Legendary
- lotenwriting
- 3 minutes ago
- 6 min read
Legend (noun): a very old story or set of stories from ancient times, or the stories, not always true, that people tell about a famous event or person (Cambridge Dictionary)
Legends underpin the history of the British Isles and they are something I've been fascinated by since childhood. When we visited my grandma, I usually ended up raiding her bookshelves for something to read, as inevitably, I would have finished my book in the car (and because I'm old, these were the days before kindles and reading on your phone...). She had a beautiful collection of leather-bound books, which my grandad had bought, one of which was the complete works of Alfred, Lord Tennyson. It was here I was introduced to works like The Lady of Shalott and Morte d'Arthur, which quickly became favourites.
As a result, I became interested in the legends of King Arthur and, eventually, of Robin Hood. I read everything I could find on them and was fascinated by the tales of chivalry and the brave outlaws working to help the poor and desperate. The more cut-throat side of this age of heroes seems to have passed me by at this age - I was too caught up in the romance of forbidden love and it never seems to have occurred to me that in falling in love with Lancelot, Guinevere had betrayed her husband. Nor did the notion of Uther Pendragon disguising himself as Gorlois in order to seduce the beautiful Igraine, strike me as being morally reprehensible. In my childhood head, they got married after, so she must have secretly loved him, as that was the only reason people got married, wasn't it? I also seem to have skipped lightly over the whole Arthur sleeping with his sister thing and the fact that Robin Hood killed many people in his quest to help the poor, including men who were doing nothing but working a job to provide for their own families. Oh, to be so innocent again!
Nevertheless, dubious ethics aside, I remained interested in these figures, even as I entered adulthood and began to look at the stories with a less naive world view. Indeed, it was because of my interest in King Arthur that my sister first tried to introduce me to a series of books she had recently read. The Dark Is Rising is a children's series about the ongoing battle between the forces of Light and Dark and the hunt for the Holy Grail is the theme of the first book, 'Over Sea Under Stone'. Unfortunately, my sister decided to begin by reading book 2 to me and the cover and opening pages scared me so much that I refused to let her continue. It took me another five years to come back to them and again, I'd run out of reading material and was in search of a good book. (There does seem to be a bit of a pattern emerging, doesn't there!) She persuaded me to give them another go and this time, I started at the beginning. I was hooked from page 1. This went on to become an all-time favourite series and one I still re-read regularly. In fact, book 2 is a staple part of my December/January reading as I take part in #thedarkisreading.
However, it wasn't until 1999 that I was introduced to the programme that would really cement my love of the Robin Hood stories. Robin of Sherwood was originally broadcast 1984-86, but as we didn't have a television in that period, I'd missed it first time around. My housemate at university however, had grown up watching it, and on his recommendation I sat down to watch it. It was a Jason Connery episode and, fairly predictably, he was enough to keep me watching! We didn't move from the sofa for the rest of the day as we binged the whole of Series 3. I was a blubbering mess by the end of the final episode, but obviously then had to go back and watch the two Michael Praed series over the next few days. Once again, a fair few tissues were needed.
By the time I discovered, in 2016, that there were conventions being held, I'd already instilled a love of all things Robin Hood in my eldest son. He came to the convention with me, but got himself a bit muddled about what a convention actually was, and although he found it interesting, he was a bit disappointed that there were no fairground rides!
In the intervening years, I had gone back to dabbling with writing and had asked my eldest what he thought I should write about. His immediate response was that he wanted a story about him having an adventure with Robin Hood and King Arthur. Immediately, I knew exactly the kind of story I wanted to write – I was going to take inspiration from The Dark Is Rising and create a story for him that took the idea of an ancient fight against the forces of evil and brought it into the modern world. Obviously, one of the characters had to be named after him!
When I started writing properly in 2018, I decided to re-work the story to make it into something that people other than my son would like to read. It then became 'The Reign Of The Winter King', the first book in The Courts series. Book 2, 'The Quest Of The Summer King' followed in 2024 and next month will see the release of 'The Rise Of The Winter Queen', the third and final book of the trilogy.
Writing this series has seen me travel around the country, doing research and checking location accuracy. Spending time travelling around Wales and Cornwall has been an absolute joy. Doing it with copies of my books has been an amazing feeling. By the time, I re-wrote the first book, I'd had my youngest son (and he 'might' have been named for the king), so it became a series for both my children and through that personal link, I was able to introduce the youngest to the Robin Hood and King Arthur legends and ensure that he felt a real connection to them both.
In researching for this series, I was lucky enough to have a wealth of material to examine and drew on the immense knowledge of so many people, both through books and on Facebook groups. John Matthews' 'Robin Hood' was invaluable, as were Andrew Orton's books on the Robin of Sherwood TV series. Tony Sullivan's 'King Arthur Man or Myth?' was also useful for getting a better picture of a more realistic Arthur. There is also a wealth of knowledge to be found on the THE Robin of Sherwood Facebook page, where many of the members have a huge amount of information relating not just to the show, but also to the original legends, which they are more than happy to share with others.
I was also lucky enough, in 2024, to be asked to interview the cast and crew of Robin of Sherwood at the convention in Chepstow. To be so involved in celebrating a show I love, was a true honour. One of the questions I asked myself during the months of preparation I did, was what it was about the show, and the legends more generally, that so appeals to people and allows these stories to continue to feel relevant in today's world.
The answer lies, I think, in their appeal to different aspects of society. The British love an underdog, particularly one who stands up to unpopular figures of authority, such as the government. Robin Hood depicts exactly this and cements his reputation by defending the oppressed at the same time. In King Arthur, they have an idealised representation of Britain as it should be – chivalrous and just. Therefore, the stories endure and each generation has a new version of the tales to watch, or to read. For people of my generation, Robin of Sherwood, Arthur of the Britons and Excaibur are probably the first ones which spring to mind and most of us will argue that no interpretation which followed could ever be as good. However, I'm sure subsequent generations of 'legend' afficionados would make a good case for their own childhood viewings.
And, if I'm being completely honest, despite neither film having much claim to authenticity, there will always be a small place in my heart for the Richard Todd and Disney films. After all, which of us hasn't, on occasion, found ourselves humming Oo-de-lally, or The Phony King Of England, at times?
'The Rise Of The Winter Queen' is released on Thursday 14th May 2026.