Author Interview & Book Giveaway: Carol McGrath on THE BETROTHED SISTER

This week, we're welcoming author Carol McGrath again, whose latest title is THE BETROTHED SISTER, book #3 of The Daughters of Hastings trilogy. One lucky visitor will get a free copy of The Betrothed Sister. Be sure to leave your email address in the comments of today's author interview for a chance to win. Winner(s) are contacted privately by email. Here's the blurb.

It is 1068 and led by Countess Gytha the Godwin royal women are about to set out into exile after the Siege of Exeter. Princess Thea, known to history as Gita is King Harold’s eldest daughter and the book’s engaging protagonist. She carries revenge in her heart for the Normans who killed her father at the Battle of Hastings. Once in Demark her uncle, the king, betroths her to a most eligible prince, his third wife’s nephew, Vladimir of Kiev. Will her betrothal and marriage bring her happiness, as she confronts enemies from inside and outside Rus territories? Will she prove herself the courageous princess she surely is, win her husband’s respect and establish her independence in a society protective towards its women?

**Q&A with Carol McGrath**

Can You Explain a little of the background to The Betrothed Sister?

The Betrothed Sister is the story of King Harold II’s elder daughter. After The Battle of Hastings, we lose track of King Harold’s immediate family. I cannot be sure with whom Harold’s elder daughter lived before 1068 and her exile. She did travel with her grandmother and brothers into exile in Denmark. This is recorded history. Her mother is not mentioned after a reference in The Waltham Chronicle which says that Edith Swan-neck identified her hand-fasted husband’s body on the battlefield of Senlac Hill, known as The Battle of Hastings, by marks only known to her. This was written a half century after the events on the basis of memory. Edith shows up in a mention in John of Worcester as having entered a nunnery. It is my suggestion that Thea-Gytha and thus Gita to the Rus, accompanied the noble ladies of Exeter into exile following William the Conqueror’s siege of that city in 1068. They are documented in The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as having first travelled to Flatholm, an island in the Severn Estuary. Later that year they travelled to Flanders. Thea continued with her grandmother and brothers to Denmark. The journey out is where The Betrothed Sister opens. The Godwin Diaspora is fascinating and its women are the subject of The Daughters of Hastings Trilogy. The books are linked but they are also stand-alone. This one is my personal favourite.

How did you go about researching The Betrothed Sister?

I read Slavonic Studies at University. I have a knowledge of Russian language. I know where to seek out information as a result and researched in the Oxford Bodliean and The Oxford Slavonic Studies library. I found information in The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, more in John of Worcester’s Chronicle and fascinating information about life in Kyiv in the Russian Primary Chronicle. These women are like shadows. At best they get tiny mentions. I looked at secondary source material to fill in the gaps and imagine their lives. I delved into what it was like to be a Rus noblewoman in the 11thC. For example, I discovered that they lived protected lives, more so than their English equivalents, in a palace or kremlin Terem, not to be confused with harem, since Rus princes were generally deeply religious and indeed were allegedly monogamous. Women were very valued as the Rus law codes of the period show. Read the book and find out how this worked. In addition to this research I visited the Viking Exhibition in London. That was informative as was a trip to Iceland, as alas Kyiv was off limits. Books I read on this period in Denmark fed into the story of Thea’s betrothal. Kyiv (Kiev) is on the Dnieper and major trade routes. All this is absorbed into a thrilling adventure historical story.

Any surprises?

Yes, I discovered that Elizaveta, wife of Harold Harthrada who was defeated and killed by King Harold married Sweyn King of Denmark. This information has been researched by Russian Medieval scholar, Janet Martin. Her books are excellent. You can see the connections between the Danish court and that of Kiev post 1066. It was an historical titbit as Thea’s father was responsible for Harthrada’s death.  Harthrada’s daughter was also married to one of Sweyn’s sons. I easily found themes of jealousy and revenge to work out through the novel.

Which part of the research interested you most?

The Viking Exhibition in London and Rus weddings are interesting. The concept of the Rusnyk embroidery fascinated me. Women recorded important events from their lives in embroidery. This also contributed to the Tapestry theme throughout these novels.

What Next?

Before I embark on a new Medieval Trilogy I am writing a stand-alone novel about an early Tudor lady who is another historical shadow. I cannot reveal her identity yet but this novel contains intrigue and the imagined life of a London woman merchant circa 1509-20.

Thank you to Unusual Historicals for hosting me today.

The series is available at Amazon.com and amazon.co.uk and from all good bookshops

Learn more about author Carol McGrath

https://www.facebook.com/daughtersofhastings

http://scribbling-inthemargins.blogspot.gr/

http://www.goodreads.com/author/dashboard

Follow me on Twitter @carolmcgrath

http://pinterest.com/carol0275/

www.carolcmcgrath.co.uk

Excerpt Thursday: THE BETROTHED SISTER by Carol McGrath

This week, we're welcoming author Carol McGrath again, whose latest title is THE BETROTHED SISTER, book #3 of The Daughters of Hastings trilogy. Join us again on Sunday for an author interview, with more details about the story behind the story. One lucky visitor will get a free copy of The Betrothed Sister. Be sure to leave your email address in the comments of today's post or Sunday's author interview for a chance to win. Winner(s) are contacted privately by email. Here's the blurb.

It is 1068 and led by Countess Gytha the Godwin royal women are about to set out into exile after the Siege of Exeter. Princess Thea, known to history as Gita is King Harold’s eldest daughter and the book’s engaging protagonist. She carries revenge in her heart for the Normans who killed her father at the Battle of Hastings. Once in Demark her uncle, the king, betroths her to a most eligible prince, his third wife’s nephew, Vladimir of Kiev. Will her betrothal and marriage bring her happiness, as she confronts enemies from inside and outside Rus territories? Will she prove herself the courageous princess she surely is, win her husband’s respect and establish her independence in a society protective towards its women?

**An Excerpt from The Betrothed Sister**

Chapter One

Thea glanced up at the thin, fragile moon. Despite all that had happened since the Normans stole England, anticipation gripped her. By the time that moon grew fat again they would be settled in their new home. She moved her lips in prayer to her name-day saint, St Theodosia. ‘Gracious lady, grant us a warm hall, fine furniture and new clothing, and take a care for my brother Magnus.’ Surely her saint would answer her prayer.

Yet, Thea did not confess to her saint her deepest and most secret wish. She wanted revenge on William the Bastard. She wanted revenge not only on him but on his whole House for his destruction of her father, the kidnap of her brother Ulf by William, her mother’s seclusion and the murder of her brother, Magnus. If St Theodosia knew what lay in her heart, she knew it already. Thea wanted vengeance and until she had it, her life would never be complete again. One day, the Bastard, William of Normandy, false king of England, would die an ignoble death, unloved by his children and preferably in great pain because she, Thea, daughter of the great King Harold, wanted him to suffer for what he had done to her family. And, she added this to her thought – one day she would marry a warrior prince who hated the Normans as much as she did and who would help her brothers recover their kingdom. She started. Voices were falling towards them, dropping from the direction of the cliff below the monastery, coming closer.

She twisted round to see the rest of their women following a monk who was swinging a lantern. Their ladies, who were wrapped in their warmest woollen mantles, came in a snaking line down the cliff path to the beach. All of them, even the five children, were carrying small bundles. When the group reached the shingle, the women gathered up cloaks and skirts and bunching the thick escaping material into their hands they began wading out to climb into the fleet of skiffs. Edmund and Padar, their warrior poet, took an arm here and a hand there. They lifted the older women, swinging in turn each of a tiny band of confused children from one to the other over the lapping water. Finally they deposited the women and their offspring into the assorted fishing craft that would ferry them to the big-sailed ships which were to carry them over the Narrow Sea.

The series is available at Amazon.com and amazon.co.uk and from all good bookshops

Learn more about author Carol McGrath

https://www.facebook.com/daughtersofhastings

http://scribbling-inthemargins.blogspot.gr/

http://www.goodreads.com/author/dashboard

Follow me on Twitter @carolmcgrath

http://pinterest.com/carol0275/

www.carolcmcgrath.co.uk

Author Interview & Book Giveaway: Carol McGrath on THE SWAN-DAUGHTER

This week, we're welcoming author Carol McGrath, whose latest title is THE SWAN-DAUGHTER, book #2 of The Daughters of Hastings trilogy. One lucky visitor will get a free copy of The Swan-Daughter - this giveaway is open worldwide. Be sure to leave your email address in the comments of today's author interview for a chance to win. Winner(s) are contacted privately by email. Here's the blurb. 

It is 1075 and Dowager Queen Edith, widow of Edward the Confessor has died. Her niece Gunnhild, longs to leave Wilton Abbey where she had been a guest since 1066. Is her suitor Alan of Richmond, Breton knight and cousin to King William interested in her inheritance as the daughter of King Harold and Edith Swan-Neck or does he love her for herself? And is her love for Count Alan an enduring love or has she made a mistake. Then there is Count Alan’s younger brother! The Swan-Daughter is a true eleventh century tale of elopement and a love triangle.

Praise for The Swan-Daughter

‘A wise and lyrical evocation of the lives of women in the aftermath of the Norman Conquest, and high romance in the true sense of the word. A captivating read.’ Sarah Bower , best- selling author, Needle in the Blood.

‘She [Carol McGrath] brings the 11^th century alive, packing in a wealth of well-researched detail. Her style is easy to read and her Gunnhild is a rounded and sympathetic character.’ The Historical Novels Review, February 2015.

** Q&A with Carol McGrath**

I would like to thank Unusual Historicals for this opportunity to talk about my writing practice and specifically about The Swan-Daughter, the second novel in my 1066 Daughters of Hastings series. I stress that while it is part of a Trilogy, The Swan-Daughter is a stand- alone novel.

Is writing something you have always wanted to do?

I have always wanted to be a writer. As a child I made my own books. Many of these were witch stories or rewrites of adventure stories such as The Island of Adventure. As a teenager I was obsessed with history and was determined to study it at University. I did! I studied History, English and Slavonic Studies at Queens University Belfast. I taught History, even ran a High School History Department but, importantly, I was ever a great reader and my advice to all prospective writers is to read widely. Once I grew up, I never had time to write because I had children, a busy home, husband and career.  I began writing seriously when I attended Oxford University Continuing Education day classes and for several years became part of a fabulous group that included writers who had successful writers in their families. One of these writers was Antonia Fraser’s niece. One Christmas, Eliza’s family read the first chapters of my novel, not one actually published, but one about love, linen and suffragettes set in 1910-12. That was special and I felt honoured that they loved it. It was also encouraging that so long ago a creative writing teacher wanted me submit my work to agents. I never did. At that time writing was an interest only. And it was such fun! I wrote because it was a passion. Now, I am thrilled to have reached a standard where I feel I can share my passion with readers.

What is your experience of writing courses and workshops? Can they really help writers?

No man or woman is an island. These workshops and courses can be helpful on, at least, a basic level. I studied on The Diploma in Creative Writing at Oxford University, a two year part time course to study writing poetry, plays and prose. Two years later, I gave up teaching to take an MA in Creative Writing at The Seamus Heaney Centre, Queens University, Belfast. When I achieved a distinction on this MA, Andrew Motion, the MA’s external examiner, invited me onto his PhD course at Royal Holloway, University of London. This I completed at MPhil writing a 35k thesis on How Romance Tempers Realism in Historical Fiction as well as my debut novel The Handfasted Wife.  I think academia worked for me. I thought a lot about the process of writing, gained confidence and honed my writing skills. My advice to writers is that if you chose this route thoroughly research creative writing MAs and, especially, doctorates very carefully. I was lucky. I met great tutors and writers and was writing in a fabulously creative environment especially whilst studying prose and poetry in Ireland. Writing courses and workshops do not necessarily make you a writer but they can foster that gem of ability that you may already have. I experienced a long apprenticeship and I value this. I did it, not especially to be published; this happened along the way. I did it because I love writing and want to learn to write as well as I possibly can. It is not the only way to become a traditionally published author as we all know. I think workshops and courses can be uplifting and encouraging. They help you create a network of writing friends.

  

You write Historical Fiction. What comes first, the research or the story? What are your feelings about historical accuracy in Historical Fiction?

This is a very pertinent question and one I am speaking on at The Alderney Literary Festival next week with Simon Scarrow. I believe both do matter. Accuracy matters as far as one can be accurate but obsessive accuracy can push an author into the realms of historical non- fiction. I research thoroughly, often to achieve atmosphere, but am aware too that to be accurate about the women who lived in the period I write about and the many facts concerning The Norman Conquest and its aftermath, one needs to understand provenance. Who wrote the source and why? Primary sources can give the writer a strong sense of that past, its atmosphere and preoccupations. I think for my current writing period the 11^th C, it is important to understand religion and politics of that era. Women were the footnotes of this history but it is possible to research the society they lived in, its laws and its every-day life. I want to recreate that world, to know for example, little details that enliven it such as how they brushed their teeth. Then, I want to place my characters, real and invented personalities in that very strange world. But I want my characters to lead my plot. I do plan the narratives but the stories can change as I write. I am always aware that I am writing a story, not a history book. Story matters. As for accuracy where characters are concerned, we do not actually know, as a rule, what these long ago people really thought or what their conversations truly were. However we can invent in an informed way and bring them to life in a work of fiction. 

What inspired you to write The Swan-Daughter?

When I discovered that there was so much to the story of the noble women of 1066, especially the Godwin women, albeit snippets in sources, I was hooked. These noble women were strong personalities. The Handfasted Wife was influenced by The Bayeux Tapestry. The Swan-Daughter came about because, whilst researching The Handfasted Wife, I discovered the Anselm letters between Harold’s daughter Gunnhild and Archbishop Anselm, written circa 1090. In these the Archbishop tells Gunnhild that she had eloped from Wilton Abbey which was wrong in his eyes as she should have taken vows, though he appreciated there had been feeling between her and Count Alan. ‘Feeling’. Amazing that this is said in an era of dutiful arranged marriage and said in a letter by a Norman Archbishop! The letter states that that since Count Alan has died it is a further wrong that Gunnhild has taken up with his brother and that no good would come of this. The Archbishop begs her to return to Wilton Abbey. I used the historical background of castle building and land grab for the fictional story and as I was fascinated by emergent Anglo-Norman romance I worked Tristram and Iseult into the love triangle aspect of it. Really, this novel is a mix of invention and fact. Above all, The Swan-Daughter is a story of two people ill-suited to each other and what happens next, particularly as Gunnhild was officially confined by the societal dictates of her time.

What do you consider the secret of writing successful historical fiction?  

Invent characters whose journey a reader wants to follow and more than this, wants to inhabit for the duration of the journey. Recognise what it is to be human. Recognise the limitations facing a character when he/she breaks the rules of the time they inhabit. Research well but bury that research in the story. Think about a story’s theme and incorporate delicious little details into the world of that story so that the reader is hoodwinked into entering a past world and, importantly, is hoodwinked into believing in it. Above all, remember that we are writing fiction and telling stories. We are not writing history books.

Many thanks to Unusual Historicals for hosting me today. Comment. There is a copy of The Swan-Daughter available internationally for a lucky reader. 

***

The Swan-Daughter by Carol McGrath published by Accent Press 11^th December 2014

The Swan-Daughter is available from all good bookshops and on amazon.co.uk and amazon .com and all e readers.

About the Author

Carol McGrath lives in Oxfordshire, England with her husband and family. She taught History until she undertook an MA in Creative Writing at The Seamus Heaney Centre, Queens University Belfast, followed by an MPhil in Creative Writing at Royal Holloway, University of London. Her debut novel, The Handfasted Wife, first in a trilogy about the royal women of 1066 was shortlisted for the RoNAS, 2014 in the historical category. The Swan-Daughter is second in the trilogy and published in 2014. It is also a stand- alone novel. The third, The Betrothed Sister, set in the medieval Ukraine and Denmark, and about Harold’s elder daughter will be published in 2015. Carol can often be discovered in Oxford’s famous Bodleian Library where she undertakes meticulous research for her novels. Find Carol on her website:

www.carolcmcgrath.co.uk.

Facebook: The Daughters of Hastings Series

Twitter: @CarolMcGrath

Excerpt Thursday: THE SWAN-DAUGHTER by Carol McGrath

This week, we're welcoming author Carol McGrath, whose latest title is THE SWAN-DAUGHTER, book #2 of The Daughters of Hastings trilogy. Join us again on Sunday for an author interview, with more details about the story behind the story. One lucky visitor will get a free copy of The Swan-Daughter - this giveaway is open worldwide. Be sure to leave your email address in the comments of today's post or Sunday's author interview for a chance to win. Winner(s) are contacted privately by email. Here's the blurb. 

It is 1075 and Dowager Queen Edith, widow of Edward the Confessor has died. Her niece Gunnhild, longs to leave Wilton Abbey where she had been a guest since 1066. Is her suitor Alan of Richmond, Breton knight and cousin to King William interested in her inheritance as the daughter of King Harold and Edith Swan-Neck or does he love her for herself? And is her love for Count Alan an enduring love or has she made a mistake. Then there is Count Alan’s younger brother! The Swan-Daughter is a true eleventh century tale of elopement and a love triangle.

Praise for The Swan-Daughter

‘A wise and lyrical evocation of the lives of women in the aftermath of the Norman Conquest, and high romance in the true sense of the word. A captivating read.’ Sarah Bower , best- selling author, Needle in the Blood.

‘She [Carol McGrath] brings the 11^th century alive, packing in a wealth of well-researched detail. Her style is easy to read and her Gunnhild is a rounded and sympathetic character.’ The Historical Novels Review, February 2015.

** An Excerpt from The Swan-Daughter, Chapter One**

It had been so easy to take it. 

            As Wilton Abbey’s bell tolled for her dead aunt’s midnight vigil, everyone- priests, nuns, novices, postulants and girls- passed through the archway into the chill of St Edith’s chapel. Gunnhild hovered near the back of the gathering. When the nuns’ choir began to sing the first plainsong, she lifted a candle from a niche close to the doorway, cupped her free hand around it and slipped out into the cloisters. She hurried along a pathway through overhanging shadows until she reached her aunt’s apartment, rooms that were set away from the main abbey buildings. Pushing open the doors she crept into the reception hall, crossed her aunt’s, the dead queen’s antechamber, the great bed-chamber and finally into Aunt Edith’s vast wardrobe. I must find it because when I do I shall have a suitable garment to wear when I leave this place. I must take it before it is given to that dwarf, Queen Matilda.

She set her candle in an empty holder on a side table a little distance from the hanging fabrics and stepped into the space between wooden clothing poles. Frantically, her fingers began fumbling amongst Aunt Edith’s garments.  Which one was it? No, not those woollen gowns, nor the old linen ones either. No, look again.

Gunnhild moved along a rail by the wall fingering linens and silks until finally she found what she sought at the very end. She reached out and touched the overgown, pulled it down and took it out into the candlelight. Its hem was embellished with embroidered flowers- heartsease or pansies- in shades of purples and blues with centres of glistening pearls. Her aunt had worn it when Gunnhild had first travelled to be with her in Winchester for the Pentecost feast of 1066, just after Aunt Edith’s husband, King Edward, had died and Gunnhild’s father was crowned king. She had remarked then to Aunt Edith that heartsease was her favourite flower and Aunt Edith had lifted her hand, smoothed it along the silk and said, ‘One day, this dress will belong to you.’

***

The Swan-Daughter by Carol McGrath published by Accent Press 11^th December 2014

The Swan-Daughter is available from all good bookshops and on amazon.co.uk and amazon .com and all e readers.

About the Author

Carol McGrath lives in Oxfordshire, England with her husband and family. She taught History until she undertook an MA in Creative Writing at The Seamus Heaney Centre, Queens University Belfast, followed by an MPhil in Creative Writing at Royal Holloway, University of London. Her debut novel, The Handfasted Wife, first in a trilogy about the royal women of 1066 was shortlisted for the RoNAS, 2014 in the historical category. The Swan-Daughter is second in the trilogy and published in 2014. It is also a stand- alone novel. The third, The Betrothed Sister, set in the medieval Ukraine and Denmark, and about Harold’s elder daughter will be published in 2015. Carol can often be discovered in Oxford’s famous Bodleian Library where she undertakes meticulous research for her novels. Find Carol on her website:

www.carolcmcgrath.co.uk.

Facebook: The Daughters of Hastings Series

Twitter: @CarolMcGrath

Guest Blog: Carol McGrath

This week, we're pleased to welcome author Carol McGrath, whose latest novel THE HANDFASTED WIFE is set during the Norman Conquest period. The author will offer a free copy of The Handfasted Wife to a lucky blog visitor in ebook format (epub) OR a paperback; please be sure to include your email address in the comments. Winner(s) are contacted privately. Here's the blurb:

King Harold loves Elditha, his beautiful handfasted wife for many years, and she loves him back. It is Christmas 1065. When aging King Edward dies Elditha’s husband is elected king. To her horror she is set aside for a marriage which will unite north and south against a Norman threat. But the Conqueror swoops over the channel, burns English lands and destroys King Harold. Can Elditha protect her family from the Conqueror’s wrath?

**Q&A with Carol McGrath**

First of all, Carol, can you tell us a little about yourself and your writing?

My first degree was in English and Russian Studies (History subsid.) but I always wrote. However, once I had a family there really was no time and I was forging a career in teaching. I was in turn Head of a High School History Department and, latterly, joint Head of English in a private school so very busy. In between, I was accepted for an MA in Creative Writing at Queens University Belfast where I studied at The Seamus Heaney Centre. This was a rich and rewarding experience. My portfolio grew and consisted of short stories both contemporary and historical. Andrew Motion, Poet Laureate and one of this MA’s outside moderators invited me onto the MPhil Creative Writing programme at Royal Holloway. This is how I came to write my debut novel The Handfasted Wife, a novel set in Anglo-Saxon England at the time of the Norman Conquest. It is a novel about three royal women during the year of 1066 and in the aftermath of Conquest as it affects them culminating after The Siege of Exeter, 1068, when Harold’s mother, Gytha, resisted the Conqueror. I could have written a whole novel on that event as Gytha had gathered noble women there and, according to Chronicles, escaped with a great Anglo-Saxon treasure. However, the book’s heroine is Edith Swan-Neck and so Gytha must wait her turn. Edith Swan-Neck’s story is part recorded history and part the product of imagination and informed speculation. As for my MPhil, I graduated in March. I wrote my thesis on How Romance tempers Realism in Historical Fiction. One of my examiners, Fay Weldon, loved the novel so much that she has endorsed it.

Tell us about The Handfasted Wife. First of all, what is a handfasted wife?

Very early medieval weddings were not sanctified by the Church. Handfasting was the traditional marriage form by which the families concerned agreed property transfer on marriage. The bride and groom were usually handfasted in a ceremony by the whetstone at the entrance to the bride’s father’s great hall. They made promises to each other and their hands were bound together during the marriage ceremony. Generally, these marriages were lasting and legal. However, during the eleventh century, marriage ceremonies involved a priest and became church weddings and marriage by handfasting was not recognised by the church. This allowed a get out, particularly for kings who might seek new political alliances. Harold and Edith Swan-Neck had been married for nearly twenty years before he married the sister of England’s Northern Earls and, though History suggests that he loved her, Harold set Edith aside for political reasons. The historian, Frank Barlow says in The Godwins, she may not have been ‘top drawer’ now he was king. As this also was a political move to appease the north and protect England from outside invaders, I wondered to what extent Edith might have accepted it. I took any facts I could find in Chronicles and various analysis of The Bayeux Tapestry and constructed a possible scenario. I fictionalise Edith’s life on an estate in Sussex, the growing threat to her family before October 1066, and her imagined escape from an arranged marriage after Harold’s slaughter. In the novel, I link her fate to this of Dowager Queen Edith, Harold’s sister and that of his mother, Countess Gytha. The novel tells of a woman’s experience, and I believe that as well as being a story of love and loss it presents a reader with a fresh perspective on the consequences of the Norman Conquest.

How did you come to focus on the last days of Anglo-Saxon England?

I began wondering about how the Conquest affected the noble Saxon women especially after I discovered that Edith Swan-Neck allegedly identified King Harold’s body parts on the battlefield at Hastings (Senlac). My great interest was tapestry especially The Bayeux Tapestry. I had a hunch that the vignette depicting a woman and a child fleeing from a burning house was Edith Swan-Neck (Elditha as there are several Ediths in the story) and her son Ulf who was taken as a child hostage to Normandy and not released for decades. This theory is supported by tapestry historians such as Andrew Bridgeford. I researched women’s lives during this period and consulted academics such as Henrietta Leyser who wrote Medieval Women. I read ‘what happened’ in original chronicles in Oxford’s Bodleian Library and explored life in the medieval period, looking at costume, jewellery, food, furniture, art, architecture, trade and so on. The more I researched the more fascinated I became. I read everything I could find on this period of change, even how the Victorians viewed the period romantically as they looked for a pre-Conquest English identity. Then I wrote The Handfasted Wife.

Since you tell a familiar story from an unfamiliar view point do you consider yourself a feminist writer?

Women should understand how they evolved as a political and social force through history, how they found a voice, and appreciate what life was like for them in a past era. I believe that in looking back we understand women’s position in a contemporary western world better. My mother was a feminist and so feminism is ingrained in me. However, I see myself, as first of all, a writer. Medieval women are the footnotes of history. I am interested in their hidden stories and I try to tease them out. Writing, for me, is most of all about discovering and revealing past existences through fiction and so I put out an idea or two but I see these ideas as ‘collaborative’ between author and reader and never a given. I would like my readers to think about historical possibilities. Also, I hope my stories appeal to both men and women readers.
 

This is the first novel in a trilogy, The Daughters of Hastings. Can you say a little about what you are currently writing?

My new novel is the second book in this trilogy. It is very romantic as it is about a real historical love triangle. After much agonising about a title, it is to be called The Swan-Daughter’s Tale and is a story about Edith Swan-Neck’s daughter Gunnhild’s elopement from Wilton Abbey in the last quarter of the 11thC. I won’t give any spoilers here but shall say that some great characters from the first novel do reappear in the sequel.

Thank you, Carol, and best of luck with The Handfasted Wife.

Thank you, Lisa, for having me on Unusual Historicals. I am offering a free copy of The Handfasted Wife, either an Apple download of the novel for IPhone or IPad or a paperback copy. Leave an email address in the comments section if you wish to enter this draw, which is available internationally. Say which version you are interested in too!

The Handfasted Wife is published by Accent Press and is available an e book for all e readers and as a paperback from Amazon, USA and UK. It can be bought from Accent Press’s online bookstore.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Handfasted-Wife-Carol-McGrath/dp/1909520470/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1375773330&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/The-Handfasted-Wife-ebook/dp/B00CL7QBVM/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=1-1-catcorr&qid=1375773427

Learn more about author Carol McGrath

https://www.facebook.com/daughtersofhastings
http://scribbling-inthemargins.blogspot.gr/
http://www.goodreads.com/author/dashboard
Follow me on Twitter @carolmcgrath

http://pinterest.com/carol0275/

Excerpt Thursday: The Handfasted Wife by Carol McGrath

This week, we're pleased to welcome author Carol McGrath, whose latest novel THE HANDFASTED WIFE is set during the Norman Conquest period. Join us on Sunday, when the author will offer a free copy of The Handfasted Wife to a lucky blog visitor. Here's the blurb:

King Harold loves Elditha, his beautiful handfasted wife for many years, and she loves him back. It is Christmas 1065. When aging King Edward dies Elditha’s husband is elected king. To her horror she is set aside for a marriage which will unite north and south against a Norman threat. But the Conqueror swoops over the channel, burns English lands and destroys King Harold. Can Elditha protect her family from the Conqueror’s wrath?

**An Excerpt from The Handfasted Wife**

Her women clutched each other, weeping. They could hear people dragging trestles across the flagstones in the hall. Soldiers began banging on the great front door.

Ulf clung to his mother’s hand.

Elditha said, ‘I’m going down.’

He snatched at her skirt with his other small hand. For a moment she froze, afraid for them all. Determination crept back into her voice, ‘Margaret, hold on to Ulf.’ She handed him to the nurse and pulled her cloak about her shoulders.

The calls continued. ‘Putain, putain!’ And in English, they bellowed, ‘Harold’s whore, come out.’ Holding her head high, she walked down the staircase into the crowd of servants, men, women and children who had already sought the shelter of the hall.

Children huddled behind pillars. Others clung to their mothers. Everyone turned to watch her pass. She saw her linen table covers in a heap amongst rushes on the flagstones. Wooden bowls had toppled from trestles which had been dragged away to make barricades. Dogs whimpered and cowered in corners.

Again and again, their chant penetrated the great door, ‘Concubine, concubine, come out.’ 

Guthlac ordered the men to pull more trestles against the door. Brother Francis sank against a pillar crying, shaking and sweating and holding aloft a great wooden cross that hung around his neck. There wasn’t a fighting man left in the hall.

‘Are they all out there?’ she said.

‘There’s none of them in here!’ Guthlac exclaimed. ‘Go back up to your women, my lady.’

She pushed him aside. ‘Let me through, Guthlac, and Brother Francis, too.’

Guthlac glanced past her to the priest. ‘Some luck that one will bring!’

A firebrand of rushes was shot into an opening; another and another and another. Hangings caught fire. Everyone began running. They tried to beat out the fire with linen cloths. More and more burning torches flew through window openings. The villagers ran along the wall beating at flames but to no avail. The flames took hold and snatched at banners, devouring them in a red-and-gold blaze.

‘Look out for the shields!’ Guthlac yelled and pulled Elditha towards him.

A shield with a great dragon painted on it came crashing down. The fire raced, eating into tapestries and hangings as it flew. Children were pulled from chests and clasped close to their mothers. Hounds went mad, barking and growling, snapping, wildly shaking the bells on their collars. Everyone coughed and spluttered as smoke rose in the hall. Those who could lay their hands on a ladle or a pitcher ran back and forth from the vat that stood by the central hearth. They hurled water at the flames. It was hopeless.

Flames grasped at Elditha’s swan pennant and Harold’s warrior, swallowing feathered bird and fighting man. Small fires began to flare up, catching at the straw strewn over the flagstones. Smoke thickened in dark, suffocating plumes.

Elditha’s ladies hurried down the stairway clutching veils over their faces. They ran with the crowd to the entrance. Elditha screamed at Guthlac. ‘Let my ladies out.’ Then she cried, ‘Where is my son?’

Learn more about author Carol McGrath

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