What happens when the world's worst shrew meets the world's best warrior?
Mirrored Sword, a comedy as black as the Plague, as
turbulent as the Wars of the Roses. She is an aspiring painter and devoted
Yorkist. He is the legendary but ageing Beast of Ferrybridge - a Lancastrian
stalwart! Rebellion in Lincolnshire throws them together, the Yorkist king
keeps them together, and thus they must work out their destinies and the kingdom's,
in an epic story that combines laughter and tears, romance and adventure,
history and make-believe, high art and vulgar entertainment, all the while
juggling psychological complexities, family relationships, religious
themes and questions about love and loyalty: a medieval banquet, loaded with
surprises, colourful characters and poetic justice.
Part One, The Dance, is a journey from Lincolnshire to
London, where he goes in search of a fool brother, and she goes in quest of a
royal romance, the story careering through a series of revealing encounters,
climaxing in treachery and mayhem at Baynard Castle, the king's London home.
Part Two, The Tour, is their return journey from London
to Lincolnshire, as companions and fellow travellers of the king, when their
previous encounters are even more revealing in reverse order, ending in a
rising tide of bloodshed and revenge, malice and pure evil, hope and desperate
self-belief, deep in the fens.
The narrative represents the viewpoints of eight different characters in Part One,
and then concentrates on the viewpoints of just two characters in Part Two, the
hero and heroine, as they struggle to shake off, manipulate, dominate, or
understand and accept each other. Chapters are presented as 31 calendar dates in the year 1471. The book
includes a map, charts and headers to help orient readers.
Hands, Allan: - 'Allan Hands' is a pen name adapted from the names of my grandfathers (ALLAN McPherson and Claude HANDS). It is easier to remember than my real name, Ross McPherson. I was born in Sydney, Australia, in 1955, attended Macquarie University and graduated in 1977 with a B.A. in English literature. After a series of knockabout jobs (taxi driver, cleaner, council labourer, farm labourer, delivery driver), I attended Carseldine College of Advanced Education in 1987 and was awarded a Graduate Diploma in Education. There followed a 20 years career as a school teacher in Queensland, including a stint in distance education, first based at Longreach and then at Emerald. I never married and I have no children. I now reside on 4 semi-rural acres, keeping reasonably fit while improving my mind with research for novels I'm writing, amateur studies in English, Latin and Greek literature, philosophy, physics etc. Other biographical information is available at my website: https: //mirroredsword.com
