Methven's Classic Historical Novels S.

5 total works

Cunning of the Dove

by Alfred Duggan

Published March 1966

St Edward the Confessor, King of the English, is commonly despised by historians; he was the last of his dynasty, and after his death his country was conquered by the foreigner. But that foreign conquest was exactly what St Edward had wished for. In this novel Alfred Duggan brings to life different customs, races and languages, as well as the violence and struggle for power between the Godwinssons and other great Earls - a Saxon England which seemed too large a country to unite except in dread of the Vikings.

Conscience of the King

by Alfred Duggan

Published December 1963

Cerdic Elesing, King of Wessex and ancestor of all subsequent British monarchs, narrates in this fictional biography how he murdered, cheated, looted and lied his way to the great position he ultimately held - and in the process served with the great Roman leader Ambrosius and the Saxon warlord Aella, and was the foe Arthur defeated at Mount Badon.

The Little Emperors

by Alfred Duggan

Published April 1968

Felix, treasurer of Britain, having served at the court of the Imperial court itself, struggles to maintain the same elaborate standards in provincial Britain. And, cut off from Rome by the barbarian invasion of Gaul, and needing every penny to pay the army, he soon finds it impossible. Preoccupied with status and finances, he barely notices that his wily father-in-law Gratianus, with the help of Felix's sadistic wife is engineering a coup - one which embroils Felix dangerously in politics. Forced to flee for his life, Felix finally understands that lax etiquette is the least of Britain's problems...

The King of Athelney

by Alfred Duggan

Published 7 September 1970

God and My Right

by Alfred Duggan

Published December 1955

The clash of the Two Swords, of spiritual and temporal power, rings through the 12th century. In England its most famous instance was the dispute between Henry II and the Archbishop of Canterbury, a complicated story which cannot be understood unless the backgrounds of the two antagonists are brought to life. The boyhood of the ambitious Thomas of Cheapside and the conquest of the country by the passionate young King: their early friendship; the development of the rift between them; the many attempts to find a formula of reconciliation; and finally the murder in Canterbury and its aftermath, are all brilliantly enacted under the direction of this extraordinary author.

`It is rather as though the talents which made I, Claudius and The Forsyte Saga were fused into a single, quite new and individual creation' Evelyn Waugh in The Spectator

`Mr Duggan has a marvellously wry quality in his writing' Sunday Times

`A dramatic novel of the struggle between the spiritual and temporal powers in England in the twelfth century . . . As a reconstruction of the period this is marvellously well done.' Sphere

`A remarkable reconstruction' Observer