Overview

Stranded on a Frisian beach with enemies closing in, apostate monk turned spearman, Cuthbert, is rescued by Eadmund the Wanderer, a traveller with a past. They arrive at Whitby abbey in time to be sent by Abbess Hilde to solve a mystery, thwart a thief, and-perhaps-wrest peace for Britain out of catastrophic enmities. As the adventure progresses, Cuthbert begins to realise that he knows nothing about Eadmund, and less than he thought about Hilde. Having grown up with dreams of swords and war, he now finds himself caught in the concluding adventure of the heroic age. The ultimate battle, fought at night between renegade British troops and pagan England's last hero, is the stuff of which legends are woven. When the legions left Britain, king Vortigern paid thousands of Roman gold tremisses to the Angles, Saxons and Jutes to defend his realm. They came, they stayed, and, in time, they conquered. As, the Romano-British were driven Westwards into the mountains, Vortigern cursed them, and he cursed the gold he paid them. Two hundred years later, AD 660, the curse is still at work. Bishop Ventianus of Virconium Cornovii, modern-day Wroxeter, sends north to the abbey of Hilde Dracacwen for help to thwart a Saxon thief intent on stealing the last of Vortigern's treasure. In 2009, a metal detectorist working off the Roman road in Staffordshire uncovered the largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold ever discovered. Containing sword hilts, broaches, crosses and ornaments, it was enough to have totally disrupted the economy of Britain in the 7th century when it was buried. But how did it come to be there, far enough from the road that no one should ever find it? Who could have wanted so desperately to get rid of the gold which undoubtedly had its origins in Vortigern's cursed treasure? To find out how it came there, the true stories of Eadmund and Hilde, what became of Wroxeter and how Cuthbert began his unlikely journey toward eventual sainthood, you need to read The Saxon Thief, available worldwide on Amazon.

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9781973833765

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Martin Turner was brought up in the Midlands, played chess for Birmingham, fenced for Warwickshire, and studied English Language and Literature at the University of Oxford, where he specialised in Early English and Anglo-Saxon archaeology. He writes: I wanted an adventure that stands up in different genres: intellectually satisfying, psychologically convincing, and ingenious in its solutions. Whether this is it, I'll leave the reader to judge. The moment I heard about the Staffordshire Hoard, this book began to form in my mind. How could so much treasure have been amassed in one place? Why was it all damaged? What was it doing so close to the Roman Road? As I began to research, the characters of Cuthbert, Eadmund and Hilde took shape. But others forced their way in the story grew. Brilliant Aldhelm, pompous Ventianus, and pious but earthy Wulfhere. Caedmon, Withulf, Theoc and Ecgfrith all demanded attention, and even Hemming and the woman with the pigeons insisted on being being part of it. This book is dedicated to all those who love good characters, good dialogue and a good story, but don't want to be let down by inauthentic details. This is the 21st century. You can get in a car and drive to Wroxeter or Whitby, look firsthand at the Staffordshire Hoard in Birmingham, or go online and check the battles, kings and settlements on Wikipedia. And you should.

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