So here it is the long awaited interview with the author. I was dreading it. I am the sort of person that hates having my photo taken, let alone being filmed for YouTube, so you can imagine the angst this initially caused me. I’m sort of getting used to it now, I feel less embarrassed, and am inclining towards being more intrigued about how much I resemble my father – the mannerisms, the burr of the Yorkshire brogue and the inflections. I am definitely a chip off the old block.
A few words about the filming. It was filmed on location at Towton and Normandy – I thought my Norman longhouse had that authentic medieval look of the sort of farmhouse where young Henry Clifford was initially spirited away. A place that was not luxurious but comfortable, and where he would be under the watchful eye of his mother and grandfather. On the day of the filming in Normandy, Chris the producer was content to spend the morning taking outside shots of the house whilst I did my farming thing, tending to the beasts and weeding the potato patch. Mid-morning, he wanted me to light the kitchen fire so he could get some “atmospheric” shots of the chimney atop the thatched roof. I duly obliged and soon had a roaring fire on the go – he popped his head in the door and asked “is that fire going yet?” I pointed to the fireplace and showed him the crackling, spitting logs spurting great tongues of fire up the chimney. “Nah, no good mate” was the response,”there’s no smoke.” I immediately ventured outside and rummaged for some wet leaves under the lilac tree. “Nah, still not good enough mate” was the only response my desperate actions elicited. Now, please bear in mind it was 80 degrees Fahrenheit outside and I was getting rather warm. In desperation, I hiked up to the P’tit Maison, which is flanked by a laurel bush and did my utmost to defoliate it of its waxy leaves. Once piled on the fire, that did the trick and we had a smokey chimney at last.
I thought Chris would be pleased but he took one look at my sweat stained countenance, built on a foundation of ordure from the potato patch, chickens, sheep and goats and he visibly blanched. “You’re in no state for the camera” and I was ordered off to the shower and told to go and find a clean, ironed shirt.
So, I hope you think all this effort is worth it. Please compare my efforts on promoting this book and my attempts at producing a trailer and this interview, with the big boys in the industry like Bernard Cornwell, on the following link – just paste the url and click on the “Watch a Related Video” button.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Azincourt-Bernard-Cornwell/dp/0007271220/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1264714935&sr=1-1
I do hope you will agree that, in comparison, Chris has surpassed himself with The Shepherd Lord book trailer and Author Interview, which shows what lengths us struggling first time authors will go to, despite a limited budget.
Just a few more words and then I’m done. Replay my interview and look at the footage of my copy of the Nut Brown Maid. Look at the medieval/Tudor text and ponder awhile on the fact that this poem was very nearly lost for posterity had it not been found in a bundle of old papers in Antwerp. Samuel Pepys, the famous diarist, helped towards getting it re-published. If you do one thing in your life before you die, give yourself twenty minutes or so to read this lovely old poem and reflect on what was all but lost to us, had it not been for this stroke of luck. You can view and download it for free on my Web page:
http://www.theshepherdlord.com/aStJohn_docs1.html
Give yourself another two minutes and listen to some authentic music which always makes me think of this poem at:
http://www.theshepherdlord.com/aStJohn_docs2.html
If you get captured by the mood, you must visit Bloody Meadows at Towton to hear the wind soughing through the willow trees that makes the locals think the sounds are the cries of the ghosts of the drowning Lancastrian soldiers. You must also visit the splendid majesty of Skipton Castle that has survived all that history can throw at it, and still stands majestic and proud. And above all you must take a pilgrimage to Blencathra to really understand isolation, beauty, tranquility and the awesome force of nature that shapes us all.

The next blog I post will be the long awaited “Author Interview”. We used my house in France for this piece as I thought that the medieval structure of the house – A-frame timbers, thatched roof and walls constructed from cow muck and straw, would have some resonance when I got to talking about the farm in Londesborough where young Henry was first taken.
If you see the next blog, it fits in well with the piece but I am quite sad, as we have made a decision to put it on the market this summer.
I had hoped to retire there but ‘er indoors, a Yorkshire lass through and through, has decided that ending her days away from the Broad Acres is not on. Besides she doesn’t speak the lingo and there is no gym within a 20 mile radius.
The concession is that I can buy somewhere with a bit of land in Yorkshire but the thing that’s worrying me is the logistics of getting everything back to Blighty and fitting it all in – hence the obscure picture of the beet cutter. I spent a whole winter restoring that and it now works as good as the day it was made – when Queen Victoria was on the throne.
It’s not just that, it’s all the trees I’ve planted. Apples, pears, quince, plums, figs, gooseberry, redcurrant and blackcurrant – not to mention the few vines I have. I’ve worked that land in the depths of winter, fingers freezing or sometimes slithering in the mud. I’ve toiled long and hard through blazing summers, sweat stinging my eyes and insects biting anything that was on offer. I’m proud of my bit of pasture too, finally ridding it of brambles, ground elder and nettles.
It’s all been a major part of my life, and I feel sad, but I have to be pragmatic and realise that we are only custodians of these lovely old houses and I have played my part in restoring the house and the land for someone else to enjoy.
At some stage I will have another challenge. Another house to fix up and a piece of land to lick into shape.
Who knows what the future has in store?

I was pleasantly surprised to see this Video Review of The Shepherd Lord on YouTube. Sarah, obviously hails from Australia and I have had one other written revue from Down Under, on Amazon.com, albeit from an exiled Tyke.
When I wrote the book I had no idea how it would be received as much of the narrative is in Yorkshire dialect.
Would it be too hard to understand for those who live outside of the Broad Acres?
Well, in November, USA sales outstripped the UK and I have also sold copies in Canada, Germany and France – as well as Australia.
Maybe I can re-introduce the personal thee’s and thou’s into common parlance, to differentiate from the impersonal “you’s”?
Just a thought……..

The Shepherd Lord will be making an appearance at the Battle of Towton memorial event this Palm Sunday – 28th March.
There will be another viewing of the book trailer and a book signing opportunity in the Barn, adjacent to the main event field.
Watch out for more details on: http://www.towton.org.uk/

Re-enactors Out-takes

There are those who would say that re-enactors do not play it for real and that their mock fights are tame. When we were filming live footage for the book trailer – The Shepherd Lord, we asked the guys to go at it hammer and tongs so that we could get an authentic feel. This dramatic clip proves that it’s an unpredictable and dangerous pastime, as two Red Wyvern combatants clash so hard that tempered steel is cleft in two.

Courtesy of Adrian Waite:

http://www.red-wyverns.org.uk/

Filmed at Thorpe Perrow Arboretum

Book Cover

I was really pleasantly surprised to discover that someone else has attempted to write a piece of fiction on The Shepherd Lord. Thanks to The Book Case at Hebden Bridge for pointing this out. It took me quite a while to find a copy of “Sheep May Safely Graze” by Phyllis Bentley. My copy was printed in 1972. It is a children’s novel and the arc of the story, and the style, is in a completely different fashion to mine but what fascinated me as an author and amateur farmer was how Phyllis had dealt with the question of Henry Clifford’s experience as a shepherd. What bits of the story-cum-legend had she embroidered that were similar to mine? Well, there was the good shepherd as you would expect (in her case Will Angram). But he is essentially a very different, and nowhere near as committed a guardian, as Tom Lawkland is. She had the same winter scene as me where the sheep are buried in the snow – a common worry for all hill farmers in the present inclement weather. She had the old way of counting sheep – yan, tan, tether, mether, pip (incidentally I have named my own sheep and goats in this fashion). There was the inevitable shaggy dog story with Bob the puppy whereas I had Chad as my canine lead. And there was the star theme, or a star of sorts, as Phyllis had a comet follow the earth whereas I had the Pole star as the iconic reference to The Shepherd Lord’s dead father.
The only bit I didn’t like was her portrayal of John Clifford as a haughty and imperious lord but I guess that’s what makes us storyteller’s so compelling – a different slant on things. If you have children, try and get a copy for them. It’s a darn good read.

Author George Algar

England’s famous Yorkshire and its rolling Broad Acres might epitomise the iconic White Rose symbol today but for years, it seems, the county had firm allegiances to its arch-rival of Lancashire.

Author and keen historian Peter Algar, who has been researching the history of the county for over a year in preparation for his first novel The Shepherd Lord, has unearthed startling evidence that the Broad Acres weren’t always ’whiter than white’.

Read more at Suite101: Was Yorkshire Always the White Rose County?: Memories of the Wars of the Roses Flourish Again http://ukirishhistory.suite101.com/article.cfm/was_yorkshire_always_the_white_rose_county#ixzz0bKrMdfTA