Gemæcce

The story of making a novel about Hild of Whitby

Can anyone help with some Old Irish vocabulary?

In terms of writing fiction, Irish has been the bane of my life. It’s my own fault; I’m lazy–or perhaps impatient is a better word–when in the grip of the work. Twenty years ago, when I was writing Ammonite, I created an isolated tribe based on the Mongols. I was hot on the trail of the […]

Light of the World

Hild is done (for now). She has a working title: Light of the World. (Subtitle, if novels had such things, might be something like The woman at the heart of war, politics, and religion in seventh century Britain.) The book, volume one of three, is huge: 963 pages, 197,878 words (excluding the title). I’ve sent […]