"Here be dragons" A beautifully written look at 13th century England/Wales. (Here Be Dragons - Sharon Kay Penman)

Member Name: Larachristina

Product:	Here Be Dragons - Sharon Kay Penman
Date:	17/10/08 (74 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A really meaty storyline, wonderful characters, basis in truth, fantastic locations.

Disadvantages: Sometimes, its hard to keep track of names.

Author- Sharon Kay Penman.
Genre- Historical fiction.
Published- 1985.

Sharon Kay Penman is an American writer, born in 1945.
Penman is famous for her historical fiction novels.
Other books by Sharon Kay Penman include;

Welsh Princes series.
~~~~~
-Here be Dragons-1985.
-Falls the Shadow-1988.
-The Reckoning-1991.

The Plantagenets series.
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-When Christ and his saints slept-1995.
-Time and chance-2002.
-The devils brood-2008.

Justin de Quincy, mystery series.
~~~~~
-The Queens man-1996.
-Cruel as the grave-1998.
-Dragons lair-2003.
-Prince of darkness-2005.

also,

-The Sunne in splendour-1982.

~~~~~

The story behind Penmans first novel, "The Sunne in splendour" is extrordinary. For many years whilst she was a student, and then when working as a lawyer, Penman worked on "The Sunne in splendour".
When the entire manuscript was finished, Penmen left the only copy in her car, where it was stolen.
Instead of giving up, Penman rewrote the entire novel from scratch, releasing it in 1982.
~~~~~~



*"Here be dragons", plot outline*
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"Here be Dragons" takes place in the 13th century, when Wales was divided, and quite seperate to England.
England was ruled by the ruthless King John, a man who had fought tooth and nail, even going so far as to betray his family for his crown.
Wales was a pesky thorn in King Johns side.
The welsh were rebellious, and often attacked England along the borders. John wanted to reign Wales in, and control them himself.

To deal with Wales, King John needs to deal with Llewelyn the Great. Llewelyn, a Prince of Wales, began civil war in his country at the age of 14, to unite divided Wales, and by the age of 21he was ruling the North.

A truce between England and Wales is formed when Llewelyn is married to King Johns illegitimate daughter Joanna, but the marriage fails to unite to two countries.

Joanna loyalties are continuously torn between her father, and her husband.
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*My thoughts*
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~One of the beautiful things about HBD (I will abbreviate, to save my fingers) is that not only do you read a wonderful story, you actually learn something.
Before this book, I had no interest in history whatsoever. I did an A level in History, and always found the subjects dry and completely irrelevant to me. Not so with this novel.
I walked away with a whole new knowledge of period of history that I had previously known almost nothing about. It also compelled me to read more about the characters, and to visit some of the locations from the book.
To read more about the characters, and history included in the book, visit the links at the bottom of this review.

~This book contains everything. Although its firmly slotted into the historical fiction catagory, this book could also be considered a thriller, or a romance. They say that real like is stranger than ficiton, and to this book, it applies. There is war, battles, conflict, tragedy, romance, friendship, and most importantly for fairytale lovers like me, Kings, Princes, Princesses, and castles.

~The characters are incredibly real.
King John is usually portrayed as a one dimensional villian (you know the baddy in Disneys Robin hood? Yep. that was him).
Penman paints him as a real human being, and illustrates his good points, as well as his badpoints. This is demonstrated through Joannas affection for her Father.

~Romance. Joanna and Llewelyns relationship is beautiful, and suprisingly, very modern.
Medieval welsh men treated their wives and women far better than the English did. Women in wales were treated with respect. As a result, Llewelyn and Joannas relationship is so much more easily accessible than the usual *women, wash my dishes and service me* I am used to from historical fiction.

~The plot is sometmes rather complex. Whilst I followed it easily, I did have a problem with peoples names. Back then, peoples nicknames were often the place that they came from. For example, the Duke of Chester, would just be called Chester, but at other times, he would be addressed by his real name.
I suggest, although it sounds rather like hard work, just jotting down peoples names. That way, the plot is a lot easier to follow.
Or, perhaps, my memory is just that bad.

~I esspecially loved this book, because of all of the references to my hometown, Chester!


If you are looking for a real monster of a book, something to get your teeth into, become immersed in, and truly absorb some knowledge, then please read this book. It opened up a whole new genre to me.


*Interesting little facts*
~~~~~~~~~
*Penman has admitted to little inconsistencies in her books that she didnt realise till later.
For example, of "Here be Dragons" she says,

"I draped Joanna and other female characters in rich velvet gowns. I later found out that velvet was not known in the 12th century. A great pity, for Llewelyn thought Joanna looked very sultry in green velvet".

*Penman lived in North Wales for several months whilst researching "Here be dragons".

*Penmans books are mostly accurate. Any inaccuracies, or padding are noted in the back of the book. For example, when there is limited historical evidence about a character, Penman fills in the blanks.



*To read more about Sharon Kay Penman, visit here;

www.sharonkaypenman.com

*To read more about King John of England, visit here;

http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/king_john.ht m

*To read more about Llewelyn the great, visit here;

http://www.castlewales.com/llewelyn.html

*To read more about Joanna, visit here;

http://www.castlewales.com/joan_ap_llywelyn.html

Summary: Grab your sword, find yourself a princess, and defend your country.