Sunday 29 May 2011

Helen Hollick - Novelist

It was a pleasure to attend the London Chapter Meeting of the Romantic Novelist’s Association on the 21st May, 2011, at which our guest speaker was Helen Hollick, whose novels I enjoy.
For thirteen years Helen worked as a library assistant at Chingford library. During those years her interest in and passion for King Arthur and the Dark Ages grew. As a result she wrote the first of her trilogy, Pendragon’s Banner, which Heinemann accepted three days before her 40th birthday in 1994.
As Helen explained at the Chapter Meeting, she intended to write Guinevere’s story but realised it should be Arthur’s story - the tale of what might have happened, an interpretation of what we think we know.
Helen moved onto the Saxons. She brightened up Harold Godwinson’s story and while doing so visited Waltham Abbey where he walked. She also visited Battle Abbey, the site of the Battle of Hastings. While there she sensed that if she turned round she would see the battle, but she could not force herself to look. I wish she had taken a peep, I would love to know what she would have seen.
While writing Harold the King her hatred of William grew. She wrote the novel from the Saxon viewpoint and presented Harold as a popular, dynamic leader who gave his life to save England from invasion.
After the publication of Harold the King, Helen’s agent suggested she should write about pirates. Doubtless, the agent had the popularity of The Pirates of the Caribbean mind.
One day, Helen went for a walk along the beach and the whole story of The Sea Witch came to her.
Helen settled on a rock and looked out to sea and saw her pirate. (*This incident reminds me of Baroness Orczy who, while waiting for the train that Emmuska saw her most famous hero, Sir Percival Blakeney, dressed in exquisite clothes. She noted the monocle held up in his slender hand, heard both his lazy drawl and his quaint laugh. Emmuska told her husband about the incident and within five weeks wrote The Scarlet Pimpernel.)
Unfortunately, Helen’s agent didn’t like Sea Witch but Helen was not deterred. She wrote three more pirate novels and recently completed the fourth, which will be published in the autumn. Her determination has paid off, all of Helen’s novels are being republished by Sourcebooks in the U.S.A and Silverwood in the U.K.
The rejection was a serious mistake. Helen’s many fans relish her imaginative, well-written tales.
I have been one of Helen’s fans for a long time. Her novels have never disappointed me; and her talk did not disappoint me; it inspired me to write to the best of my ability and not to become discouraged.
Thank you,
Helen.
Series. Pendragons Banner
The Kingmaking
Pendragons Banner
The Shadow of the King
Seawitch Chronicles
Seawitch, Pirate Code, Bring It Close, Ripples in the Sand. Autumn 2011
Novels.
Harold the King. aka. I am the Chosen King
A Hollow Crown aka. The Forever Queen
Children’s Fiction
Come and Tell Me Be Safe Be Sensible.
*My article in the first edition of Vintage Script a subscription magazine devoted to Past Times

Helen Hollick - Author

It was a pleasure to attend the London Chapter Meeting of the Romantic Novelist’s Association on the 21st May, 2011, at which our guest speaker was Helen Hollick, whose novels I enjoy.
For thirteen years Helen worked as a library assistant at Chingford library. During those years her interest in and passion for King Arthur and the Dark Ages grew. As a result she wrote the first of her trilogy, Pendragon’s Banner, which Heinemann accepted three days before her 40th birthday in 1994.
As Helen explained at the Chapter Meeting, she intended to write Guinevere’s story but realised it should be Arthur’s story - the tale of what might have happened, an interpretation of what we think we know.
Helen moved onto the Saxons. She brightened up Harold Godwinson’s story and while doing so visited Waltham Abbey where he walked. She also visited Battle Abbey, the site of the Battle of Hastings. While there she sensed that if she turned round she would see the battle, but she could not force herself to look. I wish she had taken a peep, I would love to know what she would have seen.
While writing Harold the King her hatred of William grew. She wrote the novel from the Saxon viewpoint and presented Harold as a popular, dynamic leader who gave his life to save England from invasion.
After the publication of Harold the King, Helen’s agent suggested she should write about pirates. Doubtless, the agent had the popularity of The Pirates of the Caribbean mind.
One day, Helen went for a walk along the beach and the whole story of The Sea Witch came to her.
Helen settled on a rock and looked out to sea and saw her pirate. (*This incident reminds me of Baroness Orczy who, while waiting for the train that Emmuska saw her most famous hero, Sir Percival Blakeney, dressed in exquisite clothes. She noted the monocle held up in his slender hand, heard both his lazy drawl and his quaint laugh. Emmuska told her husband about the incident and within five weeks wrote The Scarlet Pimpernel.)
Unfortunately, Helen’s agent didn’t like Sea Witch but Helen was not deterred. She wrote three more pirate novels and recently completed the fourth, which will be published in the autumn. Her determination has paid off, all of Helen’s novels are being republished by Sourcebooks in the U.S.A and Silverwood in the U.K.
The rejection was a serious mistake. Helen’s many fans relish her imaginative, well-written tales.
I have been one of Helen’s fans for a long time. Her novels have never disappointed me; and her talk did not disappoint me; it inspired me to write to the best of my ability and not to become discouraged.
Thank you,
Helen.
Series. Pendragons Banner
The Kingmaking
Pendragons Banner
The Shadow of the King
Seawitch Chronicles
Seawitch, Pirate Code, Bring It Close, Ripples in the Sand. Autumn 2011
Novels.
Harold the King. aka. I am the Chosen King
A Hollow Crown aka. The Forever Queen
Children’s Fiction
Come and Tell Me Be Safe Be Sensible.
*My article in the first edition of Vintage Script a subscription magazine devoted to Past Times

Saturday 14 May 2011

St Albans Cathedral Abbey

The only Englishman, who has ever been Pope,was Nicholas Breakspeare. He was born near St Albans in Kings Langley. His father became a monk in the abbey but Nicholas was considered too uneducated to enter the monastery although he had attended the abbery school.

Presumably disappointed by not being accepted at St Albans, Nicholas went to France and became a novice at St Rufus in Avignon where he later became prior.

Nicholas was noticed by Pope Eugenius III and subsequently became a cardinal. In 1154 Nicholas became Pope Adrian IV.

Modern day visitors to the abbey can see a statue of Nicholas aka Adrian stands on the ornately carved screen of the High Altar.

Although the abbey had rejected the young Nicholas, he favoured it and freed the abbey from the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Lincoln by granting the Abbot of St Albans permission to wear the mitre. This gave him precedence in the Benedictine hierarchy.

To this day the Cathedral Abbey of St Albans continues to flourish and is a vibrant part of the community.

Thursday 5 May 2011

Mathew Paris and St Albans Abbey

During St Albans Abbey’s greatest days, the monastery was a centre of learning. One of the most famous historians from the scriptorium was Mathew Paris, who wrote the Chronica Majora in Latin from 1235 until he died in 1259. He began with the story of creation and concluded it with the news of the day.
Written in Latin, the Chronica Majora, starts with the creation story and ends with what, for Matthew, was the present day. St Alban's guest facilities and strategic position, one day's ride from London, made it a popular venue for the many visitors who brought much of the news and information which Brother Matthew recorded and illustrated. His drawings depicted subjects as varied as heraldic shields, Bible stories, famous battles in the crusades and the fantastic – for example, sea monsters.
Amongst other literature, Mathew wrote Gesta Abbatum – the Deeds of Abbots – which records life in a Benedictine house. Although he is loyal his own monastery, his comments are honest. He writes favourably and unfavourably about his abbot’s behaviour and decisions, and mentions favours and slights to St Albans.
By 1235 St Albans Abbey was a large self-contained community near to London. It received many visitors and the stable block contained stalls for 200 horses. There were a 100 monks or more and 300 or more lay helpers. The abbey’s prestige increased in the mediaeval era. 20 monasteries depended on it and acknowledged its authority. The abbots were – in modern day parlance – ‘rushed off their feet’ administering estates and intricate financial matters, attending parliament and entertaining royalty.
Mathew

Sunday 1 May 2011

St Alban's Cathedral

Yesterday, I again visited St Albans Cathedral, this time with a friend.

Alban, the first English martyr, was beheaded for his Christian faith by the Romans on the hillside where the Cathedral now stands. According to legend the executioners’ eyes fell out when he struck off Alban’s head. The claim that miraculous healing took place at the site of his martyrdom spread and after 325, when Christianity was permissible, pilgrims gathered there.

In 429 St Germanus of Auxerre visited the area which is the modern day town of St Albans. He discovered Alban’s grave, a place where Christians have worshipped from then until the present day.

The first church, part of a Benedictine Abbey, was south of the present cathedral.

In the 8th century, the honourable Bede mentioned: the beautiful church worthy of Alban’s martyrdom where frequent miracles of healing took place.’ The monastic church he referred to was built on the command of Saxon King Offa whose wife converted him to Christianity.

Offa had successfully petitioned the Pope to canonise Alban. Afterwards the abbey and the settlement around it became known as St. Albans.