Following useful feedback from a reader’s group, I have made some changes and ironed out a few glitches to my long short story, ABANDONED! A revised version is now available to download from amazon kindle at the derisory price of £0.99 or equivalent in other amazon territories.
It is part one of an intended trilogy called, A Light in the Dark Ages. I’ve started working on part two, under the working title Uther’s Dilemma, which should be out some time in March 2016. It’s loosely based around the idea that King Arthur must have had a grandfather!* Dating of the Arthurian legend places King Arthur as a warrior king fighting Saxon invaders at the end of the fifth century, possibly about 50-60 years after the Romans abandoned their province of Britannia (sorry, Clive Owen!).
My story, Abandoned! is set in a Roman town at the time the last Roman legion pulled out of Britain, at around 420-440 AD. My character, Marcus Aquilius, is entirely fictitious, and I have him as the father of Aurelius and Uther. Aurelius Ambrosius is an historical figure who is thought to have led an army of ‘national unity’ at around 500AD to victory over a Saxon army at the battle of Badon Hill. His brother, Uther Pendragon, fights at his side. The problem is, no one knows exactly where or when this famous battle took place.
There are few surviving written records of events, and archaeologists continue to look for clues. This obscure period in English history remains partly hidden behind the mists of time, leaving it, for now, in the realm of myths and legends. Uther Pendragon is the supposed father of King Arthur, and the Arthurian legend was mostly written several hundred years later. It is based on stories handed down, a strong legend that refused to go away, and has some resonance with the dark historical events of that time.
*I read somewhere that the supposed father of Aurelius was the Roman Emperor Constantine, fighting in Gaul to defend a shrinking Western Roman Empire…not in my story! What is fact and what is legend?
New revised version now up on amazon kindle…ABANDONED! (Light in the Dark Ages Book 1) https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B019D64AH0
Download the free kindle app from amazon to read on any device.
Tim Walker 