DARK ANGELS
Wolf is on the run, lost on a dark hillside said to be haunted by ghosts, demons and elves. There he meets heroic-seeming Lord Hugo, crusader and troubadour, out hunting with his men. But Hugo nurses a terrible grief -- and when he and Wolf discover a mysterious, disfigured elf-child, Wolf's feet are set on a path which will take him deep into the shadows.
Some background to the making of this trailer: the story is set on and around the wonderfully atmospheric Shropshire hill 'Stiperstones', which in the book I rename 'Devil's Edge'. I love mountains, and the Welsh Marches contain a wonderful mix of English and Celtic history and folklore.
To research the book and make the trailer, I went to Shropshire, and tramped over Stiperstones in rain, in mist, and in sweeping wind. I visited a wolf sanctuary set in a narrow little valley -- it began to snow as we descended the steep track, and I'll never forget the snow falling precipitously past the dark serried ranks of fir trees, and the wolves howling in the winter landscape. I climbed the grassy mound which is all that's left of the 11th century Montgomery stronghold of Hen Domen. (The castle in the trailer is the oldest tower of Stokesay Castle.)
I crawled down the tight dark passages of an abandoned Roman copper mine, which became the entrance to Elfland in my book. (It's called Ogof Llanymynech and may go as far back as the Bronze Age: a hoard of Roman coins was found there in 1965).
In the trailer you can see all the elements I wove together in the book. The stark skyline of 'Devil's Edge', the rough moorland, the lonely castle, the claustrophobic darkness of the mine. Listen carefully and you may even hear wolves.
Thanks to Richard Hughes of We Are Goose (http://www.wearegoose.co.uk), who composed and performed the music, and cut and edited the film.
FORSAKEN
Mara's mother is missing, her little
brother is sick, maybe dying, her father is grieving. It all seems
hopeless - until Mara sets out on a life or death journey to bring her
mother home.
The idea for "Forsaken" came from the classic poem 'The Forsaken Merman' by the late Victorian poet Matthew Arnold, which in turn is based on an old Scandinavian ballad. It tells the story of a merman who married a human woman, Margaret. They live together happily under the sea and she has children by him - till one day she hears church bells ringing and feels a sudden longing to go and pray in the 'little white church'. The merman agrees to part with her for a short while. But once on land she never returns to the sea, leaving her husband and children to grief for her. In Arnold's poem the merman says:
"Up the still, glistening beaches,
Up the creeks we will hie,
Over banks of bright seaweed
The ebb-tide leaves dry.
We will gaze, from the sand-hills,
At the white, sleeping town;
At the church on the hill-side—
And then come back down.
Singing: "There dwells a loved one,
But cruel is she!
She left lonely for ever
The kings of the sea."
The old belief about mermaids was that they had no souls. In order to preserve her immortal soul, Margaret is ready to desert her husband and children. Was she right to follow her beliefs? Or wrong to cause her loved ones so much pain?
In the original legend, the merman clambers into the churchyard to try and find his wife, but when he looks into the church, 'all the stone images turned their backs on him'. When I read this, a shiver ran down my spine and I knew I had to tell the story again - but this time, I wondered what would have happened if, instead of the merman, one of Margaret's own mer-children went to find her?
"Thanks to Polly Carey who spoke the voiceover, and to Richard Hughes of We Are Goose (http://www.wearegoose.co.uk), who composed and performed the music, and cut and edited the film.
The idea for "Forsaken" came from the classic poem 'The Forsaken Merman' by the late Victorian poet Matthew Arnold, which in turn is based on an old Scandinavian ballad. It tells the story of a merman who married a human woman, Margaret. They live together happily under the sea and she has children by him - till one day she hears church bells ringing and feels a sudden longing to go and pray in the 'little white church'. The merman agrees to part with her for a short while. But once on land she never returns to the sea, leaving her husband and children to grief for her. In Arnold's poem the merman says:
"Up the still, glistening beaches,
Up the creeks we will hie,
Over banks of bright seaweed
The ebb-tide leaves dry.
We will gaze, from the sand-hills,
At the white, sleeping town;
At the church on the hill-side—
And then come back down.
Singing: "There dwells a loved one,
But cruel is she!
She left lonely for ever
The kings of the sea."
The old belief about mermaids was that they had no souls. In order to preserve her immortal soul, Margaret is ready to desert her husband and children. Was she right to follow her beliefs? Or wrong to cause her loved ones so much pain?
In the original legend, the merman clambers into the churchyard to try and find his wife, but when he looks into the church, 'all the stone images turned their backs on him'. When I read this, a shiver ran down my spine and I knew I had to tell the story again - but this time, I wondered what would have happened if, instead of the merman, one of Margaret's own mer-children went to find her?
"Thanks to Polly Carey who spoke the voiceover, and to Richard Hughes of We Are Goose (http://www.wearegoose.co.uk), who composed and performed the music, and cut and edited the film.