phones were tapped and an official eye kept on her in the '20s because of her political affiliation.

For Eva was that oddity: a communist and a wealthy woman. Her fortune came from the family firm that made Reckitt's Blue - a phenomenally successful wash day aid used in lots of homes. Her older brother Maurice was an Anglo-Catholic writer and croquet player; her younger brother Geoffrey, known as "Bunny", was I think already dead when I met Eva.

She was born in 1890 and never married, though she spoke very warmly of the Socialist and academic G.D.H. Cole. Cole was married and indeed co-wrote many detective novels with his wife, Margaret Postgate. But I think Eva carried a bit of a torch for him.

Her main claim to fame, apart from generous donations to the Communist Party, was setting up the Collet's Book Shop in Charing Cross Road:

She was also on the executive of the LRD (Labour Research Department) and she was still going to meetings there when I knew her in the '70s. Her great friend was Olive Parsons and they shared a weekend cottage in Sussex. Olive, another committed communist and by then a widow, had also come under surveillance.

Olive's daughter-in-law was the poet Patricia Beer, whom I met in Eva's house and liked very much. (I remember staying up all one night in Eva's house to read Mrs Beer's House, Patricia's account of her childhood in a family of Plymouth Brethren, which antedates Oranges are not the Only Fruit by seventeen years).

So what was I doing in Eva Reckitt's house? I suppose I was her Companion. I got a free almost self-contained flat at the top of the house, in return for walking her cavalier King Charles spaniel night and morning and doing some gardening (always also rewarded with a curry lunch) and generally helping out.

We had breakfast together every morning, sitting under her painting by Roger Fry of Mediterranean rooftops. after I had taken the dog for a walk on Hampstead Heath. Later my husband-to-be also moved in and we were married from there, Eva coming to our very small wedding in Cambridge in a cold and frosty December.

I wrote my first book in her house. She taught me to have friends of all ages, so that one wouldn't outlive them all (Eva was 86 when she died, Olive 104). She introduced me to the Bookseller, a journal I still take every week, the Wine Society, William Morris - oh. so many things! Many a night she would invite me - later both of us - down to her living-room to watch a TV programme - a drama or an Arts documentary - while sharing a bottle of claret with her.

We still use some of her phrases and made-up words (she always went to the "hairmonger" for instance). She was both a thorn in the side of the British establishment and the most wonderful friend and companion. When she died, she left me a bowl by Lalique, a walnut bureau and a marble tiger, given her on a trip to China. To my husband she left her Nonesuch Shakespeare in seven volumes.

I loved her like a grandmother (I never knew a grandmother) and treasure her memory. So she is my "cranky lady," my woman of character, courage and commitment and one who inspired much change and development in me.

* Pozible Campaign
Roundup page on FableCroft


This post is written as part of the Women's History Month Cranky Ladies of History blog tour. If you would like to read more about cranky ladies from the past, you might like to support the FableCroft Publishing Pozible campaign, crowd-funding an anthology of short stories about Cranky Ladies of History from all over the world.

A big fanfare by Mary Hoffman

This is a really big day on the History Girls blog, so I hope you are not too hungover to focus! I can now announce with great excitement that we have produced our first ever publication. Daughters of Time will be published by Templar on 1st March 2014 and is a collection of stories written by some of our number about remarkable women, from Boudica to the protestors at Greenham common.

It's intended for readers of 9+ years and so our contributors are thirteen of those History Girls who write for children (some of us do both of course). It took a while after Templar approached us to work out which women we wanted to cover and who would write about whom but by the beginning of the year we had an outline that has now morphed into a book that is at the printer's!

Of course we could have done it all differently: there were so many subjects to choose from. So we have added a list of further women for readers to explore.

The anthology sprang from a post by Adèle Geras, a History Girl who was writing about the influence of the book Our Island Story on a whole generation of children. In the comments, another History Girl, Louisa Young, suggested that we should create a modern version of Our Island Story, with each of us writing one story and Adèle editing it.

An illustration from Our Island Story by H.E.Marshall

Adèle quickly rejected the editing suggestion but the idea of our producing an anthology one day got itself lodged in a few minds and Templar enterprisingly called our bluff. After that, the rest was details. Oh, and writing it of course, but it's always like that with books (I currently have one announced in another publisher's catalogue consisting of a title and cover and not yet much else).

In the end, I edited Daughters of Time and a dozen other History Girls contributed to it with me. Adèle's story was about Eleanor of Aquitaine, a very remarkable woman indeed, who was Queen of first France and then England. But we see her here in a private capacity, comforting a sick girl.

Eleanor of Aquitaine

We begin with Boudica - or rather with her resourceful and brave daughter, written about by Katherine Roberts, move on to Aethelfled, a rather less well known ruler, who was daughter of Alfred the Great and inspired Sue Purkiss to write her story, Lady of the Mercians. But it's not all about royal women.

We have Kath Langrish's touching story of the unhappy maid to Dame Julian of Norwich, Dianne Hofmeyr writing about Elizabeth Stuart, who escaped being both victim and puppet of the Gunpowder Plot and Marie-Louise Jensen on playwright Aphra Behn.

Mary Wollstonecraft, by John Opie

Penny Dolan introduces us to Mary Wollstonecraft and Joan Lennon takes us back to the childhood of fossil-hunter Mary Anning. Catherine Johnson completes a trio of Marys with the one called Seacole, a heroine of the Crimean War. Celia Rees writes about Suffragette Emily Davison, Anne Rooney about daring aviator Amy Johnson and Leslie Wilson - from her own experience - about the women anti-nuclear protestors of Greenham Common.

So a pretty varied bunch of subjects. I chose Lady Jane Grey, to liberate her reputation from the passive victim as portrayed  by Paul Delaroche in the famous and inaccurate painting of 1833, now in the National Gallery in London.

The Execution of Lady Jane Grey

I wanted to show how much she was still in charge of her own fate, however much the powerful men around her wanted her to be their political pawn. As a sixteen-year-old with a mind of her own and a will of steel.

In many of the stories, History Girls have introduced and created young women alongside the historical figures, to provide a way in for young readers, allowing them to see through the eyes of girls from the Middle Ages to the end of the 20th century, who found themselves part of events bigger than themselves.

We are launching Daughters of Time at the Oxford Literary Festival on Sunday 30th March at 2pm, when I will chair a panel consisting of Celia Rees, Penny Dolan and Leslie Wilson. And there will be several other contributors there to sign copies. We hope to see you there but, if you can't make it, then we hope you will read the book.



Daughters of Time by The History Girls, Edited by Mary Hoffman Templar, £7.99 paperback,
ISBN: 9781848771697 March 2013.

Now also available on Kindle. (updated June 2014)

For further details and review copies, please contact Laura Smythe on laurasmythecontact@gmail.com or 07881555530

Mary Hoffman and The History Girls are available for interview

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

Dark Age Breakfast - Katherine Roberts

Princess Rhianna Pendragon would like to invite you to breakfast at Camelot Castle to launch her second adventure Lance of Truth.

Regretfully, King Arthur will not be attending this year, since Prince Mordred killed him at the Battle of Camlann and Merlin whisked his body away to Avalon for safe keeping. But you might see the king's ghost, which sometimes appears at Camelot in the presence of his sword Excalibur, which Rhianna won back from the Lady of the Lake in her first adventure Sword of Light. We’re also hoping Queen Guinevere might put in an appearance later, if she manages to escape from Mordred’s dark tower, where he is keeping her hostage in a bid to get his hands on Excalibur - sorry, that should be hand (King Arthur chopped the other one off as they fought).

Welcome to the Great Hall of Camelot, where there’s plenty of room for everyone at the Round Table, since it is a magical table and can seat as many knights and their guests as required.

Weapons are not normally allowed at the Round Table when the knights meet. But for this special breakfast, you may bring a small knife or dagger to cut up your food. No forks or spoons, please. Princess Rhianna will probably use Excalibur to slice her food, but do not be alarmed – she's not allowed to blood her blade if she wants to take the sword back to Avalon and complete her quest.

Excalibur

Silver platters will be provided for royalty, and trenchers of stale bread for everyone else (please do not eat your plate before breakfast is served, since you will get crumbs on the table, which may interfere with its magic.)

CAMELOT BREAKFAST MENU

Fish

Our fish comes fresh from Lady Nimue’s lake, so if it has arms and green hair you’re advised to throw it back.

Meat

Wild boar and venison from the king’s lands.

Hare or rabbit pie (some of the squires can’t tell the difference).

Spicy sausages.

Fowl

Pigeon, quail, duck, a swan if we can catch one, and that old favourite, blackbird pie.

 For vegetarians

Selection of soft fruit from our orchards.

Porridge sweetened with honey from our hives.

Onions and cheese made from the milk of our prize flock of sheep.

To drink

A selection of Camelot ales

Dandelion wine

Elderflower cordial for the children.

Entertainment will be provided by Prince Elphin of Avalon, who (it is rumoured) has six fingers on each hand for making unearthly music. He might also sing a ballad.

 Sing a song of sixpence

A pocket full of rye.

Four and twenty blackbirds

Baked in a pie

When the pie was opened,

The birds began to sing;

Wasn't that a dainty dish,

To set before the king?

The king was in his counting house Avalon

Counting out his money;awaiting resurrection;

The queen was in the parlourMordred's tower,

Eating craving bread and honey.

The maid was in the garden,

Hanging out the clothes;

When down came a blackbird merlin

And pecked off her nose.

Virtual book signing will follow the breakfast, after which Rhianna Pendragon will leave for her next engagement, riding her fairy horse Alba.

All breakfasters will receive a souvenir grail, also supplied as a drinking vessel for the event – if yours appears to contain anything other than what you put into it, please notify the organisers at once, since the Grail of Stars (one of the four magical Lights Rhianna needs to bring her father back from the dead) vanished a few years back, and Arthur’s knights have been searching for it ever since.

Before you leave, please eat your plate to save on washing up, and take extra care when crossing the drawbridge on your way out. Camelot Castle accepts no responsibility for guests who fall into the moat while drunk or suffering from indigestion.

We hope you enjoyed your Dark Age Breakfast!

***

The Dark Age Breakfast is a virtual launch party for the Pendragon Legacy series, published October 1st 2012 by Templar.


Book 1: Sword of Light paperback and ebook
Book 2: Lance of Truth hardcover
 
More about the series at www.katherineroberts.co.uk

King Arthur: history or fantasy? – Katherine Roberts

This month sees the publication of Sword of Light, Book 1 of my Pendragon Legacy quartet about King Arthur’s daughter, published by Templar.

As you can tell from the cover art by talented New York artist Scott Altmann, this series belongs firmly at the fantasy end of my writing spectrum, whereas my previous novel “I am the Great Horse” (told by Alexander the Great’s warhorse Bucephalas) lay firmly at the historical end.

King Arthur is obviously less historical than Alexander the Great, even when authors try to stick to the facts, so I thought it would be fun to create a History Girls scale of 0-5 (where 0 is pure fantasy and 5 is historical fact) and try to grade some well-known elements of Arthurian legend. Do let me know if you disagree!

King Arthur
The good news is he probably existed. But if he did, then he’s likely to have been a Dark Age war leader rather than a great medieval king. Nennius tells us he lived in the 6th century following the departure of the Romans from Britain, when he fought several battles against the Saxon invaders.
Conclusion: Undoubtedly a hero, but a dead hero… all those rumours of him returning from Avalon when we most need him are obviously fantasy, because in my opinion we need him NOW.
HG rating 3

Mordred
King Arthur’s nephew, who killed the king on the battlefield of Camlann after a long and messy skirmish where just about everyone changed sides. The bad news is Mordred was probably real too, but unlikely to have been King Arthur’s son conceived under enchantment as Mallory would have us believe.
Conclusion: A villain of the darkest sort, ready to betray his friends and his own family to get what he wants.
HG rating 3

Camelot Castle
Arthur would have needed some sort of fortress in which to train his knights and lick his wounds after battle, but it’s more likely to have been an uncomfortable bachelor pad where nobody ever does the washing up, rather than the romantic high towers of legend.
Conclusion: An Englishman’s home is his castle, however humble.
HG rating 2

Round Table
Arthur and his knights had to eat their wild boar somewhere. I have a round table in my kitchen, but it wouldn’t seat many knights, and my “siege perilous” is a chair with a wonky leg rather than a magical seat where nobody dares to sit. Anyway, I’ve never seen the Grail appear floating above it in a ray of light… at least not yet.
Conclusion: Whatever shape it was, there was probably some dancing on it.
HG rating 2

Knights of the Round Table
Pretty sure to have existed, since there is historical evidence for mounted knights by the time of the Crusades, and Arthur’s secret weapon was meant to be mounted warriors who could ride quickly to battle. The much-loved medieval knights who joust in re-enactments today are their descendants.
Conclusion: We’re still knighting people today, so this is serious stuff.
HG rating 5

Avalon
Do you honestly believe Glastonbury Tor is a magical fairy island where Arthur’s body was taken after Mordred killed him?
Conclusion: If you do, then you should enjoy my book!
HG rating 0

Excalibur
If Arthur existed and Mordred existed, then a decent sword must have existed as well so they could fight each other. Who knows what Arthur called it? Probably a few rude things, if the battle was going badly. The Lady of the Lake stretching up her hand to reclaim Excalibur after Arthur’s death is pure fantasy, though warriors did offer their best weapons to water spirits, so there is some historical background to that story.
Conclusion: Every hero needs a good sharp sword.
HG rating 3

Merlin
The king’s enchanter. Traditionally an old man with a long white beard and staff looking a bit like Gandalf in “The Lord of the Rings”. More recently, a young boy with sticking-out ears in BBC’s TV series “Merlin”. Was he a druid? Maybe. Probably not a wizard, though.
Conclusion: More likely to drink blood in the sacred groves and scare people with his tattoos.
HG rating 1

Rhianna Pendragon
Who? She’s King Arthur’s daughter and the heroine of my new series. Pure fiction, you might think, except there’s a slim possibility Arthur did have a daughter or two lying around, since (male) historians like Nennius are unlikely to have thought a girl deserved writing about. And remember Celtic women did fight alongside their men, the most famous being Queen Boudicca who saw off the Romans.
Conclusion: Dare you to say I don't exist!
HG rating 0 1 2 3 4  5

Rhianna Pendragon drawn by Scott Altmann

For an author creating a work of fiction, high numbers on the history rating can be tricky. It sometimes feels like writing in a strait-jacket, making sure your historical characters do what they are supposed to do, when they are supposed to do it. Low ratings obviously offer more freedom, and a rating of 0 offers the most freedom of all – but it can be scary doing pure fantasy, since you have to make everything up. For me, the ideal rating is around 2 or 3. That’s enough history to anchor my story in people’s imagination and give me some background to work with, but enough freedom to invent a magical plot… making King Arthur's daughter an ideal choice.

SWORD OF LIGHT is published this month by Templar in hardcover. For all the latest gossip including links to reviews you can follow Rhianna Pendragon on Twitter at www.twitter.com/PendragonGirl
Katherine’s website is at www.katherineroberts.co.uk

I wanted to be a warrior princess... Katherine Roberts

Lucy Lawless as Xena from the TV series Xena Warrior Princess  

You know how some authors always seem to be writing the same story? I don’t mean sticking with a single book or series, though this happens. But often we might use different characters, plots, settings, experiment with different genres and age groups, or even write to someone else’s brief, and yet the same THING always fights its way out of the pages. Cleverly published, an author’s THING becomes their "brand”, but it can take some time to find.

All of the authors on this blog are "history girls", of course. Yet history is a very wide ranging genre, especially when you venture into legend and myth, and although I've written books with historical backgrounds, I don't think "history girl" really describes me. (Mary will probably throw me off this blog now!) All my work has an element of magic, which puts me firmly on the legend and myth side of history, and I write for young readers so story is always more important than hard fact. But I never thought I had a THING until I got as far as formatting my latest Seven Fabulous Wonders title The Amazon Temple Quest as an ebook and realised that warrior princesses keep fighting their way into my pages in true Xena style.

In The Amazon Temple Quest, my warrior princess is called Lysippe. She is the youngest of her tribe, last of the legendary Amazon warrior race, on their way to join King Philip of Macedon’s army for his coming Persian campaign. They are also on a quest (hence the title) for one of the lost “gryphon stones” of their people, which ward off death. Before they reach Macedonia, however, Lysippe and her sister Tanais are captured by slavers. Tanais is badly wounded, leaving Lysippe to lead a daring escape attempt during which the runaways seek sanctuary in the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

model of the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, Turkey.

Needless to say, Lysippe and Tanais are not your typical fairytale princesses with jewels in their hair, batting their eyelashes at handsome princes. They owe a fair amount to Xena, since their tribe lives without men. I located their home on the Scythian steppe, after reading about a grave discovered in Kazakhstan containing the bones of an unusually tall warrior queen buried with weapons. They wear leather leggings, carry half-moon shields, ride horses, and are armed with bows and arrows. But in keeping with the myth element of my Seven Fabulous Wonders series, the amazons in my book also have magical powers.

Seven are the signs of a true Amazon:

the yellow glare,

the sleep that heals,

a fighting spirit,

a blinding shield,

birth without man,

death without pain,

and the power to command a gryphon’s flame.

Yet they are vulnerable too, since despite being warriors they are not as physically strong as men. Here Lysippe has ridden out alone after arguing with her sister, and has just been captured by the slavers, who mistake her for a village girl…

She took deep breaths as her captor crouched before her and removed his helmet. He had pale silver hair and grime on his cheeks where dust had built up under the bronze. A jagged scar split his forehead above his left eye. Most unsettling of all, he had no eyebrows or eyelashes so there was nothing to soften that cold, blue glare. Lysippe made herself meet his gaze, though she still felt queasy from the pain in her ankle, and the bruises she’d suffered in her fall were beginning to hurt.
    He fingered the worn leather of her leggings. “Where are you from, slave? Where did you steal that horse?”
    “I’m an Amazon!” Lysippe said, trying to sound braver than she felt. She peered past him to see what had happened to Tanais. “Northwind’s mine – I didn’t steal him. And my mother and all her warriors are on their way back, so you’d better let me go!”
    The men who had stayed behind laughed.
    “Don’t lie to me, slave!” her captor growled. “Everyone knows Amazons are extinct.”
   
I've sneaked warrior princesses into other stories, including a short tale about Queen Boudicca's daughters that got shortlisted for the Library of Avalon Geoffrey Ashe Prize, and you might have noticed the Amazon queen made a brief appearance in "I am the Great Horse", my story of Alexander the Great from the horse's mouth (now sadly out of print in the UK).

Ten years later, and a slightly younger warrior princess has inspired a series of her own... King Arthur's daughter Rhianna Pendragon, whose first book Sword of Light comes out in February 2012 from children's publisher Templar for readers aged 9+. I'm quite excited about this, because for the first time my warrior princess has fought her way on to the cover. And although we are being careful not to make the book appear too girly in case boys are put off by that, Rhianna is very much the heroine.

(cover mock-up subject to changes in colour and finish)



You'll be hearing much more about Rhianna Pendragon next year, since Book 2 is due out at the end of 2012 and I am currently writing Book 3 in the series, but I hope you don't mind me giving you this little pre-Xmas taster to prove that you don't have to own a Kindle to read my work! I know you must be beginning to wonder... but this is not the place for lengthy explanations of why authors "go dark", so I'll save that for another day.

While inhabiting very different books and stories, all these warrior princesses have something in common. They are strong and brave, they ride horses and brandish swords and take on the men at their own game. They do not expect a handsome prince to fight their battles for them (although they wouldn’t say no if a prince happened along... with the possible exception of Xena, of course!). Yet they are not just sexier versions of kick-ass male warriors, as so many heroines written by male authors tend to be. My warrior princesses seek spiritual fulfillment as well as power and glory, which is an important element of my own writing as I swing my pen - or keyboard - instead of an imaginary sword.

The truth is I wanted to be Xena when I grew up… does that count as an author THING?

The Amazon Temple Quest ebook is now available at the promotional price of 99p until Dec 31st.

You can preorder Rhianna Pendragon's first adventure "Sword of Light" here (or, better still, wait until it comes to your local bookshop since this one will be a REAL BOOK - and a very beautiful one, too!)

More details on my website http://www.katherineroberts.co.uk/
Follow my unicorn on Twitter @reclusivemuse