Image description: 13th century illustration of a man desperately showing an open book to a mythical winged beast who is so uninterested it has turned away and stuck its own tail in its ear.
As any writer will tell you: the hardest part of being an author isn’t writing the book, it’s selling it to readers who are inundated with choice. I’m guessing even Bede sometimes felt desperate to get the word out about a newly-available book. And I have zero doubt that then, as now—and probably since the advent of the written word, whether on clay tablets, rolls of papyrus, or heavily-illuminated vellum codices—the conversation between author and reader has gone something like this:
- Author: I have a new book! Just out in paperback!
- Reader: Look at this interesting rock…
- Author: I think you’d like it. It’s—
- Reader: 🎶 La-la-la 🎶
- Author: No, really, it’s just your sort of—
- Reader: 🎶 LA-LA-LA! I CAN’T HEAR YOU!! 🎶
So do I expect you to clog the bookstores and overwhelm the library system with your clamouring demand when I tell you Menewood, the second of my novels about Hild, will be officially available in the UK wherever books are sold in one month1—just in time to celebrate Hild’s feast day? No. But I thought you might like to know. After all, the holiday season is almost upon us and books make lovely gifts. And it’s available right now as a preorder.2
This book in particular is a handsome devil. You’ve already seen my posts about how lovely the hardcover is—but that’s a big book. The paperback is equally beautiful but positively svelte in comparison.
The paperback of Hild (that is, the US version) has been redesigned, so if you’re in the mood to go wild, you can buy your loved ones the matching package.
Here’s what the wraparound cover looks like (linked through to a larger image so you can read all those delicious quotes—though of course if you really wantn to read quotes, you should visit the book’s main page).
By this point you are most probably singing La-la-la! But one final inducement: if you order from my local bookshop, Phinney Books, I’ll sign and personalise it/them for you—the perfect gift! And they ship all over the world.
That’s it. You may now unplug your ears!
Buy UK
Hardcover, ebook, digital audio now. Paperback available 18 Nov, 2024
Bookshop | Waterstones | Amazon | WH Smith | Blackwells | Hive
Buy US
Hardcover, ebook, digital audio now. Paperback available 1 Oct, 2024
Bookshop.org | Amazon.com | Apple Books | Barnes & Noble | Phinney Books | Target | Powell’s
Gemæcce 
I have pre-ordered already from lovely local bookseller Fox Lane Books!
And whereabouts are Fox Lane Books?
Based in Thorpe Willoughby in North Yorks but are an online/indie bookseller that sells all over UK. Also does book events. I’d read Hild already as an e-book but have bought Hild and pre-ordered the Menewood paperback from them as I want physical copies too!
I own and read Hild. Loved it. Loved the human you created from just a dab of history. Bought and read Menewood. OMG! That was one exhausting read!! But I loved it, too, once I quit struggling with archaic, but necessary words. I think using Hild to explain Cadwollen’s (spelling?) weird defeat was brilliant—“brilliant “ more in the American sense rather than British.
I had to listen to some podcast on Anglo Saxon history to get through the history part of Menewood. Worth the effort.
The thing about reading certain books is to not struggle but to simply give yourself up to the current and let yourself be drawn along…and gradually everything becomes clear. But that can take a lot of trust. Anyway, I’m glad the effort was worth it in the end.
Currently reading Menewood and loving it, also doing a lot of flicking back and forth to work out who is who and where is where, but god, the immersive-ness of it is fantastic. Thank you!
And a side note is also that Hild has provided motivation for my running – if she can fight in a battle while in labour then I can damn well haul myself up a hill…
I think we can do anything to save the ones we love—but, yes, we should love ourselves just as much. Go run!