Comic Historical Fantasy Series
New Release!
An epic medieval adventure set in the thirteenth century, in a district called the March—a wild and lawless borderland between England and Wales. It’s a highly dangerous place, full of towns and villages constantly threatened by invasion, great uncertainty, and the terrors of plague, starvation, and endless wars. All along its eastern front, the English have built strong castles, employ goodly knights wielding fine broadswords, and have much gold coin, but the barbarian Welsh clans, out in the remote and primaeval western regions, have cunning, guile, knowledge of the land, and the command of ancient Celtic magic to aid their struggles.
Each book explores the trials, romances, and tribulations of a medieval knight and includes many hair-raising tales of their friends and family. The knights are a motley bunch, vagabonds, misfits, and eccentrics, who’ve gathered at Mold—a town right at the epicentre of all the trouble—to work for Lord Roger de Montalt, a cowardly Marcher baron, who’s terrified of Welsh wild-man warriors, but has been commanded by good King Henry to hail to Mold Castle and stop any trouble.
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BROM OF BROMWICK
Brom Bumblewood is a hedge-born young man who, with only a keen eye and a swift horse, wins the joust at High Hill. He’s knighted by Lord Roger, the baron of Mold Castle, and moves with his wife Maddie into a swanky knight’s cottage in Bromwick, a sleepy village situated right in the middle of all the trouble brewing between England and Wales.
With both his parents dead of plague, Brom is a ward to his two young sisters and juggles love and marriage with Maddie. Of lowly peasant stock and grateful for his chance, Brom works hard at his knightly duties, but Maddie’s fed up with drudgery and being ignored, so she finds excitement in the Mother Maiden Crone club—only to discover it’s run by a coven of mysterious witches.
Brom’s domestic world is shattered when Dafydd, a ruthless Welsh warlord, aided by his supernatural allies and their invincible weapon, hatches a plan to invade England and murder all Englishmen in their beds. Brom’s summoned, on pain of death, to Mold Castle, and is swept up, along with his daft squire Jim and Lord Roger’s other Septimus Knights, on a treacherous quest to foil the invasion, whilst back in Bromwick, the lives of Maddie and his sisters are flung into danger, confusion, and uncertainty.
When the weapon is unleashed, all looks lost. But Brom hatches a half-baked yet brilliant plan, one that could save those he loves… and stop England from falling.
THE ROGUES OF JACKDAW ALLEY
When Jo Potterson hears that the town she grew up in has been plunged into the middle of a brutal war, she decides to leave her dissolute life in London and travel home. Do her family and friends still live, or have they been slain, tortured, or murdered in their beds?
When Jo gets to Jackdaw Alley, she finds things much worse than she’d feared. Welsh wild-man warriors are wandering about like they own the place, threatening people she’s known all her life and abducting all the young men, including the seven childhood friends who made up her Alley Boys gang. Her parents are glad to see her, but are dying of starvation, the Welsh having taken the harvest.
Vowing to save her family from starvation, to find the Alley Boys, and kick out the Welsh invaders, Jo sets out on a perilous quest. But she’s soon battling a harsh Welsh winter, a wise‑woman with suspicious magic, and a beautiful yet deranged princess who wants Jo in her bed. With botched kidnappings, surprise weddings, and a murder that could shatter Wales, things soon get horribly complicated.
Then Jo’s life takes an unexpected turn, one that makes her already difficult quest virtually impossible.
Mike Mannion's books are well plotted with characters that leap off the page.
Colin Barnsley - Author of the musical Atlantis.
Certainly knows how to keep you hooked. Ravensmere is a definite page-turner.
Chris Tunstall - Book reviewer and author of Guardian of the One.
