Archive for April, 2011

Apr
16
2011

Robert Hardy stoops to conquer Towton

robert-hardy-as-seigried-farnonThe flag flutters in the background, the cameras roll and the veteran actor gives the script a cursory glance before making his mark, then delivers a pitch-perfect rendition.  How does he do that?  I suppose if your name is Robert Hardy and you have played the parts of Siegfried Farnon, Winston Churchill and the Minister of Magic’s Cornelius Fudge in Harry Potter, you can  turn your hand to anything.  Despite his worldwide fame he was quick to lend a hand to the request from Towton Battlefield Society to provide a voiceover for the video trailer for our new Website.  Yours truly wrote the script and it was not without some trepidation that I handed the laminated copy over to him.  He read it through, cocked his head to one side and said “would you be awfully offended if I just change one small word?”  I started to breath again and said I wouldn’t mind in the least.  So, here it is:

There’s something about Towton.  When you visit, you know something momentous happened here. It is impossible to walk on this ground and not feel the dread underfoot.  If you stand in these fields, blasted by the winds of centuries, you can imagine the poor archers blowing on their nails on that bitterly cold Palm Sunday.   You can picture the arrow storm, falling down like hail and hear the cries of the wounded and dying. 
This was no ordinary battle.  This was the biggest and bloodiest that would ever be fought on English soil. This was the meeting of two mighty rival hosts, and it was going to be settled the hard way.    
The command to engage was given and the earth grew spears; billhook against billhook and poleaxe against sword:
Now one the better, then another best;
Both tugging to be victors, breast to breast.
And just as the proud house of Lancaster thought it had seized the day, the house of York, fortified by reinforcements, put their mortal foes to flight.
Many a broken band splashed through Cock Beck, winding its swirling silver train, to meet a watery grave.  Others gained firm land only to be hunted down with mace and spear.  
These fatal precincts, haunted by the spirits of the slain, are still there today, hardly changed from when Englishman killed Englishman and two monarchs wrestled for the crown.


Robert is nearly 85 years old but the words had a lot more resonance than when I read them, so I guess I would never have made it as an actor.  The BBC producer liked the script too and asked if he could keep it.  It would have been churlish to refuse him as he has done so much for us in the past.  So this page is dedicated to Robert Hardy and Roger Keech of the BBC who stooped down from lofty heights to help a small, but enthusiastic band of volunteers keep alive the memory of England’s most infamous day.

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Apr
04
2011

Tending his flock

 

Des Thomas

When I set out to write The Shepherd Lord, I thought I was alone in my interest in this enigmatic character.  I thought I had scanned the world for all possible references but 12 months later, someone told me of an out-of-print book called Sheep May Safely Graze, by Phyllis Bentley.  See earlier Blog:

http://www.georgealgar.com/?p=198
Whilst this is a children’s book, and very different style to mine, it’s always interesting to see how other author’s approach the subject.
Only recently, I was made aware that a gentleman called Des Thomas has a similar fascination with The Shepherd Lord and uses this story for one of his Living History characters.  He gets into role as Ned Carlewe, the shepherd that raised young Henry Clifford, and bases this on painstaking research he has carried out in the Londesborough area, where the boy was first hidden.
Being a West Riding lad, I based my character, Tom Lawkland, on the areas of West and North Yorkshire that are familiar to me but I cannot help but be excited that someone else has gone through the same thought process.
Des has some very altruistic motives as he finds this story a good vehicle to empathise with the young audience he teaches.  Young people can relate to a seven year old boy, hidden away in the wilds of the countryside.  When I give my talks in school, all I have to do is put on the trailer I produced to promote The Shepherd Lord, and an otherwise noisy class is instantly subdued and mesmerised.

Full credit should go to people like Des.  Great swathes of history are cut from our national curriculum, but looking at the testimonials on his website, once he pays a school a visit, the children are unlikley to forget what he has taught them in his own unique, realistic style.

So, thanks go to Des for his sterling work. Whilst I have now finished my second book and am thinking about the third, The Shepherd Lord will always take pride of place in my heart for the story had me hooked from the moment I heard it.

You can find out more about Des on:

http://www.pcs-ltd.biz/hs2s/index.html

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