Tag: Blog Tour

Blog Tour/Guest Post: Lords of the Greenwood by Chris Thorndycroft

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I’m delighted to be hosting today’s stop on the blog tour for Lords of the Greenwood by Chris Thorndycroft and to bring you an absolutely fascinating guest post from Chris exploring the origins of two of the fictional titles commonly given to that famous outlaw, Robin Hood.

WinThere’s also a giveaway (open internationally) with a chance to win one of two ebook copies of Lords of the Greenwood.   You can enter via the tour page here (scroll down to the bottom of the page) where you can also find links to reviews, extracts and interviews with the author hosted by the other great bloggers on the tour.

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Lords of the GreenwoodAbout the Book

Nottinghamshire, 1264.  England is on the brink of civil war. The barons are in revolt against King Henry III. Such times suit Roger Godberd, sergeant in the garrison at Nottingham Castle. After throwing in their lot with the barons who embark on a bloody campaign for control of England, Roger and his companions are betrayed and seek refuge in Sherwood Forest. There they begin their new lives as outlaws evading their old enemy, the High Sheriff of Nottinghamshire.

Yorkshire, 1320.  Wrongfully accused of murder, young Robert Hood of Wakefield finds himself outlawed with only his bitter enemy Will Shacklock for company. Taking to the woods of Barnsdale, Robert and Will agree on an uneasy truce and begin recruiting a band of robbers fleeing the chaos of the Earl of Lancaster’s rebellion against King Edward II. Eventually drawing the attention of the king himself, Robert and his band are given a choice; be hanged as common criminals or enter the king’s service as agents of the crown…

Blending real history with medieval ballads this is the entwined saga of two men, separated by a generation, united by legend, who inspired the tales of England’s famous hooded outlaw.

Format: ebook (469 pp.)                 Publisher:
Published: 16th January 2018        Genre: Historical Fiction

Purchase Links*
Amazon.co.uk  ǀ  Amazon.com  ǀ Smashwords
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

Find Lords of the Greenwood on Goodreads

Guest post: ‘Locksley or Huntington? Robin Hood’s Noble Heritage’ by Chris Thorndycroft, author of Lords of the Greenwood

Robin of Locksley? Earl Robert of Huntington? Common ragamuffin or disgraced nobleman? The background of Robin Hood and the reasons for his outlawry vary from story to story and are really at the discretion of the writer. Sometimes he’s a local lad peeved by the mistreatment of his fellow commoners but more often than not he is a man of rank with lands and titles to his name. I’m not going to go into all the historical candidates for the real Robin Hood here but the origins of two fictional titles often given to our favourite forest outlaw are interesting in themselves.

The earliest association of Robin with the Earl of Huntington was in Anthony Munday’s 1601 play The Downfall of Robert, Earl of Huntington and its sequel The Death of Robert, Earl of Huntington. Filled with love triangles, skulduggery and the usual Shakespearean shenanigans of crossdressing and mistaken identities, these plays were also the first stories to place Robin Hood in the reign of Richard the Lionheart (the only king mentioned in the early ballads is an unspecified King Edward).

Nobody knows where Munday got the idea that Robin Hood was the Earl of Huntington but it was probably just a bit of fantasy on his part which caught on. Interestingly, there is a grave in the grounds of where Kirklees Priory once stood (the traditional place of Robin’s death in the ballads) which has the following inscription:

Hear Underneath dis laitl Stean
Laz robert earl of Huntingtun
Ne’er arcir ver as hie sa geud
An pipl kauld im robin heud
Sick utlawz as hi an iz men
Vil england nivr si agen
Obiit 24 kal Dekembris 1247

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Nathaniel Johnston’s sketch

The pseudo-archaic English suggests that the current monument is a modern replica. Indeed, the 1569 chronicle of Richard Grafton (and a sketch done by historian Nathanial Johnston in 1665) makes no mention of the Earl of Huntington on the gravestone1.  The current inscription may have been taken from the 1630 ballad A True Tale of Robin Hood by Martin Parker which, clearly inspired by Munday’s plays, gives a very similar epitaph2.

The Earl of Huntington is a non-existent title but Munday may have been thinking of Huntingdon which is a title in the peerage of England. Created in the last days of Saxon England, the first Earl of Huntingdon was Waltheof who twice rebelled against William the Conqueror and, at the time of his execution, was the last of England’s Saxon earls. Through his daughter’s marriage to King David of Scotland, the earldom passed to Scottish princes. It was one of these princes (David, the 8th Earl) who helped besiege Nottingham Castle ahead of Richard the Lionheart’s return to England in 1194. When the last earl died childless in 1237, the title became extinct.

Even taking into account the six successive creations of the title over the years, there has never been an Earl of Huntingdon called Robert to date, however the swashbuckling exploits of Waltheof and Earl David may have inspired Munday to use the title in his plays.

And what of Locksley? This connection originated in a narrative called the Sloane Manuscript dating from about 1600. Mixing bits of the ballads with snippets of local folklore, the manuscript claims that Robin Hood was born in ‘Lockesley’, Yorkshire in the reign of Richard I and that he became an outlaw after incurring large debts.

There is a Loxley in South Yorkshire that lies within the boundaries of Hallamshire which traditionally belonged to the Earls of Huntingdon (possibly presenting us with an interesting cross-pollination of folklore). The 17th century antiquarian Roger Dodsworth claimed that, not only did Robin hail from Loxley, but the Earl of Huntingdon was in fact Little John!3  Several Earls of Huntingdon were called John but nothing about them stands out as an indication that they were Robin Hood’s faithful lieutenant.

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Bishop Odo

There is also a Loxley in Warwickshire and the antiquarian J. R. Planche suggested that its 12th century lord, Robert Fitz Odo, was the real Robin Hood (drop the Fitz and you’ll see what he means)4. This Robert Odo of Loxley appears to have been stripped of his knighthood and disinherited in 1196 but there is no record of him turning outlaw.

Interestingly, there is a grave in a Loxley churchyard dedicated to Constance, a member of the family who owned Loxley Hall in the 19th century, but the grave slab is much older and bears a striking resemblance to the drawing done by Nathanial Johnston of Robin Hood’s grave at Kirklees. Is this the original Kirklees gravestone removed to Loxley by people who knew that the real Robin Hood was Robert Fitz Odo? Or is the Loxley gravestone a replica? Or is it all just a coincidence? Impossible to say.

Sir Walter Scott cemented the Locksley tradition in his 1820 novel Ivanhoe. His version of Robin as a common freedom fighter standing up for the oppressed Saxons during the reign of Richard the Lionheart is a version most books and movies have conformed to ever since. The Huntington connection has not wholly died out and was used perhaps most memorably in the 1984-1986 British TV series Robin of Sherwood which cleverly utilised two Robins – Robin of Loxley and Robert of Huntingdon.

Whatever writers of fiction choose to call Robin Hood there is a wealth of possibilities for the character’s background. England’s histories of dispossessed knights and rebellious earls have long been rich pickings for a swashbuckling origin story and they will continue to be so.                                                                                         © Chris Thorndycroft

Sources

  1. Richard Grafton, A Chronicle at Large… (1569) http://d.lib.rochester.edu/teams/text/richard-graftons-chronicle-at-large-1569
  2. Martin Parker, A True Tale of Robin Hood http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/child/ch154.htm
  3. Joseph Hunter, The Great Hero of the Ancient Minstrelsy of England, “Robin Hood”: His Period, Real Character, Etc. Investigated, and Perhaps Ascertained (1883) https://books.google.no/books?id=01QJAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=bibliogroup:%22Mr.+Hunter%27s+critical+and+historical+tracts%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjc7bO62NzZAhUODOwKHWL9CuIQ6AEILzAB#v=onepage&q&f=false
  4. J.R. Planche, A Ramble with Robin Hood (1864)

Chris ThorndycroftAbout the Author

Chris Thorndycroft is a British writer of historical fiction, horror and fantasy. His early short stories appeared in magazines and anthologies such as Dark Moon Digest and American Nightmare. His first novel under his own name was A Brother’s Oath.

He also writes under the pseudonym P. J. Thorndyke.

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Blog Tour/Book Review: The Summer Will Come by Soulla Christodoulou

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I’m thrilled to be co-hosting today’s stop on the blog tour for The Summer Will Come by Soulla Christodoulou and to share my review of this novel set partly in 1950s Cyprus and partly in London.  It made me want to book a holiday to Cyprus right this minute.

 The Summer Will ComeAbout the Book

Set in the 1950s, the story begins in Cyprus. EOKA, British rule, and the fight for Enosis (unity) disrupt the world of two Greek Cypriot families, living in different villages on the island. They are desperately trying to cope with the unpredictability of this fractious time. Circumstances over a five-year period push both families to escape to London where, as immigrants, they struggle to settle, face new challenges, trauma and cope with missing their homeland’s traditions and culture. Both families’ lives cross paths in London and it seems that happier beginnings could be theirs. But at what cost?

A story of passion for a country in turmoil, family love, loyalty and treachery and how, sometimes, starting over isn’t always as imagined.

Format: ebook, paperback (492 pp.)      Publisher:
Published: 6th March 2018                       Genre: Historical Fiction

Purchase Links*
Amazon.co.uk  ǀ  Amazon.com
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

Find The Summer Will Come on Goodreads

My Review

The Summer Will Come tells the story of two Cypriot families both affected by the unrest on the island resulting from the struggle for Cypriot independence that took place in the 1950s.  The reader sees events from the points of view of Elena and her mother, Evangelia, and Christaki and his father, Loizos.

The author does a great job of communicating the atmosphere of rising tension and fear on the island as families and communities are split by support for one side or the other.  Supporters of the nationalist organisation EOKA risk arrest, internment, interrogation (and potentially worse) by the British authorities as they smuggle coded messages and hold secret meetings.   It’s a time of curfews, informers, repression and often violent reprisals.

However, the book is not all doom and gloom.  There are wonderful descriptions of the landscape of Cyprus and, for those of us in the United Kingdom currently enduring snow and overcast skies, enticing depictions of blue skies, hot days and balmy nights.  In addition, there are some evocative descriptions of food that literally made my stomach rumble as I was reading them.  ‘Elena imagined paklava, galatoboureko, pitoues, daktila and kateifi, the sweet filo and shortcrust pastries bursting with chopped pistachios, almonds and thick yellow custard sitting together in a warm goo of syrup’.  (By the way, there is a really helpful glossary at the back of the book including, for those not on a diet, mouth-watering descriptions of Cypriot pastries and desserts.)

Eventually both families are forced to leave Cyprus to seek a new life in England.  For Elena, her twin brother, Andreas, and their mother, Evangelia, the journey offers the prospect of being reunited with their father, Kostas.    For Christaki, his brother and sister and, in particular, his mother, Anastasia, it’s a chance to leave traumatic memories behind.

However, the move to England brings fresh challenges for both families.  The author brilliantly conveys the contrast between their life in Cyprus and their experience of London.  There are obvious things like the cold weather and different food.  ‘She felt like she was always shrouded in grey; she could barely see the buildings, the streets, the sky, the landscape from a few hundred yards away.’  But also less obvious things, such as the dirty, dingy housing, the multi-racial nature of London  and the noise.  ‘It was not the peaceful sound of the lapping waves of the sea in Limassol.  No, it was a different world, a noisy one.’  And they find it difficult to adjust to the different pace of life as well. ‘Loizos noticed how those around him seemed to be in a hurry to get somewhere; a complete contrast to life in Cyprus, or at least life as it used to be before the Cyprus tragedy, with trundling buses, slow donkeys and hours spent in the kafenion.’

I loved the little details like the families’ surprise that in England olive oil is only available from a pharmacist!  There’s a lovely sense of the atmosphere of the 1950s – the fashion, the music and things like the opening of the first Wimpy Bars!  However, there are also forceful reminders of the darker side of life.

Conflict arises as the younger members of both families – especially the female members – seek to take advantage of the freedom enjoyed by their peers whilst their parents cling to the traditions of Cyprus, including the custom of arranging introductions between members of the opposite sex and the expected behaviour of girls. ‘The women in the village were raised to be passive and accepting of their role in life; to marry well, be respectful wives and loving mothers…’   When connections within the Cypriot community eventually (and perhaps inevitably) bring two members of the families together, this reader certainly had a clear idea of the resolution she desired.

I really enjoyed The Summer Will Come.  I loved learning about the culture and traditions of Cyprus.  My only minor niggle (and it is minor) is that the book felt slightly longer than it needed to be.  For instance, there was a section set in Blackpool that I felt could have been removed entirely.   However, I found the parts of the book set in Cyprus absolutely fascinating and the story of the two families once they moved to London really compelling.  If you love historical fiction that is rich in cultural detail and rooted in actual events, then The Summer Will Come will not disappoint.

I received a review copy courtesy of the author and Rachel’s Random Resources in return for an honest and unbiased review.

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In three words: Emotional, engaging, hopeful

Try something similar…Letting Go by Maria Thompson Corley (click here to read my review)

Soulla ChristodoulouAbout the Author

Born in London to Greek Cypriot parents, Soulla Christodoulou spent much of her childhood living carefree days full of family, school and friends. She was the first in her family to go to university and studied BA Hotel & Catering Management at Portsmouth University. Years later, after having a family of her own she studied again at Middlesex University and has a PGCE in Business Studies and an MA in Education.

Soulla is a fiction author and wrote her first novel Broken Pieces of Tomorrow over a few months while working full time in secondary education. She is a mother of three boys. She is a compassionate and empathetic supporter of young people. Her passion for teaching continues through private tuition of English Language and Children’s Creative Writing Classes as well as proof reading and other writing services.

Her writing has also connected her with a charity in California which she is very much involved in as a contributor of handwritten letters every month to support and give hope to women diagnosed with breast cancer. One of her letters is featured in a book, Dear Friend, released on Amazon in September 2017.

When asked, Soulla will tell you she has always, somewhere on a subconscious level, wanted to write and her life’s experiences both personal and professional have played a huge part in bringing her to where she was always meant to be; writing books and drinking lots of cinnamon and clove tea!

She also has a poetry collection, Sunshine after Rain, published on Amazon.  The Summer Will Come is her second novel. She is currently working on a third novel Trust is a Big Word about an online illicit relationship that develops between two people.

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