I loved the Arthurian legends and books about King Arthur as a child and always wanted to write one.

   I had introduced Taliesin as a character in Warriors of Alavna just because I thought some readers might recognise his name from the Arthur stories and find it intriguing, but by happy coincidence it gave me a good place to start looking for a sequel. I was also fortunate in having made Dan's sword, 'Bright Killer' a significant part of the story in Alavna. I was influenced in part by the myth of Excalibur so making Bright Killer into Excalibur was an obvious plot device.

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    My plot was helped too by another happy coincidence: Arthur's name means 'Bear' and he is sometimes known by the translation of his name 'Ursus'. It was pure chance that my heroines' name, 'Ursula’ could be seen as related to the name 'Ursus', as in my earliest draft she was called 'Marie'!

   I enjoyed exploiting these chance relationships in linking Dan and Ursula with the myth of Arthur and I liked finding out about that period in history. It must have been a strange, insecure time when the civilisation of Rome had crumbled, the cities and administrative systems in decay, while there was the constant threat of attack from invaders and recent settlers expanding their territory.

Here are some links here that you might find interesting:
Brittannia reenactment
For well presented, bite sized information on many aspects of British History this is a good starting point. Includes, Myths & Legends, King Arthur, Holy Grail etc. Early British History and great time lines of monarchs.
Voted best site by BBC. Easy to use and informative on King Arthur.
A more scholarly site – but crammed with informative and interesting articles and references
A well structured site with lots of great information and references
Not for the faint hearted – but this site is a mass of information and references.
for some information on Cadbury castle
The real Vortigern
More information on Cadbury castle
Some thoughts on Time Travel
Some more mind blowing ideas