A commemoration – and an announcement! ‘A Spirited and Most Courageous Prince’
The anniversary that Ricardians dread has inexorably rolled around once again. This day, 22 August 2024, is the 539th anniversary of *that* battle. The awful day when King Richard III was ‘through great treason … piteously slain and murdered to the great heaviness’ of many of his subjects, and many of their descendants living today.
As usual, I will raise a toast to this much maligned man, and to those who fought and died alongside him all those years ago. Last weekend I was fortunate enough to be at the Bosworth medieval festival where, in the midst of all the family fun and the drama of the battle re-enactments, the soldiers of both sides who died on that day, and in the days and weeks afterwards, are commemorated with a minute’s silence before the start of each battle.
This year, however, on this otherwise solemn day, I’d like to offer a hopefully cheering snippet of news for my fellow Ricardians and others. For I’m happy to announce the publication later this year of a third anthology of short stories inspired by King Richard, to be sold in support of Scoliosis Support & Research (formerly Scoliosis Association UK (SAUK), now SSR following its merger with the British Scoliosis Research Foundation in 2023).
Following the success of our previous anthologies, Grant Me the Carving of My Name (2018) and Right Trusty and Well Beloved… (2019), and in response to requests from many readers over the years for a third collection, I’m delighted to announce that A Spirited and Most Courageous Prince will be available in November – just in time to stuff into all your friends’ and family members’ stockings on Christmas Eve (or, of course, you can ask Santa Claus to do the honours for yourself or others…)
[Apologies for the seasonally-inappropriate picture…]As before, a group of international authors have very generously agreed to donate their stories for this wonderful cause – a cause that we feel would have been very close to King Richard’s heart, given that he himself had scoliosis, as was revealed when his grave was rediscovered in 2012 by the Looking for Richard Project team.
Authors who are kindly contributing to A Spirited and Most Courageous Prince include both previous contributors and authors we’re welcoming to an anthology for the first time. A full list of contents will be available nearer publication date, but to give you a flavour of what will be on offer, our wonderful line-up is:
Judith Arnopp
Bridget M. Beauchamp
Darren Harris
Narrelle Harris
Wendy Johnson
Susan Lamb
Joanne Larner
Matthew Lewis
Kit Mareska
Alice Mitchell
Nancy Northcott
J. P. Reedman
Brian Wainwright
Jennifer C. Wilson
… and myself. Having read all the stories now, I know there will be something for everyone – just as in the first two anthologies. And I’m grateful to all our authors for being so generous with their work.
Over the next few weeks I’ll be sharing more details with you – the cover reveal, the writer of our Foreword, any planned launch events, and most importantly, the publication date. So do watch this space!
Loyaulte me lie!
Alex Marchant is author of two books telling the story of the real King Richard III for children aged 10+, The Order of the White Boar and The King’s Man, and a third in the sequence, King in Waiting, which continues the adventures of the young members of the Order in the following years. A fourth book, Sons of York, was published in June 2022.
Alex is also editor of Grant Me the Carving of My Name and Right Trusty and Well Beloved…, two anthologies of short fiction inspired by King Richard, sold in support of Scoliosis Association UK (SAUK).
Alex has also published a standalone timeslip novel for readers aged 10+, Time out of Time, relating the adventures of Allie Turner through a doorway into history found under layers of old wallpaper at ancient Priory Farm.
Alex’s books can be found on Amazon at: author.to/AlexMarchant
myBook.to/WhiteBoar mybook.to/TheKingsMan mybook.to/KinginWaiting mybook.to/SonsofYork
mybook.to/WhiteBoarBooks1-2 https://mybook.to/KinginWaiting3-4 mybook.to/TimeoutofTime
mybook.to/GrantMetheCarving mybook.to/RightTrusty
My Twitter handle and Matthew Wansford’s
Instagram: AlexMarchantAuthor
GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/17175168.Alex_Marchant
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/alexmarchantauthor
