Canadian author Jill MacLean’s second medieval novel for adults, The Arrows of Fealty, set in 14th century England, is now available!
The Arrows of Fealty, the stand-alone sequel to The Arrows of Mercy, tells the story of Haukyn of Flintbourne, the second son of Edmund, the protagonist of the earlier novel.
Haukyn is a serf who owes fealty to the lord of the manor and whose life is tied to the soil, yet who craves adventure beyond the boundary stones of his village. In 1373, he leaves for John of Gaunt’s campaign in France. There, during five months of combat and loss, futility and atonement, he learns how armour-clad knights can be brought as low as any serf.
Home again, he is caught between two women, pretty Annabel and Ilotte of the sloe-black eyes. Neither marriage nor fatherhood tames his restless spirit. When a knight who was his sworn enemy in France becomes the new lord of the manor, Haukyn leads his neighbours in rebellion against ancient custom and unjust taxation.
England’s southern counties march in open revolt on London, where Haukyn witnesses the king grant freedom to every serf in the country. Unimaginable freedom. A freedom that will bring consequences.
Jill is excited to have signed with OC Publishing in Halifax, a hybrid publisher whose founder, Anne Louise O’Connell, is an award-winning author highly supportive of local writers. Her associate publisher and editor, Marianne Ward, is experienced, keen-eyed, and helpful. The Arrows of Fealty has been in good hands.
For more about the book launch, which took place on September 21st at the Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia, and for the complete advance reviews, please visit the page for The Arrows of Fealty.
“Gripping and nuanced from page one, The Arrows of Fealty is a marvellous tapestry of unshowy-yet-encyclopedic historical knowledge, deep insight into human nature, and profound wisdom. An absolute triumph. I loved this book.”
Anne Fleming, author of Curiosities, shortlisted for the 2024 Giller Prize
“MacLean’s characters are complex, diverse, and fully human, richly medieval in their beliefs and attitudes yet able to think against their context and social norms…”
Kathy Cawsey, author and professor of Middle English literature, Dalhousie University
“A treat for history fans…Quiet and often subtle, written with great care…The Arrows of Fealty shines with the brilliance of a fire at night.”
Michelle Butler Hallett, author of Constant Nobody, winner of the 2022 Thomas Raddall
Atlantic Fiction Award
“…a beautifully written visit to medieval England that will linger with me for a long time.”
Trudy Morgan-Cole, award-winning author of the Cupids Trilogy
“…deeply affecting and thoroughly convincing.”
Sarah Emsley, author of The Austens
“A beautifully crafted novel…a testament to our forebears who refused to tolerate injustice…”
Julie Strong, author of The Tudor Prophecy
I am a Canadian author who has lived in all three Maritime provinces and in Manitoba, and I’ve spent considerable time in central and western Newfoundland.
Two of my middle-grade novels won the Ann Connor Brimer Award for Atlantic Canadian Children’s Literature, as did my free-verse young adult novel, Nix Minus One. My third middle-grade novel won the Red Cedar Award, and my other young adult novel is in the Nova Scotia school system, as is The Nine Lives of Travis Keating. All five books received numerous nominations, four of them international.
I am an avid gardener and canoeist, and live in Bedford, Nova Scotia, near my family.
I also love writing. It can be fulfilling, obsessive, exasperating, exciting and nerve-wracking – all on the same morning. It’s always a challenge.
After the publication of my fifth book for young people, I felt I was getting in a rut, that I needed a new direction – but what? Gradually, into that (frightening) vacuum arose my longtime fascination with the medieval period. I searched out historians who specialized in rural England. I travelled to Berkshire, the county where I was born, for the setting. And finally, I took the plunge (very frightening) and started writing a novel, for adults, set in the 14th century.
Because I was so fascinated by the research, I wrote a a sprawling, unmanageable mess. Revising it, paring it down to its essence, took, literally, years.
The Arrows of Mercy was launched in April 2023, its themes of scorched-earth warfare, PTSD and plague all-too relevant to today’s world.
A considerable number of readers then said to me, “What happens next? Does Edmund survive the plague? You have to write a sequel!” So I did, and thank you for the urging! Its themes of war, oppression and rebellion are also, unfortunately, timely.
If you’d like to know what else I do besides tapping words onto a blank screen, you can find out more about me here. Interested in taking a quick look at my previous publications? Click here.
Then there’s Book Talk where I posted blogs about various aspects of the writing process or about novels I’d read that really grabbed me. You’re welcome to read them – perhaps you read some of the same books.
Photo from Luttrell Psalter
Courtesy of the British Library
The image is from the Luttrell Psalter, a book of psalms commissioned by Sir Geoffrey Luttrell, a wealthy landowner whose home manor was in Lincolnshire but who owned property throughout England. The psalter dates from 1320-1340, was the work of one scribe and five or more artists, none of whom are known by name, and contains an exceptionally large number of images of everyday life that are inventive, detailed, often humorous and, probably, idealized. The psalter also abounds in “grotesques,” wildly imaginative combinations of animals and humans.
You can see all the images in the psalter in the digital version on the British Library’s website.
I chose this image because my protagonists, Edmund and his son Haukyn, are archers and would have participated in the Sunday afternoon practice sessions on the village green.