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Hello Keira – thanks for welcoming me to your Blog!

Keira: How has Gwenhwyfar and Arthur's love evolved from what it was in The Kingmaking to Pendragon's Banner?

Helen Hollick: Things have moved on from the close of The Kingmaking. Gwenhwyfar now has one young son and is expecting another child. Arthur is attempting to consolidate his victories by making peace with the Anglo Saxon English – but not everyone agrees with his ideas, not even Gwenhwyfar. When he insists she goes with him to visit an English settlement she is horrified. Not only is she frightened by not knowing these people, or their customs and traditions, she is about to have her baby.

The relationship between her and Arthur is pushed to the limit – and beyond – in this middle part of the trilogy. Tragedy can either draw a couple together or rip them apart….

Be warned, a box of tissues may be needed!

Keira: What are some challenges that will be put to them to challenge the strength of that love?

Helen Hollick: There are quite a few, some of them tragic, some of them frustrating, some downright infuriating. But sorry I’m not telling you about them as it will spoil the read!

Keira: Arthur is now King – what challenges will he face in Pendragon's Banner? How does he hope to overcome them? How must he change?

Helen Hollick: Arthur’s goal is to unite his Kingdom and bring peace. It is an uphill struggle for him though, as other people seem set on stopping him. Even Gwenhwyfar….

Keira: Arthur’s stubbornness and Gwenhwyfar's temper are sure to cause problems. Outside of their relationship, how do their flaws affect life at court, politics, and situations?

Helen Hollick: There are quite a few exchanges of stubbornness and temper in this one. Arthur is single minded – he knows what he wants and is determined to get it, but members of his Council, especially his uncle, Ambrosius Aurelianus are equally as determined to stop him, which heads disastrously towards what could be an end of the Kingdom and peace.

We find out a lot more about Morgause in Pendragon’s Banner as well – and her daughter, Morgainne, the lady of the Lake. Arthur meets her and the inevitable happens. There are a few scenes where Arthur should have kept his breeches fastened – no doubt Gwenhwyfar feels the same!

Winifred, Arthur’s first wife also has her fingers dabbling in several pies. She wants her son to be the next King.

Gwenhwyfar has her own distractions. Her children, her worry and concern for Arthur – her jealousy of his other women. But then, she has a few male friends too. Friends who spark Arthur’s retaliatory jealousy.

There are several scenes in Pendragon’s Banner that draw from the early Welsh stories of Arthur, you may recognize a few or them. Weaving them into my novel in a plausible and practical way was my own challenge.

Keira: Why do you think people are drawn to King Arthur's story? To Medieval stories?

Helen Hollick: I think people enjoy the familiar Medieval tales of Arthur and the round table, Holy Grail and knights in armour because they conjure up a long-gone era of courtly love, honour, respect and Doing Noble Deeds. The whole chivalric image that brings out our romantic emotions.

But my Arthur is not from those stories. My Arthur is a rough, tough, down-to-earth war lord and soldier. The sort of man who can be an utter b*****d – but will fight to the death to protect you, and will always be there when you need him.

The figure of Arthur, in legend and fiction is one of the most enigmatic and intriguing of all the characters of English history and literature. What is it about him that makes people discuss him, read about him, write about him?

Google for King Arthur, and you will spend weeks going through the links. There are discussion boards, forums, facebook profiles, blog pages, myspace sites. He is there in virtually every genre of fiction, from fantasy to thrillers. There are movies of Arthur, poems about Arthur, plays centred around Arthur – you name it its been done.

People argue about whether he lived in the Iron Age, Roman period, Dark Ages or the 11^th Century, the 12^th, 13^th…..

He was a local warlord in the north of Britain. He fought in Scotland, Wales, Brittany or came from the West Country – Cornwall, Somerset.  He is the King of myth and fantasy. Magic and mystery surround Arthur and his deeds.

Was he from the realm of Magic – or was he a real man, a soldier who led a war band into battle? The sad fact is - there is not a shred of evidence to prove he actually  existed!

For the truth about Arthur there are no answers.

And it is that which makes him so fascinating, why again and again we write about him, read about him.

I fell in love with Arthur while I was writing the Pendragon’s Banner Trilogy. I intimately knew that man for more than 13 years while writing the Trilogy – it took a long, long while to get him out of my system and move on to creating my next main character (Harold Godwineson in Harold the King. –  also to be published soon by Sourcebooks Inc)

But that feeling is not unique to me.

I wrote to the wonderful author Rosemary Sutcliff just before she died. I had completed The Kingmaking, but it was still in the process of being made ready to be published, so I could not send her a copy. I told her all about it though, and my ideas of Arthur. I received back a handwritten letter (complete with her cartoon motif of a dolphin attached to the last ‘f’ of her signature.)  She confided that after she had written her novel about Arthur, Sword At Sunset, she had not been able to get him out of her mind for at least six months.

I know what she meant…. And that is why Arthur is so popular. His spirit, his charisma, his presence goes on, living for ever.

No wonder the legends state that he will come again when he is needed. He never left. He is always here, dwelling in the minds of his loyal subjects, those of us who read and write about him!

Helen Hollick

Main Website: www.helenhollick.net
Blog profiles: www.acorne.blogspot.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/helen.hollick
Monthly Journal: www.helenhollick.net/journal.html

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http://www.helenhollick.net/culpa41.html my own hints and tips for aspiring writers.

Buy: Pendragon's Banner: Book Two

• Medieval Romance Books
• Princess Diana Royal Memorabilia Historical Memorabilia Collectibles

The Kingmaking is book one of the Pendragon Banner Trilogy by Hellen Hollick. In one sentence this book is about Arthur growing from boyhood to manhood, from untried to experienced, from soldier to king. He is shaped by his times, loving women and drink freely and openly. It gets him into trouble more than once - the most serious time exposing him to the clutches of the current king and his manipulating wife and daughter. Forced into marriage with Winifred, Arthur's full of self-loathing and fury, because instead of being married to a woman he truly admires and respects (Gwenhwyfar) he's stuck with a spoiled rotten manipulative whore. If only he had kept it in his pants!

Arthur must decide which is more important - his quest for kingship or the love of his life?

Winifred is determined to keep Arthur for herself now that Gwenhwyfar has brought him to her attention. She bears Arthur one sickly daughter who soon dies, and one son, which he begets with her during the voyage from his home in Less Britain back to the king's court. Not very smart of him since he was planning to divorce her so he could marry in the Christian way his beloved Gwenhwyfar. (He married her by the Old Way before leaving Less Britain and doesn't know it but impregnated her.)

You will find that Arthur is the reason behind most of his anger and regrets. He tends to get in his own way by being loose with morals and engaging with whomever strikes his fancy. He says he loves Gwenhwyfar, but his actions lead him to many beds of slave and servant girls. It's not clear, but I am certain he also found himself in bed with more than one gentle female. Plainly put, he is used to pleasure and to not denying himself. However while we know many of his illicit trysts, most of the details are rendered vague or skipped over.

Luckily for Arthur he seems to straighten out once he's gone through the divorce and married Gwenhwyfar. Of course he almost slips up during the last stages of her pregnancy but a quick spat settles it. Loving and marrying Gwenhwyfar soothes the spoiled and selfish side of Arthur, but his barriers have not yet fallen down. I expect we will find him (more) enamored and open with Gwenhwyfar in book two, the Pendragon's Banner, which I'm greatly looking forward to reading.

Hollick's trilogy promises to combine a legendary hero with political intrigue, historical research (and obvious fictional interpretations of it), romance, and a quest for ultimate power. Harry Potter for grownups. Now try to wrap your tongue around half of the names... haha.

Rating: 4-4.5 Stars