I welcome all contributions to my blog, and would be delighted to hear of your views on the historical novels or fantasy books that you love, hate, or find interesting in some way. Also, any authors out there, I would love to showcase your work. Everything is of course, completely free of charge.
Here are the guidelines, send all information to thomasmdbrooke@gmail.com or go through the ‘contact me’ section of the site.
Reviewers. If there is a novel you want to write about, just send me a document with the text, a picture of the cover, and a link to where you can buy the novel (on a US site, as that tends to be the most common). I’m afraid I’m not much good at reviewing myself – I’ve never been that good at giving negative feedback – but that doesn’t mean you need be overly positive, just be honest and fair rather than mean and nasty. Oh, and only fantasy or historical novels please.
Authors. If you would like to showcase your novel, just send me a post that explains a little about either the novel or the story behind it. The post can be on the inspiration behind the novel, the process you went through writing it, writing tips, or anything that shows the passion that you have for the book. Alongside this, send the blurb to your book, a picture of the cover, and a link to buy it. Please don’t forget to send the post, as I won’t publish any details of a book without one! I cannot promise to show every book, but I will endeavour to get back to you as soon as possible with a date of when it will appear. Again, only historical and fantasy novels please.
Anything else. If you have anything you want to share regarding the two genres please send them to me and I will be delighted to post them if I think they are suitable for the site. This could be a period of history that you find interesting, or a type of novel that you particularly like, or simply your views on the two genres in general. I cannot guarantee to post everything I am sent, but I promise to consider everything.
Historical Novels and Epic Fantasy 
Hello Thomas, I bought a copy of ‘The Last Kingdom’ about eight years or so ago when Bernard Cornwell published it first. I bought the next, and the next… and so on. I got to Aelfred’s death and the succession of Eadward ‘the Elder’ and the associated problems his character Uhtred had with the Danes – despite being raised by one of their war band leaders.
One thing that rankled, his insistence that ‘we are all Saxons’. Only a third of the migrants from the mainland were Saxon. A few less than two thirds were Aengle (or Angles, from the base of the Jutland peninsula) and much of the population of Kent and Wight were Jutes until Wessex overran Wight and the other kingdoms either side of the Thames estuary. That still left East Anglia (Northfolc and Suthfolc), Middle Aengla, later Myrca/Mierca (Mercia) and north of a line from the Humber-Mersey was Deira, one half of the kingdom of Northanhymbra (Northumbria) along with Beornica (Bernicia) when they weren’t warring against one another. At the time the Danes Ubbi, Haesten, Ivar ‘the Boneless’ and Sigurd ‘Snake-eye’ came to avenge the death of their father Ragnar Lothbrok (‘Leatherbreeks’) Northanhymbra was split between Aella’s Beornica north of the Tees and Osberht’s Deira.
Uhtred would have been Aengle (an Anglian) and proud of it. They were suspicious of the Saxons, who kept trying to expand, and when Aelfred ‘dished out’ the territories east of Watling Straet from London to Chester that would have been the last straw.
In the end the Aengle south of the Tees mixed with the incoming Danes and the two cultures came together by the time Svein ‘Forkbeard’ came over with his younger son Knut.
(Look at a map and see the ‘thorpes’, ‘bys’, ‘tofts’, ‘thwaites’ etc side-by-side with the ‘tons’ and burghs’ all the way down to Suffolk). After 1066 the Peterborough Chronicle (E) was the only one still written, until 1154, and in the vernacular, a mix of English and Danish. We became Anglo-Danes, the two languages were.related in the ‘homeland’ and were duly ‘wedded’ here by 1066.
Ask yourself this: why is this kingdom ‘England’, and why do we speak ‘English’, as opposed to a language more like German in its complexity? The influence of Danish on the Aenglish simplified the already more straightforward grammar. Look at Old English, and see the difference between that (the standardised High Old Saxon) and the Peterborough Chronicle and you’ll see.
Enjoy the read,
Alan R L
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Hi Alan,
You clearly know a lot about the subject, and I see from your website that you write books on the subject yourself. Why don’t you write a post on the different nations that made up Anglo-Saxon England and I’ll publish it here on this site with a link to Ravenfeast? We could maybe include a map of England from the time in question.
Also, if you want this to comment to appear underneath my post concerning Bernard Cornwell’s book, do you want to copy and paste it there? I could do it myself, but then it will look like I have said this rather than yourself?
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Hello again Thomas, I shall endeavour to oblige. There are several pages on my Hub-pages sub-domain that would apply to the first part of your request in the HERITAGE series. You could also link to the Northworld site, where the story of England follows the arrival of the Jutish Hengist and Horsa after the Romans left early in the 5th C to Henry I.
As to the second half, I’ll try and get round to that today some time (by evening latest.
Best,
Alan R L
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Mr. Brooke,
Finished reading Roman Mask today. Very good book. History, adventure, battles all well written and quite factual. I’ll now get the sequel, can’t wait to get started reading!
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Hello again Thomas, just a few lines to pass on my Best Wishes for the Yuletide Feast, 2018 and hopefully prospects for 2019 will show favour.
Alan L
PS I’ve been remiss about what you proposed, although feel free to link with any of my Hub pages you feel suit your purposes. There are several historical series of mine you can look into, which sort of run into each other in a way. To begin with there is the “LIFE ON THE FRINGE” series that covers the Celts(Celtic Fringe), then the “AGE OF HEROES” kicks in, followed closely by “NORTHUMBRIA” and “VIKING” and “DANELAW YEARS”. “GODWIN’S CLAN” covers the gap between Knut and Eadward (son of Aethelred II, ‘Unraed’), “SWORDFLASH” is a short series of three pages. Of course “NORTHUMBRIA” overlaps several eras from King Ine to Earl Tostig, who is in “GODWIN’S CLAN”, “SWORDFLASH” and “CONQUEST”, that takes the reader to William’s injury at Mantes in 1084 and subsequent death – with a short synopsis of the aftermath. Feel free to fig in, https://hubpages.com/@alancaster149
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Wait a minute – you wrote “The Last Kingdom”? Pen names will be the death of me. I loved that book and didn’t know the Cassius series was by the same author! What, pray tell, are you other pen names??
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I’m afraid I didn’t write The Last Kingdom, that was Bernard Cornwell. I was just giving my opinion on the novel. Sorry for the confusion.
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Hello again Thomas. Long time no ‘see’. Since you last contacted me I’ve been only on Hub Pages. The Northworld site was closed down due to an error on their part. They wanted payment, and I was willing to pay for that ‘Shop window’, but when I tried to pay the payment was somehow turned away. I get paid, so I can’t grumble.
How’s the writing muse – still beavering away? Be nice to hear from you again after this time.
Best,
Alan L
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