The Silurian - Book One

Set in the Dark Ages of Post-Roman Britain, The first book of The Silurian : The Fox and the Bear is the story of King Arthur told in a compelling new voice. A first person narrative, spoken in grim and graphic detail by Arthur's closest friend and foster-brother, Prince Bedwyr, the Fox.

A boy of sixteen, taken to his first great conflict, Bedwyr begins his story on the battlefield where Arthur lies missing after having won his first engagement to war against the invading Saxons, Hengist and Horsa.

Bedwyr tells his story with passion, daring and pain. Set entirely in the Dark Ages of post-Roman Britain, ‘The Silurian’ blends myth, legend and historical reality into a single epic narrative that speaks not only of Arthur’s rise to power, but his battles against the invading Saxons, the savage Picts and the rebel British, described in-depth and graphically honest.

Bedwyr speaks of his own personal life; his journey of love with Arthur, his struggles to know him on a deeper level, and of his own tragedies and gains, of the many battles that shows the violence and power of men who once lived their entire lives within the tight brotherhood of ancient war-hosts,

The Silurian will not give you the over-done romance of Guinevere and Lancelot; no magic-wielding Merlin; no forest-dwelling enchantresses who see into the future; no magic swords, only real blades that break; no fire-breathing dragons, save Arthur himself—the Pendragon, the Supreme Commander of Armies in Britannia, the Magister Militum, the Dux Bellorum, his life spoken of in intimate and sometimes grim detail. The story begins in Book One, ‘The Fox and The Bear’ when Arthur is fifteen and Bedwyr sixteen; this is their journey to manhood, power and glory, suffering and the ultimate death that gives birth to the eternal legend of King Arthur.

The book received an honorary mention for 'The Silurian, Book One, The Fox and The Bear' in the London Book Festival, 2007.