Drawing Anglo-Saxon and Viking Treasure: Guest Post by Gilli Allan

To tie in with the release of the gorgeous new cover for Buried Treasure, I'm delighted to hand the blog over to author Gilli Allan:

Drawing Anglo-Saxon and Viking Treasure

One of the reasons I chose to write my book, BURIED TREASURE, is because I have always had a fascination with archaeology. I grew up in the knowledge that my great uncle, Sydney Ford, ‘unearthed the Mildenhall Treasure on his farm’. I put this in quotation marks because the story is actually a lot more complicated and mysterious than I knew as a child. To find out more go to  http://gilliallan.blogspot.com/2020/06/my-connection-to-mildenhall-treasure.html

Maybe our family history also influenced my son, Thomas Williams. He is now a Medievalist and an Archaeologist, and the author of Viking Britain and Viking London. His interest has always been focused, not on the Roman occupation (and finds like the silver tableware his great great Uncle Syd discovered), but on the traces left in the landscape during the early medieval period often referred to as the Dark Ages, the half century between the Romans and the Normans. 

Growing up, Tom always claimed he wanted to be a writer. And aged four, produced his first dictated ‘book’ about ghosts and ghouls. I claim all the credit as his early influencer because as far back as Tom can remember I was forever scribbling in notebooks or tapping away at a ‘sit-up-and-beg’ typewriter. And he was just six when I became a published author. 

Before I had Tom and began writing, my career was as an illustrator in advertising.  So, for a few years when Tom was trying to find his feet after graduating, he talked about our doing some kind of project together. He flirted with the idea of rewriting some classic legends or fairy-stories, for which I would supply the illustrations.  

His first outing as an author did indeed turn out to be a children’s book, although not a fairy story. It was an account of the life of Harald ‘Hardrada’ Sigurdsson, the Viking King who launched an attack on the north of England in 1066 (ahead of William the Conqueror’s invasion in the South East), but he was defeated by our own King Harold Godwinson, at Stamford Bridge. ‘The Tale of King Harald – The Last Viking Adventure’ was written to accompany the ‘Vikings-Life and Legend’ exhibition, at the British Museum in 2014, for which my son was the project curator. True to his word, he asked me to illustrate the narrative, the map and the cover art. 

King Harald in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Praying for Forgiveness

After this, my first ever book illustration commission, my son’s writing career continued in a more adult direction. He contributed to and edited, an academic tome, Representing Beasts in Early Medieval England and Scandinavia.

Two artefacts from ‘Representing Beasts……’ The Clocmacnoise Plaque (above)
and The Lejre Throne (below)

One of the other contributors was unable to secure the rights (at a reasonable cost) to reproduce copy-righted images to illustrate her text. Tom suggested his mum could draw the artefacts for her.  Thus, my second book illustration commission came about. It was the kind of work I had never previously attempted (a British Museum artist undertook the depictions of the ‘real’ artefacts, which interleave the story of the ‘The Tale of King Harald’), but I found I really loved it. There is a certain security and comfort in drawing something that actually exists, something you can simply copy, rather than dreaming up what tenth century Constantinople, or the aftermath of a battle between Anglo-Saxons and Vikings, might have looked like!   

When Tom gained his original two-book contract with William Collins we were very proud and happy parents. It did not initially occur to me that I might be called upon yet again to illustrate anything.  But quite close to the deadline for delivery of his book, ‘Viking Britain’, guess who was on the phone. “Mu…um?” 

Northumbrian Coin of the 920s

For this book I produced ‘raven’ and ‘crossed-axe’ section dividers, and also ‘knotted snake’ chapter endings.  And I also produced the illustrations of two coins.  It may not be much, but it gave me enormous pleasure to be involved in some small way in our son’s career as a writer. And, when I came to write my own book, BURIED TREASURE, Tom was on hand to help me enormously both with the plausibility of my plot and the research required.  His expertise was invaluable. 

Coin of Cnut of Northumbria 900-5

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About Gilli:

Gilli Allan began to write in childhood - a hobby pursued throughout her teenage. Writing was only abandoned when she left home, and real life supplanted the imaginary kind.  
After a few false starts she worked longest and most happily as an illustrator in advertising and only began writing again when she became a mother.  
Living in Gloucestershire with her husband Geoff, Gilli is still a keen artist. She draws and paints and has now moved into book illustration. 
All of her recent books TORN, LIFE CLASS, FLY or FALL and BURIED TREASURE have gained ‘Chill with a Book’ awards. 

Following in the family tradition, her son, historian Thomas Williams, is now also a writer. 

About Buried Treasure:

“I found Buried Treasure a compelling read. It was so many things: a love story, a hunt for clues to lost secrets, and a fascinating look at how our past experiences shape us, and how we can heal even after damage. The characters were wonderfully well drawn. ”

Jane thinks he sees her as shallow and ill-educated. Theo thinks she sees him as a snob, stuffy and out of touch.

Within the ancient precincts of the university the first encounter between the conference planner and the academic is accidental and unpromising. Just as well there’s no reason for them ever to meet again. But behind the armour they’ve each constructed from old scars, they’ve more in common than divides them. Both have an archaeological puzzle they are driven to solve. As their stories intertwine, their quest to uncover the past unearths more than expected.

Find Gilli:

mybook.to/BURIEDTREASURE

Find Gilli’s other books TORN, LIFE CLASS and FLY or FALL at 
author.to/GILLIALLAN

Contact Gilli at

http://gilliallan.blogspot.com/
https://www.facebook.com/gilli.allan.1

https://twitter.com/gilliallan

Review & Giveaway: Silk and the Sword by Sharon Bennett Connolly

What an ingenious concept: to examine the lives of and the roles played by the women related to the more familiar, male, characters involved in the events immediately before and after the Norman Conquest.

Silk and the Sword sensibly begins with events which far preceded those of 1066, giving the reader an introduction to the main families involved, and some background information which shows that we cannot take the events of 1066 in isolation.

This earlier history - of the powerful families of Mercia, Lady Godiva, the Godwines, and Queen Emma and both her husbands - is very familiar to me and if I'm honest there were times when I knew that there was more behind certain parts of the story, but that's me, that's not most folk. I have just had a history of Mercia published, so all my research is still very fresh in my mind. For those who are new to this period, or even those who aren't, there is plenty of meat on the bones of the story. 

Harald's wife Elisiv of Kiev,
daughter of Yaroslav the Wise

Does this mean though that there were no surprises in the book for me and nothing new to learn? Far from it. All the well-known women are here, as one would expect - Emma, Edith of Wessex, Edith 'Swanneck' - but so too are the wives of Harald Hardrada. I knew nothing about these women and I thoroughly enjoyed being whisked across the sea to learn about those close to the man described here as 'the wild card in the events of 1066'. It's easy to forget, because of his ultimate defeat, that he was a powerful ruler whose success in England, had it come, would have seen England absorbed into a Scandinavian empire. I had little idea about his royal pedigree (stretching back through his mother's line to the first king of Norway) nor, indeed, that Harald was married to two women at the same time! 

With the inclusion of Matilda of Flanders even the most ardently pro-Saxon reader will be forced to look at things from a different perspective and Gundrada de Warenne, someone I've not read about more than in passing, is given a chapter of her own and the stories behind her alleged parentage fully explored.

What I do know, because of the book that I'm currently writing, is that it is very difficult to format a book like this. Great care has been taken to skilfully extract these women from the general narrative and talk about them in isolation, whilst keeping the facts of their lives in context. 

Inevitably there is crossover, but rather than repeating herself, the author simply signposts where we are, and that we've been here before, but now we're with a different woman and we're looking at things from a different woman's perspective.

The author is keen for us to share her knowledge and interest in all the women, although I suspect she might have her favourites. Whilst she gives sympathetic and even-handed treatment to them all, I felt that there was added affection when it came to the poignancy of Edith Swanneck's tale and of Gytha, mother of the Godwine brood.

This was an ambitious project, beautifully executed and yes, as I've said, much of it very familiar to me. But the genius touch was to incorporate the stories of women from other countries because actually, it's completely logical. If you're telling the story of the women of 1066 then of course we need to know about the wives of Harald Hardrada and William of Normandy. This is where I was on less familiar ground and fascinating it was, too.

This book is a light, easy read, but it's also full of depth. Whether you are reading about these events for the first time or with a working knowledge of them, the lead-up to and the aftermath of the Conquest, with chapters entitled, for example, 'Grief and Sufferings', give an altogether different viewpoint on proceedings.

I was privileged to receive a pre-publication copy of Silk and the Sword but one lucky winner can also receive a free copy. Sharon is giving away a hardback copy of the book to readers worldwide. Simply leave a comment below - Please don't forget to leave your contact details! - and one name will be chosen at random at 7pm GMT Wednesday 21st November 2018