Alex Marchant's Blog, page 31

Author’s Inspiration Guest Blog – from Mary Anne Yarde’s blog spot: Myths, Legends, Books and Coffee Pots

 

Reblogged from: https://maryanneyarde.blogspot.co.uk/2018/05/authors-inspiration-order-of-white-boar.html Thank you so much to Mary Anne for the opportunity to remember all of this!

Author Inspiration – The Order of the White Boar

If every book catches fire from a single inspirational spark, there can be no doubt what set alight the first flames of The Order of the White Boar. Perhaps you remember it too. It was a moment that gripped many people all around the world. A moment I never thought I’d witness – when ‘King Richard III’ trended on Twitter.

The time: the morning of Tuesday 4 February 2013. The location: the ancient Guild Hall in Leicester, a small city in the English Midlands. The scene: a press conference called by the local university jointly with a team of individuals who had a few years before embarked on what seemed to many an impossible quest: the Looking for Richard Project (LFRP).

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(Photo copyright Philippa Langley)

The previous summer an archaeological dig had begun in a council car park in Leicester, which was believed to overlie the medieval priory of the Grey Friars. This was the place where it was recorded that King Richard III, the last of the Plantagenet dynasty, had been buried following his death in battle in 1485: the date usually taken as the end of the medieval period and the beginning of the early modern period in Britain.

On the very first day, following the instructions of the client for the dig, Philippa Langley of the LFRP, a grave was discovered. But it was covered over again as the archaeologists didn’t believe it could be the one they were searching for. It was only a couple of weeks later that it was finally excavated – and found to be that of a young man who appeared to have died from battle wounds. The bones, in a very good state of preservation, were sent for analysis, including of their DNA, to see whether it matched with DNA donated by the only known surviving female-line descendants of King Richard’s sister.

And five months later that famous press conference was called, and beamed around the world, to announce finally that, ‘beyond reasonable doubt’, the grave was indeed that of Richard III.

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I was watching, entranced, holding my breath until those final words, at which point the journalists who were present erupted into applause. I, along with very many others, found myself with tears welling. Since my teenage years, I have been a Ricardian – one who believes a great injustice has been done to Richard Plantagenet in the centuries since his death, during which he has been branded a child-murdering, usurping tyrant.

The records of the time, both official and unofficial, don’t depict him as that. A bishop observing him during his coronation progress round the country wrote in a private letter, ‘He contents the people where he goes best that ever did prince . . . On my troth I liked never the condition of any prince so well as his’, and in the weeks after his death the city of York spoke of him as ‘the most famous prince of blessed memory’. But in the decades after he was defeated and slain at the Battle of Bosworth, and his throne usurped by the victor of that battle, Henry Tudor, an ‘official history’ evolved – based on rumour, hearsay, manipulation of records, and outright lies and propaganda – which culminated in the marvellous fiction that is Shakespeare’s play The Tragedy of Richard III. ‘Tragedy’, note, not ‘History’, though it is usually lumped in with what have been dubbed the playwright’s ‘history plays’. These cover the end of the Hundred Years War and the length of the so-called Wars of the Roses . . . and were written in the reign of, and to flatter, the then incumbent of the English throne – Henry Tudor’s granddaughter, Elizabeth I. It would not perhaps have been very polite – or politic – for Shakespeare to point out that her grandfather himself had in fact been the usurper.

Part of the myth surrounding King Richard was that his grave had been broken open during the Reformation and the Dissolution of the monasteries, and the remains of his body dumped unceremoniously in the local river. But, as with so much else to do with Richard, the history didn’t support that, and meticulous research by the Looking for Richard Project had pinpointed exactly where the grave still lay.

As a Ricardian I knew this announcement, which had so caught the public’s imagination, was a unique chance to counter the ‘traditional’ history and communicate to people the story of the real Richard III. But how to do it? I’m not a campaigner, one who writes persuasive letters to influential people, or can stand up and proclaim the truth to a crowd. But I was already author of two (unpublished) novels for children. Were there any books out there already telling the real tale for children – before they were exposed to the dark Tudor-created legend?

To my surprise, there weren’t – and so my first published novel was born.

The Order of the White Boar relates the story of Richard Plantagenet, then Duke of Gloucester, through the eyes of a young page, Matthew Wansford, who enters his service at Middleham Castle in Yorkshire in the summer of 1482. The sequel, The King’s Man (due to be published in May this year), takes Richard’s and Matthew’s story on through the Year of the Three Kings of 1483 to the Battle of Bosworth – and beyond. Together the two books cover the final three years in this most controversial young king’s life.

And they were born out of rage at the lies that have been told about him over the years. As I hesitated over whether and how to write such a book, a very angry old man came hammering at my door, insisting I tell his story, and through it King Richard’s. That old man was Matthew, fifty years on, having grown up watching the evolution of the ‘official’ Tudor history. The first words I wrote of the book were straight from his mouth. ‘Lies! All lies!’ was how the original prologue began.

That prologue didn’t make the final cut of either The Order of the White Boar or The King’s Man, as it didn’t seem appropriate for the children’s book that it spawned, but its raw anger remained with me throughout the writing of the whole story. And as I start preparatory work on the third book of the sequence, continuing Matthew and his friends’ stories after Richard’s death – in the ‘twilight between the golden sun of Yorkist rule and the dark unknown of the Tudor future’ – that anger still simmers. Or maybe, to return to the imagery with which I began, the first tongues of flame that flickered into life at that February press conference haven’t died away, but are rather being fanned into a conflagration – or perhaps into a rain of fire aimed at the last bastions of Tudor propaganda.

Alex Marchant

Born and raised in the rolling Surrey downs, and following stints as an archaeologist and in publishing in London and Gloucester, Alex now lives surrounded by moors in King Richard III’s northern heartland, working as a freelance copyeditor, proofreader and, more recently, independent author of books for children aged 10+.

Alex loves to hear from readers: Blog • Twitter • Facebook

myBook.to/WhiteBoar and mybook.to/TheKingsMan

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Matthew Wansford (of The Order of the White Boar, by Alex Marchant)

For once, Matthew gets to talk rather than me! “The Protagonist Speaks…”

(With many thanks to Assaph Mehr for giving him the opportunity.)

The Protagonist Speaks

Dear readers, tonight with me is boy of twelve years, a merchant’s son who always dreamt of being a knight. His chance came in the summer of 1482, when he joined Richard, Duke of Gloucester – the future King Richard III.

He’s here to tell us about his life at court and the deadly games of the Wars of the Roses.

Tell us a little about where you grew up. What was it like there?

I was born, and lived all my life until last summer, in my father’s house on Stonegate, one of the finest streets of my home town of York. My father may not be one of the wealthiest merchants in the city, but to me, it’s a beautiful house. It even has glass-paned casements that you can open in some of the front windows. If you open the one in our second-floor jetty (where I used to…

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A special donation to primary school children, at #BarnardCastle

In just a few weeks time I’ll be making my first visit to Barnard Castle – so important in the life of King Richard. I will be visiting at the invitation of the Northern Dales Richard III Group who are very generously donating a copy of The Order of the White Boar to every primary school leaver in the town to celebrate its links with the King.

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(Thanks to the Northern Dales Richard III Group for the photo)

Yes, you did read that correctly – *every* primary school leaver. That’s 100 children who will receive a free copy of a book telling them about the real Richard III. While many of them, being local to one of his favourite residences, will no doubt already know much about him, others may be learning about him for the first time – and learning about the real man, not the Shakespearean monster. And that is what my books are all about – getting his story out to children before they’re exposed to the myth.

I’ll be signing every copy and presenting them to those I’m able to on the day (6th July). Hopefully this way of marking their progress from primary to senior school will be something that they will remember for many years to come. I know I remember the books that were given to me to mark various special occasions in my childhood.  Thank you so much to Kim Harding and fellow members of the Northern Dales Group for making it happen.

After the school visits, I hope to be able to visit the castle itself and, as many Ricardians do, stand in the window that Richard himself had built and marvel at the view that caused him to place it there – standing in the very spot where he must often have stood.

Then it will be on to Middleham for the weekend festival (6-8 July). And this year I’m determined to make it to the lighting of the beacon at the Castle… 

myBook.to/WhiteBoar

and mybook.to/TheKingsMan


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A first glimpse…

I have to admit to being a little excited this morning, having just received proof copies of ‘The King’s Man’…  

Just over two weeks to go until you can get your hands on copies too…

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mybook.to/TheKingsMan

The King’s Man, Book 2 of The Order of the White Boar – publication date and cover reveal!

I’m pleased to announce that the publication date for The King’s Man, sequel to The Order of the White Boar, will be Saturday 26th May.

And of course I’m also delighted to reveal the cover!

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Once again Oliver Bennett at MoreVisual has worked his magic and offered a taste of what is to come…

And here is the cover blurb for The King’s Man:

“‘These are dangerous days, Master Wansford, dangerous days.’

The death of his brother King Edward IV turns the life of Richard, Duke of Gloucester upside down, and with it that of his 13-year-old page Matthew Wansford.

Banished from Middleham Castle and his friends, Matt must make a new life for himself alone in London. But danger and intrigue lie in wait on the road as he rides south with Duke Richard to meet the new boy king, Edward V – and new challenges and old enemies confront them in the city.

As the Year of the Three Kings unfolds – and plots, rebellions, rumours, death and battles come fast one upon the other – Matt must decide where his loyalties lie.

What will the future bring for him, his friends and his much-loved master? And can Matt and the Order of the White Boar heed their King’s call on the day of his greatest need?”

Before the launch day, the Kindle ebook will be available for pre-order from Amazon. Watch this space for the link once available. Unfortunately paperbacks can’t be pre-ordered there, but will be available worldwide from the 26th. (Please contact me if you are based in the UK and would like to order direct from me – P&P will be charged, but there will be a discount on the list price.)

Many thanks again for your patience – I hope The King’s Man will be worth the wait!

Author.to/AlexMarchant

First fanfare of the day! #prizedraw result

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I’m delighted to announce that the first name out of the hat – sorry, sallet – for the prize draw for a signed paperback copy of ‘The King’s Man’ is Valerie Mighall! Valerie kindly retweeted my #KindleCountdown promotion to commemorate the anniversary of King Richard’s reinterment in March. (Don’t forget you can follow me on Twitter at @AlexMarchant84 – and Matt at @whiteboarorder.)

As so many people kindly shared and retweeted my Christmas and Countdown posts, I though it only fair to draw another name for a copy. And the second name is Patricia Rice Jones who shared on Facebook!

Congratulations to both – copies will be winging their way to you just as soon as they’re available. Which will be … sorry, you’ll have to wait just another hour or two for that announcement 

Author.to/AlexMarchant

 

A little heads up….

This weekend in the UK the forecast is for some lovely late spring weather – the new bright leaves are unfurling on the trees, the cherry blossom is shyly emerging, the bluebells and forget-me-knots just showing their blooms, and some yellow flowers, whose name I still don’t know, are nodding in the warmth of the sun. (Of course, I’m looking out on to a garden high in the Pennines, whipped by winds straight off the Bronte moors – other, more balmy areas of the country will have seen this sort of thing weeks ago…)

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Now, I don’t want to drag you away from all this outdoor loveliness (which I’m hoping is repeated everywhere else that this blog post is being read – even if it’s autumn with you), but I’d just like to give you a heads up that (at last) tomorrow, Sunday, around the middle of the day, I’ll be making a little announcement on this blog and associated social media. Perhaps with a little fanfare… I’m sure you know the type of thing.

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Oh, and in addition, I’ll be announcing the winner of a long-awaited prize draw too…

So, as they say, ‘watch this space’…

#RichardIII in ‘The Order of the White Boar’ at @KRIIICentre in Leicester … and a weekend announcement to come….

How fabulous to see ‘The Order of the White Boar’ on display at the King Richard III Visitor Centre in Leicester – along with some very positive comments from Luke who seems to have enjoyed reading it!

‘This story creates a full world of the 15th century as detailed as any social history book and with more adventure and character, through the young page Matthew Wansford. The wild horses and pitched fighting in the story are fantastical, but as a tale of friendship and jealousy it is very relatable.’ Luke

Many thanks to Yuko for tweeting it to me.

And what good timing … with an announcement or two about the sequel, ‘The King’s Man’, coming out over the next couple of days … 

Royal signatures – from Richard II (via #RichardIII) to Elizabeth II

Today I came across this lovely image on Facebook, courtesy of a page called Medieval Merriment. It shows the signatures of monarchs from the fourteenth to the twentieth/twenty-first century.

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Now, what did this remind me of….  Just a brief moment in April/May 1483, when two young boys rode together in the spring sunshine…

“On the morning that we rode to St Albans, Edward told me of an incident the evening before. Duke Richard had been urging him to practise his new royal signature, and to encourage him, had neatly signed his own name on a scrap of parchment, topping it with his motto.

‘Loyaulté me lie,’ I said promptly. ‘Loyalty binds me.’

‘I know,’ said Edward. ‘He wants me to choose a motto too, though I haven’t any idea for one yet. He says every nobleman should have one, and especially the King….'” 

Coming soon, ‘The King’s Man’… 

Watch this space for news over the next few days … 

Author.to/AlexMarchant

 

‘A bit about me…’ – or ‘I, Alex Marchant, #IndieAuthor’

A few months ago I was approached by a fellow blogger to do an author interview for their site, but despite sending answers to their questions, I’ve never heard back from them and the blog hasn’t been updated.

Rather than waste the time I spent on answering the questions, I thought I would share the answers here (especially as Facebook keeps telling me that my followers ‘haven’t heard from me in a while’ – putting an image into my head of all you good people hanging on my every word and desperate for some new ones – though I’m sure you all have better things to do with your time!)

And yes, this is probably just a little sop to those of you who are waiting – for an announcement on the publication of The King’s Man. Please bear with me – I promise it will be coming soon…

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Q: Please tell us about yourself; when did you first become interested in writing?

Alex: I wish my memory were good enough to say exactly when! I suspect it was not long after I became interested in reading. I don’t remember a time when I didn’t always have my nose in a book, or pen in my hand – but having said that, my earliest memories aren’t so very early. My first day at school and similar events haven’t left a lingering impression on me

Q: Do you remember the first story you ever wrote?

Alex: See above. I think it’s safe to say I don’t! But I do remember the first I was determined to publish. I knew it was good. I knew C.S. Lewis would be shaking in his boots at the competition (I didn’t know he was long dead). I knew a horse-emperor would beat a lion-emperor any day – and it was far more fun to find a way to his land through an enchanted fireplace rather than a boring old wardrobe. I was about eight at the time – and that kicked off a number of years of somewhat derivative work – Cooper, Garner, Tolkien, George Lucas (yes, I swapped genres from time to time…) It has to be said it was a while before I found my own voice. But it’s all good practice, honing skills, and so on.

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I guess it’s a terrible cliché to say there was never a time when I wasn’t writing. But it is true. Except perhaps for a while during my twenties, that post-uni time when career, marriage, house renovation, kids, that sort of thing, tend to get in the way somewhat. But, because my career was in publishing (once I was ‘invalided out of archaeology, anyway!), even then I was always writing – something. Maybe abstracts of management articles, reports on trends in European tourism and the like don’t really count, but it’s still writing – and it was my first experience of being published.

But then two major events occurred – a big birthday that made me think about what I really wanted to do (write for children) and the announcement of the discovery of the grave of King Richard III.

Q: What genre/genres do your books fall under?

Alex: My first completed novel for children (10 and above) was a timeslip novel, Time out of Time (due 2019), with the main character being transported to several periods during the history of an ancient house. But as it’s predominantly set during the (in)famous British heatwave and drought of 1976, it could also be historical fiction itself, unless you abide strictly by the idea that historical fiction has to be set more than 50 years ago. Of course, to any 12 year old reading it nowadays, it would count as ancient history!

My more recent novels, on the other hand, are very definitely historical fiction, being set in what we now call the Wars of the Roses.

Q: What is your latest book called, what is it about and what was the inspiration behind the book?

Alex: The Order of the White Boar was born five years ago, on the day of the famous press conference that announced to the world that the grave of King Richard III had been found in a car park in Leicester. As a long-time Ricardian – a supporter of King Richard against the lies spread about him by the Tudors (and accepted by so many in the centuries since) – I knew it was an ideal opportunity to fight to restore his reputation. And what better way than to catch children with an exciting tale involving the real man before they’re exposed to the grotesque pantomime villain of Shakespeare’s play?

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The book took a while to write and then to persuade myself I could manage to self-publish it, but it finally saw the light on 2 October 2017, King Richard’s 565th birthday.

The Order follows the adventures of 12-year-old Matthew Wansford, page to Richard (Duke of Gloucester at the time) at his castle at Middleham in Yorkshire. It starts a year before the death of his brother, King Edward IV, which changes Richard’s life for ever.

Matthew is a disgraced former choirboy from York, sent to redeem himself in loyal service to the Duke. While there he makes a deadly enemy in Hugh Soulsby, son of an executed traitor, but also makes friends with the Duke’s little son, Edward, Alys, a ward of the Queen, and Roger, a fellow page, with whom he forms the knightly Order of the title. As we follow their (mis)adventures in and around Middleham and at court in Westminster, we also learn about Richard’s earlier life, and the scene is set for momentous events to come.

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Q: Besides your current book, do you have any new projects coming up?

Alex: The sequel to The Order, titled The King’s Man, will be published this spring (date soon to be announced). It takes Matthew’s (and Richard’s) story through the turmoil of 1483, the ‘Year of the Three Kings’, up to the Battle of Bosworth in 1485 – and beyond … It also explores one of the greatest mysteries in English history – what happened to the so-called ‘Princes in the Tower’.

A third book in the series is in preparation, and follows Matthew to what has been dubbed the ‘Lambert Simnel rebellion’ against Henry Tudor two years later.

Q: Where can people find your books?

Alex: The Order is available through Amazon at myBook.to/WhiteBoar and through Blurb www.blurb.co.uk/b/8167813-the-order-of-the-white-boar or via myself. It’s also being stocked at various outlets, including the King Richard Visitor Centre in Leicester, the Bosworth Battlefield Heritage Centre and the Barnet Battlefield Society.

I also have a ghostly short story called ‘The Beast of Middleham Moor’ on sale in return for a small donation to Scoliosis Association UK (supporting people with the condition that King Richard himself had) at https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/AlexMarchant

Q: What has been the greatest moment in your writing career?

Alex: I’ve been lucky enough to have a few, of different types. Perhaps the first was when Time out of Time won the Chapter One Children’s Book Award in 2013. More recent has been the fantastic reception of The Order of the White Boar, not only by readers, but also by members of the Looking for Richard Project, who were responsible for finding King Richard’s grave, and to whom the book is dedicated. And also, to be honest, hearing that it’s being stocked at both the King Richard Visitor Centre in Leicester and the Bosworth Battlefield Heritage Centre. There’s now just Middleham Castle to go among my ‘top three’ targets!

Q: Besides writing, what hobbies or interests do you enjoy in your spare time?

Alex: What spare time?! Between writing, editing and self-marketing the books (and the day job), there seems precious little of that! But I do enjoy watching football (I’m lucky enough to be going to the World Cup this summer), watching films on the big screen when possible, the theatre, music, and of course visiting historical sites. I’m hoping this year to get to a few medieval festivals around the UK to promote the books, so I’m currently on the lookout for what they call ‘authentic costume’…

Q: Which novelists do you admire?

Alex: Where to start? Susan Cooper, Alan Garner, Rosemary Sutcliff, Le Guin and Tolkien were all particularly influential when I was growing up, and they’ve been joined more recently by Patrick Ness, David Almond, Hilary Mantel, Philip Pullman, and of course J.K. Rowling, among many others. Austen, Trollope, Dickens, Tolstoy and Forster will always feature – and I suppose I should also say the Bronte sisters – all three, Charlotte, Anne and Emily – as we’re virtually neighbours. And I have to keep reminding myself I’m planning to reread Solzhenitsyn and Sholokhov in time for my visit to Rostov-on-Don in June…

Q:  What has been the best piece of writing advice you’ve received?

Alex: Just do it! If you don’t get on and write your story, it won’t ever be published and read.

Q: Do you have any tips or advice for other indie authors?

Alex: As such a newbie self-publisher, I wouldn’t really presume. But as a rather older hand in publishing, I’d recommend any writer to have their work professionally edited, or at the very least proofread, to make sure the text is as good as it can be. (But then I would say that – my day job is freelance copyediting and proofreading!)