Ursula's Maiden Army

by Philip Griffin

Britannic Princess Ursula hatches a bold scheme when the men of her country go to defend the crumbling Roman Empire—that an army of women can defend their island home! She and her friends Pinnosa, Brittola, Cordula, Martha and Saula, create an all-female force who successfully defend their homeland from the Picts, Hibernians and Saxons.When the Britannic men don’t return from the Continent because they are embroiled in the disaster that becomes the fall of Rome, Ursula comes up with an even more audacious plan—the army of women shall go to Germania for a Grand Wedding of the Forces. Alas, her objective quickly goes awry when weather, politics and war keep the armies apart—and thrust Ursula and her 11,000 maiden army directly into battle with the Huns! Ursula’s Maiden Army will enthrall readers with it’s tale of adventure, bravery and the determination of its heroine. Ursula’s Maiden Army is based on the legend (and scant truth) of Saint Ursula, the fifth century martyr of Cologne, Germany.

298 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Born and raised a Man of Kent to the east of the northward flowing River Medway (as opposed to a Kentish Man from the west of the river), Phil Griffin still lives in the English county of his birth. These days he resides further east towards the Continent, in the quiet, rural hills outside Canterbury, on the North Kent Ridge, overlooking the mouth of the Thames Estuary and the busy shipping lanes of the English Channel.

Phil’s career in education has taken him far from his native soil. Originally a sociologist, he began his professional career as a high school teacher, working in South London’s, Brixton district, teaching humanities to groups of tough street kids. An important turning point in his life came in 1981, when there were serious summer riots across the UK, and some of the most serious uprisings were in Brixton. Phil was working evenings at the Brixton Community Centre at the time of the riots, giving black kids supplementary Sociology examination classes. The day after the worst rioting, he set the group the challenge of “analyzing the riots” at their very next meeting. The kids interpreted the task differently than Phil had intended, and the following week brought along the “better” weapons they thought they would need “next time” against the police, including guns (with ammo!), knives, machetes and chains. Still in his early 20s, Phil realized it was time to move on, and it became time to fulfill his burning desire to travel and see the world.

A pending family reunion in Adelaide prompted his parents to buy Phil a one-way ticket to Australia, which made his escape from the UK possible. His plan was to attend the reunion, then slowly “back pack” his way up through SE Asia, heading, ultimately, for China. Only two weeks into the great trek, after a night in a scientific research station deep in the Malaysian jungle, a “typical traveler’s tummy bug” turned into something much more serious, and the essential medical treatment that followed sapped his finances. He eventually recovered enough to get on a plane to Hong Kong, where he arrived only slightly better than half dead and stony broke. Staying with friends, he used his last few dollars to place an ad in the local press, offering his services as a tutor. The phone did not stop ringing, and within less than a week he was fully booked. His second career as a teacher of English as a foreign language had begun. While working hard, he penned a song with friends that became the #1 hit in Hong Kong. Sadly, Phil no longer recalls the tune or the people with whom he wrote it!

Phil found he made more Japanese than Chinese friends in Hong Kong, and two years later, when an opportunity to work for an English School in Nagoya presented itself, he snapped it up.

He spent the rest of the 80s in Japan, with one year (1988) back in England to complete his masters at Nottingham University. Along the way, he moved from the classroom into management, and he broadened his expertise to embrace general language teaching as well as cross-cultural and management training. At the start of the 90s, he was made branch manager for one of the large Japanese corporate training companies, and sent back to England to open their new branch in Oxford. Phil was just settling into making a nice home in the idyllic and poetic countryside of the Cotswolds near Oxford, not far from Modern Cirencester (the Roman city of Corinium), when a new chapter of his life dawned.

Germany beckoned in the form of an opportunity to work for that country’s, and Europe’s, then largest language school chain, to lead an exciting project to develop their new generation of language teaching materials. The project lasted over three years and gave Phil a chance to live in Wiesbaden and Mainz and develop a close affinity with the Rhineland. This coincided with the work he was doing on Ursula’s Maiden Army; aiding his research and informing his writing of the first draft, which he

Reviews

[Jennifer Wardrip · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reviewed by K. Osborn Sullivan for TeensReadToo.com

URSULA'S MAIDEN ARMY is a work of historical fiction based loosely on the legend surrounding Saint Ursula. According to the author's notes in the book, there is a popular German legend that surrounds a young woman who was sainted by the Catholic Church hundreds of years after her death. She had lived in the fourth or fifth century A.D., at about the same time that Rome collapsed. According to the legend, Saint Ursula led a band of armor-clad virgins on a mission. The names of Ursula's closest friends survived in the legend, and these are featured in the book.

URSULA'S MAIDEN ARMY tells the story of Britannic Princess Ursula and her band of loyal friends. The young women are all aristocrats, well-educated and schooled in hunting and weaponry. They are devastated when their intended husbands are all sent away with the Britannic forces to fight for Rome. While the men's army is away, Ursula's homelands are exposed to raiders and invaders of all sorts. This leads Ursula to form her women's army to protect her people. The force's efforts are a huge success at home, which encourages the women to attempt an even bolder campaign.

Since details about Ursula's real-life exploits are few, the author of URSULA'S MAIDEN ARMY, Philip Griffin, had to take quite a few liberties when writing the book. For example, no one knows exactly what the mission was that led Ursula and her all-female army from their homes, so Griffin supplied one. No one knows what these women endured on their campaign, so Griffin offers readers a possible scenario. And no one knows exactly what fate befell them, except that the bones of thousands of women form the foundation of the ancient St. Ursula's Church in Cologne, Germany. This mystery led Griffin to create an event so devastating that it would explain the deaths of that many young women.

This is an interesting tale for readers of historical fiction. It offers a great deal of information about ancient military campaigns and weapons. Sometimes too much information. I found parts of it dry and skipped chunks of text where the characters discussed military matters. That sort of information might be fascinating to some, but I just wanted to get back to the story. I was also irritated by the religious fervor demonstrated by one particular young woman, together with the fact that her friends consistently just went along with her zealotry. Finally, I had some trouble believing that Ursula's troops enjoyed as much success in their battles as they did. These were essentially girls who were trained by other girls, and they fought against battle-hardened men. Yet time and again, Ursula's army walked away virtually unscathed.

All in all, URSULA'S MAIDEN ARMY is an intriguing peek at the sorrows and triumphs of life fifteen hundred years ago. It is clear that this piece of historical fiction is very heavy on the fiction, but it is an entertaining story nevertheless.

[Debbie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this book as a review copy from the publisher. "Ursula's Maiden Army" had an interesting plot with plenty of excitement and action and a bit of romance. The pacing was fairly good. However, I felt like most of the characters and setting descriptions lacked depth. Except for Pinnosa, Ursula, and Brittola, who had some unique personality traits, the characters tended to blend together due to their similarity.

While some things were described in detail, often the author used such general descriptive words that I couldn't easily visualize the object or setting. For example, the characters look "upon the villa's entrance" and I'm thinking "is he referring to a door? a gate? an arch?" The author also didn't seem very familiar with horses, ships, individual fighting, and the everyday details of armies. Some of these details weren't realistic (like women who'd never been on a galley being instant experts at working the oars in tandem and completely running the ship).

The characters followed Christianity mixed with Roman god worship (which was one of the nice tensions in the story). While this wasn't marketed as a Christian book, they did refer to God and sing praise songs to God. There was a character who tended to get preachy. The other characters considered her their moral compass, but, because she lacked depth, she sometimes came across (even to me, a Christian) as judgmental and a hypocrite.

There was no explicit sex. There was a minimal amount of British bad language. There was a minimal amount of graphic gore. Overall, I'd rate this novel as interesting, fairly clean reading.