Warrior Princess, Errant Page is finally published!
On 10th March, 2025, my first novel, ‘Warrior Princess, Errant Page’ was released onto an unsuspecting public. I am happy, relieved, thrilled, and amazed that I have got this far having promised my sons so long ago that I would find out who the page was.
Rather than just me saying how wonderful ‘Warrior Princess, Errant Page’ is, let me tell you what a fellow Resolute author, Paul Trembling, thinks:
“Most people in the UK will probably only know about ‘Good King Wenceslas’ from the Christmas Carol, and may not even realise that he was a real person who ruled Bohemia between 921 and (probably) 935 AD. But from the bare bones of the carol and the historical facts, Nigel Oakley has created a marvellous tale of forbidden romance and blood-stained politics.
“The page who followed Wenceslas through the snow in the carol is given a name: Podevin – also a real person in history. The Warrior Princess of the title is Emma: half-sister to King Athelstan of England, niece of Æthelflæd, the Lady of Mercia, daughter of Alfred the Great, and a woman renowned as a warrior in an age where women were not expected to take up arms! (Athelstan and Æthelflæd were real as well).
The Æthelflæd statue in Tamworth - image courtesy of Wikipedia commons
“The love story between Emma and Podevin is woven seamlessly through events both historical and fictional in an exciting and absorbing story that brings the time and place vividly into view. The characters – lords, peasants and priests, heroes and villains – interact in a way that is both authentic and intriguing: these are people who, despite being over a thousand years distant from us in time, we can recognise and identify with. Their world is not ours, but their struggles, their pains, their passions and their triumphs are part of human life in any time or place. And we want them to win, to find love, and justice, and hope, just as we do.
“Do they succeed? No spoilers – but I’m looking forward to the next book!”
You are very kind, Paul, but your last comment reminds me I need to get on with the next book!!