Return of the Raven

Genre: Children's Fiction

Category: Adventure and Family

Subcategory: Adventure Series (Tales of Badbury)

Author: Philip Elston

Paperback, 208 Pages

ISBN: 0-9551886-8-7/ 978-0-9551886-8-8

Synopsis

What if King Arthur were to awaken and slip silently into twenty-first century Britain, concerned still for good to conquer evil – would you believe it? At the end of 1470 Sir Thomas Malory suggests that Arthur may do so. Most great leaps forward in our history take place when people ask the “What if?” question and find the answer.

See what takes place when you read this book!

Extract from the book

It began with the storm. In his sixteen years Christopher had never known one like it, while villagers well into their seventies couldn’t remember a storm that had caused so much damage to the Dorsetshire countryside. It had been building up all day: the morning freshness of early summer had given way to an oppressive heaviness which sapped everyone’s energy. During the afternoon banks of threatening slate-grey cloud had piled up, layer upon layer, as if driven by some giant hand beyond the horizon. From time to time the cloud was shot through with a lowering light as the sun tried to reassert its power but the effect was to cast an ugly, unreal pallor over the fields and hedgerows beneath.

It was nine o’clock and almost dark when the storm broke upon the village. Christopher stood at the window of his bedroom, no longer able to work, watching the lightning trace crooked fingers of silver across the western sky, and listening for the advancing rumble of thunder. Then came the rain, at first intermittent drops but gradually increasing into a steady tattoo that sounded like ten thousand tiny hammers assaulting the roof of the cottage. Suddenly the room was illuminated by a searing light followed almost at once by a deafening clap of thunder immediately overhead. Christopher drew back from the window but not before he had caught a glimpse of Badbury Rings floodlit, as it were, by cosmic starshell during a night bombardment. It was Badbury crowned with light.

For half an hour, or perhaps longer, Christopher stared out into the wild darkness of the night, and as he stood there he had a strange feeling that the storm circled around the ancient hill-fort with quite deliberate intent, marking it out, with the repeated stabs of light, for some deep purpose, before moving eastwards to disturb the sleep of folk living in Hampshire and Sussex. Even as he watched Christopher decided to visit the Rings the following day.