John Broughton spends a great deal of his time stuck in the Dark Ages. As a historian, John is happy to become immersed in the gruesome eighth century. He is not afraid to walk beside kings, noblemen and monks who inhabit a world where it is ‘kill or be killed’. John’s novels are praised for the historical accuracy and take you into the heart of the bloody battles. Though a little afraid, I asked John to explain what inspired him to write his third novel Saints and Sinners. John sent me a letter via a gallant messenger.
My third published novel, Saints and Sinners, was inspired by a love of my county, Lincolnshire, and of the Anglo-Saxon period in general. Putting the two together leads one to the Kingdom of Lindsey, the least-known of the Dark-Age kingdoms. Starting from the apparently simple desire to write a novel about this kingdom, I soon realised that our knowledge of Lindsey is very limited, being almost exclusively dependent on archaeological revelations.
The names we have for Lindsey are from a debatable list of kings, who were anyway, sub-kings to the powerful neighbouring Kings of Northumberland or Mercia. One name, however, kept recurring in my research – that of Guthlac: the hermit saint who founded the monastery of Crowland. His life was recorded in a hagiographic work by a monk, Felix, crucially within a generation of his living.
What a character was Guthlac! Setting aside the monastic praise, isn’t it interesting how a red-blooded Saxon nobleman left a life of military adventuring, ale-guzzling and wenching to become an ascetic in the wilderness of the Fens? This apart, his best friend was a certain Aethelbald, another Mercian noble, devoted to the former lifestyle of Guthlac. This sinful nobleman was considered a dangerous pretender to the throne of Mercia: so much so that he was exiled and fled into the Fens where his old friend sheltered him for a while.
What makes Aethelbald even more intriguing is that from being a hunted exile he became one of the greatest of Mercian kings. My idea of a novel about Lindsey transformed into one about Mercia too. By the way, Aethelbald was condemned in a letter from Boniface for seducing nuns. The novel is truly about saints and sinners!
Guthlac’s life is still commemorated. Apart from the ruins of the Crowland monastery – still with the tallest bell tower in the land – his name lingers on in the Saint Guthlac School in Crowland, and even in street names in places as far away as Hereford. Of course, we must not forget St Guthlac’s Church in Market Deeping and another in the fenlands at Fishtoft is dedicated to him.
As for Aethelbald, well, he’s remembered in the sequel to Saints and Sinners, entitled Mixed Blessings, scheduled for publication on January 25 2019, dealing wholly with the vicissitudes of his long and successful reign. A fragment of a cross shaft from Repton includes on one face a carved image of a mounted man which may be a memorial to Æthelbald. The figure is of a man wearing mail armour and brandishing a sword and shield, with a diadem bound around his head. If this is Æthelbald, it’s the earliest large-scale pictorial representation of an English monarch.
John posted his letter in Italy, but I received the letter via a messenger on horseback. The messenger arrived on Offa’s Dyke at Tintern. He told me he was from a dark and treacherous land and couldn’t be sure who had followed him. He was required on the battlefield, so I bid him farewell, and watched as he rode his horse through the landscape. We will have to read John Broughton’s books to solve the mystery of where the messenger returned to.
You can read Saint and Sinners and the sequel Mixed Blessings. You are warned ‘Saxon times are not called the Dark Ages for nothing. It is a violent, unrecognisable world of kill or be killed …’
In all of John Broughton’s stories you will find:
‘All the classic elements of an adventure story, danger, heroism, cunning and treachery. The author knows his period well but wears his history lightly’ – Rosemary Noble
John Broughton was born in Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire, and studied Medieval and Modern History at the University of Nottingham. He also studied Archaeology, distinguishing himself with a Roman find on a dig at Ancaster. He taught History and English for a decade, becoming Head of Department of History in a Manchester grammar school. A restless period saw him experiment with writing children’s stories while working in a variety of jobs before moving in Italy to teach EFL at a southern university. Teaching and work as a translator of books kept him busy until he retired in January 2014. Since then he has taken up fiction writing once more – returning to his great love, the Anglo-Saxon period. His debut historical novel was The Purple Thread followed by Wyrd of the Wolf.
You can also meet John at:
https://jessiecahalin.com/history-tour-chat-anglo-saxonist/