Authenticity

[Paula]

The thing about this book I disliked most was the distortion of facts. Harold suffocating Edward the Confessor and enlisting Hereward's naive brother into an evil plot to kill the king was just one step too far for me. What does everyone else think?

[David]

Not that overly impressed by this novel either - I later read (and preferred) another set roughly during the same time period - "Sworn Sword", by James Aitcheson - which, IMO, was far the better of the two

[Paula]

Hi David, I have Sworn Sword by James Aitchison and Splintered Kingdom. He is very good! This Hereward book was more sensationalist than historically interesting. I found it an ok read but most of the time it just seemed like i was watching an 11thc Iron man film

[Speesh]

@Paula: I'd be interested to know what the 'facts' are, that you feel James Wilde is distorting?

[Paula]

Well, for one that Harold killed King Edward by suffocating him with a pillow. Two, there seems to be no interaction between Harold and the real historical characters of the time, just the fictional ones and if i am going to give you a specific list i need to go through the book again as its awhile since i read it. Also there is no evidence that Hereward was ever in Tostig's service

[Paula]

Speesh wrote: "@Paula: I'd be interested to know what the 'facts' are, that you feel James Wilde is distorting?"

I already mentioned what they were Speesh. Harold murdering King Edward by suffocating him with a pillow and enlisting Hereward's brother to kill him. Also there was no interaction on Harold and historical characters and there was never any evidence Hereward was in Tostig's service.There are loads more i'm sure but i would need to go through the book again to specify each one. Harold was and still is a national hero to some and his life is pretty well documented for the time. He probably wasn't perfect but he most certainly did not murder his king.

[Speesh]

I'm sorry Paula, but you haven't already mentioned what facts you feel James Wilde has distorted.
You have said what - you feel/know - didn't happen, the suffocating with a pillow, but no facts as to what you feel/know did happen.
If you're going to say 'a distortion of the facts', I would have thought you should say what the facts are that are being distorted.
See what I mean?