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Anglo-Saxon England

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Gabriele Campbell
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Post by Gabriele Campbell » Sat November 10th, 2012, 6:47 pm

Has someone read the Hereward novels by James Wilde? I wonder if they are any good.

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Brenna
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Post by Brenna » Sun November 11th, 2012, 6:33 pm

He gets pretty decent reviews on Goodreads but I haven't read them personally.
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Post by annis » Mon November 12th, 2012, 5:03 pm

There has been a recent slew of novels set around the Norman Conquest of England in 1066. Many of these are macho historical adventures with a common tendency to degenerate into blood-fests rather than focusing on character development, and James Wilde's Hereward fits into this category, imo. Wilde's writing is pretty good and Hereward does definitely show signs of promise. It improves noticeably as it goes along, but I felt that the story was often struggling to rise above the swamp of gore galore. Guys - clearly the target readership- will no doubt really enjoy it, but it was a bit OTT for me. I don't feel that anyone has really portrayed Hereward the Wake to my satisfaction to date, though Jack Ogden's Brainbiter came close. Wilde's version is at least several notches above Stewart Binns' dire novel about Hereward, Conquest, which has become my default measure for historical fiction awfulness (as in, "How bad is this book on the Conquest scale?"), and I will read Wilde's sequel when it comes through the library system.

I currently have in my TBR pile Tim Severin's Saxon, though this one is set in Charlemagne's Frankia rather than Anglo-Saxon England. I'm a bit trepidacious about it because I did find Severin's Viking series surprisingly tedious, but will give it a go.
Last edited by annis on Mon November 12th, 2012, 6:40 pm, edited 14 times in total.

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Gabriele Campbell
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Post by Gabriele Campbell » Mon November 12th, 2012, 7:48 pm

Ah well, my reading tastes are more those of a guy, so I may enjoy that one.

Ouch, I have Binn's book on my TBR pile. Looks like it will stay there for quite a while, ;)

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Post by annis » Mon November 12th, 2012, 10:05 pm

Ouch, I have Binn's book on my TBR pile. Looks like it will stay there for quite a while
Binn's Conquest is what the Brits call a Marmite book- no middle ground, readers either love it or hate it. I guess you can tell where I stand, but you might be at the other end of the spectrum :) And one thing in Binns' favour, he at least doesn't go for the standard but imo highly unlikely scenario that Hereward's mother was the Lady Godiva famous for her naked ride through Coventry.
Last edited by annis on Tue November 13th, 2012, 6:10 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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Gabriele Campbell
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Post by Gabriele Campbell » Sun November 18th, 2012, 2:36 pm

Well, I started it and browsed the rest, and I'm afraid I belong in the hater category. It's a pity since the guy did his research, so why did he have to write an essay with a bit dialogue thrown in, instead of a novel (or two, there's so much material crammed into one volume). And when I read one more time, 'He was fomidable to behold', I'm going to scream. ;)

So that one will end up in the local Leave Your Books Here, Someone Else May Love Them-room, and I don't need to buy the sequels.

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Hereward the Wake

Post by Antoine Vanner » Sun November 18th, 2012, 2:44 pm

[QUOTE=annis;106047]There has been a recent slew of novels set around the Norman Conquest of England in 1066. Many of these are macho historical adventures with a common tendency to degenerate into blood-fests rather than focusing on character development, and James Wilde's Hereward fits into this category... Wilde's version is at least several notches above Stewart Binns' dire novel about Hereward, Conquest, which has become my default measure for historical fiction awfulness (as in, "How bad is this book on the Conquest scale?"), and I will read Wilde's sequel when it comes through the library system.


Has anybody read Charles Kingsley's "Hereward the Wake"? About fifteen years ago I got about half way before giving up in despair and boredom! I was led to read it by positive memories of the BBC dramatisation with Alfred Lynch as Hereward. Was my poor response to Kingsley justified?

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Post by annis » Sun November 18th, 2012, 4:52 pm

I don't think so, Antoine. A lot of that late Victorian quasi-medieval heroic stodge is hard going for today's readers. While authors like Kingsley and Bulwer-Lytton (whose Harold the King is equally turgid and full of purple prose) were very popular in their day, we are just not the same people they targeted with their novels- there is too big a cultural gap.

Many of these books are now period pieces and are really only of nostalgia value. They say as much about the Victorians as the Anglo-Saxons. At the time there was a fear that the British Empire was in decline, and that this might be because the English had become "soft". The aim was to stir up a strong, muscular sense of patriotic pride by introducing some original genuine Anglo-Saxon heroes, conveniently forgetting that 19th century Englishmen were as much Norman as Anglo-Saxon, and that Harold, and very likely Hereward, were half-Danish. Bulwer-Lytton is also responsible for the enduring myth that Harold's body was identified by the tattooed words "England" and "Edith" - artistic licence on B-L's part. Contemporary sources only say "certain marks" known to Edith.
Last edited by annis on Mon November 19th, 2012, 7:01 am, edited 9 times in total.

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Post by Tanzanite » Sun November 18th, 2012, 5:43 pm

[quote=""annis""]Binn's Conquest is what the Brits call a Marmite book- no middle ground, readers either love it or hate it. I guess you can tell where I stand, but you might be at the other end of the spectrum :) And one thing in Binns' favour, he at least doesn't go for the standard but imo highly unlikely scenario that Hereward's mother was the Lady Godiva famous for her naked ride through Coventry.[/quote]

I was actually in the middle - rather indifferent one way or the other and I don't really remember that much about it . Part of it could have been that Hereward is a person I knew nothing about going into the book so I may have overlooked some things that would have ordinarily bothered me.

I have James Wilde's book and hope to get to it in early 2013.

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Gabriele Campbell
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Post by Gabriele Campbell » Sun November 18th, 2012, 6:28 pm

Yes, hate is probably too strong a word. I found it boring and tedious.

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