I remember when I was little, watching a Making Of documentary about Robin of Sherwood . One of the points which the writer made was that each person who retells the Robin Hood legend adds a little something to the story. He introduced the idea of the occult – the Baron de Belleme in particular is a terrifying character – and this later influenced other Robin Hood adaptations, including the character of Mortianna in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves . You might be surprised to find that this blog is not actually about any version of Robin Hood. In fact, it’s about the TV series Merlin . That’s your recommended viewing for wet days during summer, if we have any rain ever again after this heatwave! I first came across Merlin when it was released in 2008. It was such a Big Deal that a trailer for the series was shown at the cinema when I went to watch Tropic Thunder with my older sister while living with her in Ipswich. I mostly just remember the dragon and thinking it looked ok. Some...
It's been quite a year! I'm delighted to have shared a post with you all on every Thursday of 2022 on the theme of Historical Fiction. I've loved spreading the word about some of the fantastic historical writers (as in writers of history!), shared a few ideas of my own, and looked at a few of the Horrible Histories songs along the way. While #HistFicThursdays will be continuing into the new year, this will be my last Horrible Histories blog (but take a look at some of the other songs which I didn't get around to, as well, because they are brilliant, too!). And it had to be this one... The great thing about historical fiction, is that it doesn't matter what period you want to write, each one of them offers something new to the world we live in today. Whether you're delving back into prehistory where this song starts, or just heading back to the World Wars where it finishes, there were major discoveries and personal stories along the way. With so much pull back i...