English Dawn

I was brought up in Conisbrough, went to Station Road School, and have lived at various times on Daylands Avenue, Roberts Avenue and Castle Avenue. The town, with its rich history and magnificent castle, has been an important influence in my life and has inspired some of my best work. I read English at St David's, Lampeter and Leeds University, and am now a teacher and writer.I started by writing poetry - but nobody read it, so I tried another of my interests: Dark Age fiction - Anglo-Saxons, Vikings and so on. I know what you're thinking (get a life!) but it's a popular niche, and I found that people were actually reading my books. I also write Science Fiction, Jane Austen sequels, all sorts of other stuff - and more poetry (poetry is like a drug for me and I can't give it up). I also write education publications, mainly study notes, which sell far more than anything else I write. Every now and then I return to my major project which is a Dark Age Pentalogy intended to be 1000+ pages long (it's a prose version of my book, Angleland, which is available in etext and paperback). I'm up to page 25 at the moment (just kidding - I have a draft of the whole thing, but it's going to take a lot more long and lonely nights to make it readable). I am always delighted to receive feedback on my books and can be contacted at xopherw@hotmail.com.

Here is the complete English Dawn pentalogy under one cover. It tells the story of the conquest and settlement of Britain by the Anglo-Saxons in the 5th century, set against the broad sweep of events in the Dark Ages: the decline of the Roman Empire, the rise of Attila the Hun, the raids by the Picts and the Scots, and the usurpation of the kingship of Britannia by the tyrant, Vortigern. Anglo-Saxon culture is presented in all its richness, including the history and the legends, the arms and armour, and the songs and sagas. Celtic legends about the Sword of Albion and the dragons of Dinas Emrys are also included, along with an original interpretation of the character of Merlin. Set gainst this rich background is the story of one man: Hengest, the founding father of the English nation, telling how he rose from nithing to Bretwalda of Angleland, before losing it all to a resurgent Britannia under the leadership of Aurelius Ambrosius. These events are a prequel to the age of Arthur, and the final chapter of the pentalogy sees Merlin setting up the sword in the stone for the king who is to come.