Review: Daughters of Time - Anthology (+ Extract from Sue Purkiss)

Be surprised, as you look afresh at the stories of some of history's most remarkable women, as imagined by the finest female authors of historical fiction for children.

Be enthralled, as you encounter both famous figures and lesser-known heroines from across the ages from warrior queens to anti-nuclear activists.

But most of all . . . be inspires.

With stories by members of The History Girls blog: 
Penny Dolan, Adele Geras, Mary Hoffman, Dianne Hofmeyr, Marie-Louise Jensen, Catherine Johnson, Katherine Langrish, Joan Lennon, Sue Purkiss, Celia Rees, Katherine Roberts, Anne Rooney and Leslie Wilson.

Visit the The History Girls blog for more informtion

Review:
Daughters of Time is an anthology containing thirteen stories about extraordinary women throughout history, some you will have come across before but also more than a few who you've probably never even heard of before. After each story there is also a short note from the author explaining what inspired them followed by some true facts about the historical figure they wrote about.

I thought it would be nice to include a list of the stories here for you so you can see which famous characters you'll get to read about:

1. Tasca's Secret by Katherine Roberts (about Queen Boudicia)
2. The Lady of the Mercians by Sue Purkiss (about Athelflaed)
3. The Queen's Treasure by Adele Geras (about Eleanor of Aquitaine)
4. All Shall Be Well by Katherine Langrish (about Julian of Norwich)
5. Learn to Die by Mary Hoffman (about Lady Jane Grey)
6. The Phoenix Bride bu Dianne Hofmeyr (about Elizabeth Stuart)
7. A Night at the Theatre by Marie-Louise Jensen (about Aphra Behn)
8. An Unimportant Woman by Penny Dolan (about Mary Wollstonecraft)
9. Best After Storms by Joan Lennon (about Mary Anning)
10. The Lad that Stands Before You by Catherine Johnson (about Mary Seacole)
11. Return to Victoria by Celia Rees (about Emily Davidson)
12. The Colours of the Day by Anne Rooney (about Amy Johnson)
13. Please Can I Have a Life by Leslie Wilson (about The Greenham Common Women)

The anthology has stories ranging from approx c.30 AD right through until the 1980's so it really does span the ages. It's not often you come across such a variety in one book so I really enjoyed dipping in and out of the different eras that it covers. You'll find stories about warrior princesses and queens next to stories about famous female writers and campaigners for women's rights. Not to forget a pilot, a nurse and an archaeologist!

What I enjoyed most was getting to learn something about women who I'd never even heard of before, I'm definitely going to have to do some research now to find out more about them! Daughters of Time is a fab anthology for anyone who is interested in history, especially if you want to learn more about some of the women who have had a huge impact on society throughout the ages.

Source: Received from Templar in exchange for an honest review.

Other Reviews:
If you have reviewed this book on your blog please leave a link to your review in the comments & I'll add the link here.

Paperback:



Extract:

Thanks to Templar I also have this extract from Sue Purkiss talking about why chose to write a story about Aethelflaed for her contribution to the anthology.

Extract: Daughters of Time Anthology

Winners: Daylight Saving & Sword of Light

With the help of Rafflecopter I am happy to announce the winner of a copy of Daylight Saving by Edward Hogan is:

Sam Bella (email address starting sambella10@...)

Congratulations Sam!  You should have already received an email from me asking for your address so please make sure you look out for it.  If I don't hear back from you within 48 hours then a new winner will be chosen.  Your prize will be sent out by my contact at Walker so you'll need to give permission for me to forward your address to them.

With the help of Rafflecopter I am also excited to announce the 10 winners of a copy of Sword of Light by Katherine Roberts are:

Sarah (You didn't leave your email address so I have sent you a message on Twitter)

Chloe Smith (email address starting clobag@...)

Geoff Robinson (email address starting trinny1973@...)

Bobby Boxall (email address starting lasynner@...)

Kulsuma (email address starting k_anon@...)

Beth Kemp (email address starting beth@...)

Karen (email address starting karen.bush@...)

Kirsty (email address starting kirstylouiseconnor@...)

Mel S (email address starting notanotherbookblog@...)

Daisy Leigh-Phippard (email address starting daisy.leigh-phippard@...)

Congratulations to you all!  You should have already received an email from me asking for your addresses so please make sure you look out for it.  If I don't hear back from you within 48 hours then a new winner will be chosen.  Your prize will be sent out by my contact at Templar so you'll need to give permission for me to forward your address to them.

I'd like to say a massive thank you to Walker and Templar for allowing me to host these giveaways for them.

Review: Sword of Light - Katherine Roberts

It is the darkest hour of the darkest age.

King Arthur is dead and the path to the throne lies open to his evil nephew, Mordred.  But there is one with a better claim . . .

Introducing Rhianna Pendragon: Arthur's secret daughter and Camelot's last hope.

Pendragon Legacy:
Sword of Light
Lance of Truth (October 2012)
Crown of Dreams (Release date TBC)
Grail of Stars (Release date TBC)

Visit Katherine Roberts' website for more information.



Review:
Rhianna Pendragon is the secret child of King Arthur and Queen Guinevere, so secret that even she doesn't know who her parents are.  She has been raised in the fairy realm of Avalon but has always dreamt of visiting the world of men.  When Merlin arrives in Avalon with Arthur's body it looks like Rhianna will get her wish.  Arthur was killed by his nephew Mordred but there is a chance he can be saved - if Rhianna can find the Sword of Light and bring it back to Avalon.

Rhianna sets out for the human realm to search for the sword with her friend Prince Elphin and their magical horses.  They aren't the only ones searching for it though and Mordred is determined to do whatever it takes to stop them.  He can't risk Rhianna taking control of the Knights of the round table and becoming accepted as King Arthur's heir. Mordred will stop at nothing to claim Camelot and it is up to Rhianna to make sure that doesn't happen.

Although I don't read many children's books I couldn't resist Sword of Light, I've always loved the legend of King Arthur so was looking forward to reading Katherine Roberts' take on it.  It was great to see characters we already know and love alongside new ones like Rhianna. She is a strong heroine and I loved the friendship between her and Elphin.  It's nice to see how much they care for each other and how they always stand together to fight. 

Add in magical horses, knights and a dragon and you have a magical tale full of adventure that is hard to put down.  This is the kind of story I would have absolutely loved as a child and still thoroughly enjoyed even as an adult.  I'd definitely recommend Sword of Light and I'm looking forward to reading the next instalment of the Pendragon Legacy when it comes out later this year.

Source: Received from Templar in exchange for an honest review

Other Reviews:
If you have reviewed this book on your blog please leave a link to your review in the comments & I'll add the link here.

Q&A With Katherine Roberts & UK Giveaway of Sword of Light

To celebrate the release of her latest children's fantasy novel Sword of Light I'm delighted to have author Katherine Roberts here today to answer some of my questions.  Also, thanks to the lovely people at Templar I have 10 copies (yes, you read correctly TEN copies!) of the book to give away to some of my UK readers.  I've already read Sword of Light (my review will be posted later today) and it is such a fun read - definitely one I recommend for fantasy fans!

First let me share some information about the book:

It is the darkest hour of the darkest age.

King Arthur is dead and the path to the throne lies open to his evil nephew, Mordred.  But there is one with a better claim . . .

Introducing Rhianna Pendragon: Arthur's secret daughter and Camelot's last hope.

Pendragon Legacy:
Sword of Light
Lance of Truth (October 2012)
Crown of Dreams (Release date TBC)
Grail of Stars (Release date TBC)

Visit Katherine Roberts' website for more information.



Now I'd like to give a warm welcome to Katherine Roberts, thanks so much for visiting today Katherine!

Katherine Roberts

What gave you the idea of writing a story based on the legend of King Arthur?

I’ve been a fan of Arthurian fiction since I first discovered Mary Stewart’s Merlin trilogy (The Crystal Cave, The Hollow Hills, The Last Enchantment) in the school library. For a while back in the 80’s it seemed nearly every fantasy author was writing something Arthurian, and I read my way through most of them, so I suppose it was inevitable that I would eventually write something Arthurian myself after I became an author.

I didn’t want to retell the old stories, though, so I avoided having Arthur or Merlin as my main character and instead invented a warrior princess – King Arthur’s daughter Rhianna Pendragon – who could pick up the story where the legends left off, the day after Arthur died in battle at the hands of his evil nephew Mordred…

Can you describe Sword of Light in 5 words?

Ah, only five words! That sounds a bit like a competition I once entered to describe “The Lord of the Rings” in 50 words… but I won that competition, so let’s have a go…

“Heiress of Camelot seeks Excalibur.”
or
“Arthur’s daughter returns from Avalon.”
or
“Rhianna battles Mordred for Camelot.”

(Which one works for you?)

Can you tell us a bit more about how many books you have planned for the series?

There are four books in the Pendragon Legacy series altogether, so it is a fantasy quartet rather than the more usual trilogy. This is because I based the series around the four magical talismans that occur in Celtic myth:

Book 1: Sword of Light (Arthur’s sword, Excalibur)
Book 2: Lance of Truth (Arthur’s lance Ron, based on the spear used to wound Jesus on the cross)
Book 3: Crown of Dreams (which hides a magic stone/jewel sometimes called the Lia Fail)
Book 4: Grail of Stars (the Cauldron of Plenty, or the Holy Grail in Christian legend).

Rhianna needs to find all four of these magical “Lights” before she can bring her father back from the dead to sit on the throne of Camelot once again… but King Arthur never actually managed to bring the Grail to Camelot, so can a damsel succeed where Arthur’s brave knights failed? (You’ll have to wait until Book 4 to find out!)

Do you have the whole series plotted out or do you prefer to see where the story takes you as you're writing it?

I had a very basic plan (about a paragraph for each book) before I began. But I prefer to leave it up to my characters to work out the details, and they are getting more wilful as the series progresses. So if they decide to change the ending when I get as far as Book 4, I might have a major battle on my hands!

How long did it take you to write Sword of Light? Have you finished writing Lance of Truth?

If you look at the publication date of my last book (“I am the Great Horse” about Alexander the Great’s warhorse Bucephalas), you’ll see that one was published back in 2007. So I expect everyone thinks I’ve taken five long years to write “Sword of Light”… but that’s not quite true!

I suppose it took me about a year to come up with the concept for the Pendragon series, develop the characters, write the first book and find a publisher for it. It took me about another nine months to write “Lance of Truth” (which is finished, yes, and with my editor now – it’s due out at the end of this year). For the remaining three years I was writing a novel about Genghis Khan, so my published books are out of order now. But that often happens. Fashions come and go, and King Arthur is obviously more popular than Genghis Khan at the moment.

Who is your favourite character? Where they also the easiest character to write?

I’ll have to say Rhianna, because I wish I had a telepathic fairy horse like Alba and a sword like Excalibur. But I have a soft spot for her friend Prince Elphin with the violet eyes. Cai and Arianrhod are quite interesting, too, though their characters come out a bit more in later books.

But I have to admit my villain, Mordred, was the easiest character to write! In fact I often find it easier to write about villains than heroes/heroines. I was discussing this with my editor the other day, and she says it’s because you always know exactly what the villain wants – normally to kill everyone and destroy everything good! Mordred wants the throne of Camelot, and he’ll stop at nothing to get it…

Rhianna, Elphin, Cai and Arianrhod

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Katherine Roberts won the Branford Boase Award for her first children’s novel Song Quest (reissued this month in paperback by Catnip Books). She is the author of the Seven Fabulous Wonders series, translated into 11 languages worldwide and now available as ebooks for Kindle, and the Alexander the Great novel “I am the Great Horse. Her new children’s fantasy series about King Arthur’s daughter Rhianna Pendragon is published by Templar with the first book SWORD OF LIGHT now available in hardcover.

Katherine’s website can be found at http://www.katherineroberts.co.uk/
and you can follow Rhianna Pendragon on Twitter at www.twitter.com/PendragonGirl

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Thanks so much for answering my questions Katherine, I can't wait to read more of Rhianna's adventures in Lance of Truth!

Giveaway Details:

Now how would you like the chance to win a copy of Sword of Light? 

• Courtesy of Templar I have 10 hardback copies of Sword of Light to giveaway to 10 lucky UK winners.
• The winner's prizes will be sent out directly by my contact at Templar so the winners must give me permission to pass their addresses on.
• The winners will be chosen at random from all entries received. 
• To enter please use the rafflecopter below to confirm that you are a UK resident, there are optional extra entries for following or tweeting about the giveaway but these are not required to enter.
• The giveaway will close at 12:01am EST on the 3rd of March 2012 and the winners will be contacted soon afterwards.  You will have 48 hours to reply to me with your address or new winners will be chosen.