Exclusive interview with author Eric Walmsley and a review of his novel based on new research that located the twelve battlefields of King Arthur
Rating: Three Stars
By Gabrielle Pantera
“My personal quest to find the real location of Arthur’s battles has proved a great challenge,” says King Arthur’s Battle for Britain author Eric Walmsley. “That has forced me to piece together a jigsaw puzzle of events in Dark Ages Britain. By searching out clues from all the available sources, I have found plausible answers to questions about the Arthurian era that have puzzled Britons for centuries.”
With each battle Arthur struggles to defend his country. There are battles with Britons, Angles and Saxons. Walmsley’s description of those who betrayed Arthur are taken from clues from early poetry and legends. While the story is a novel, Walmsley uses his research to add details about each battle to create a believable storyline. Walmsley’s description of how people lived during the time of King Arthur is vivid. There are chapters for each battle with maps of locations. If you love British history this book is for you.
“The most unexpected thing that happened while writing this book was the coincidental discovery of early Arthurian texts by Geoffrey of Monmouth and Sir Thomas Malory,” says Walmsley. “That revealed clues to the exact site of the legendary Isle of Avalon. For centuries after Arthur’s death the monks of Glastonbury claimed their Abbey to be the true Isle of Avalon and the site of Arthur’s grave. But, clues in the historical texts point conclusively towards Ireland as the site of Arthur’s last refuge. I discovered that Our Lady’s Island, near Wexford, is the true site of the Isle of Avalon.”
Walmsley says the inspiration for his book came from a visit to South Cadbury Castle, Somerset, in the late summer of 1969. “Leslie Alcock and his team of young archaeologists from the University of Wales were in the final stages of exploring the site. Soon after the completion of the Cadbury-Camelot project in 1970, Leslie Alcock summarized the archaeological findings in his book Arthur’s Britain.”
King Arthur’s Battle for Britain is Walmsley’s first book. Walmsley has worked as an assistant producer with BBC Television, and wrote for the program Tomorrow’s World. In 1994 he won an Emmy for Art Direction for Porgy & Bess.
Walmsley doesn’t have an agent or an editor. “Frank Hopton, my school History tutor, proofread my book, correcting many errors and making many helpful suggestions to improve the final text,” says Walmsley. “The most challenging part of working with my publisher was getting the final text together with all 33 color illustrations, and completing about eight proofreadings to sort out the final spelling errors.”
Welmsley found publisher Troubador/Matador online. “I found that Troubador were highly recommended by the Artists and Writers Yearbook,” says Walmsley. “And, their professional approach really appealed to me as a first-time author. The editorial procedure involved the publisher emailing the first proof to confirm typeface style and font size. I then made amendments to chapter headings and illustration captions. This process was repeated until all the minor spelling errors were resolved, in particular problems with the early Welsh spellings.”
“I found one of Arthur’s battle sites on the shores of the river Trent in North Lincolnshire and thought that it would be a good idea to find an aerial photo of the exact site,” says Walmsley. “Unfortunately, when I found the ideal photo on a website journey along the river Trent, it transpired that the original photograph had been lost, and I had to ask a local pilot to take some digital photos at 300 dpi. The winter weather was against us, and we had to delay the book production for several weeks while waiting for the sun to shine over Lincolnshire.”
Walmsley lives in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, UK. He was born in Eton, Buckinghamshire.
King Arthur’s Battle for Britain by Eric Walmsley. Kindle Edition File Size: 4282 KB, Print Length: 320 pages, Publisher: Matador (February 12, 2013). Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc., Language: English , ASIN: B00BFFDJK2 $9.99
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