Fantasy writer and illustrator
In 1476, the first book printed by a machine appeared in England. It was a copy of Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, and it was printed by William Caxton, who brought the printing press to England from the continent. At the time, English varied dramatically across the British Isles. Even between different English regions, dialects… Continue reading Why Aren’t Eggs Called Ayrenn?
This one's a bit of an assumption on my part - but I'm pretty confident in it. I watch a brilliant YouTube channel called Townsends. They're a group of historical re-enactors who make videos about American cookery in the 1700s. It's an interesting time to explore - much of the food is exactly the same… Continue reading The Centuries-Old Spice Blend We Don’t Use Anymore
This post is meant to be taken in jest! The English language is a mess, isn't it? It's all mixed up, made up of words from all different languages. Sometimes the same letters in the same order don't make the same sound, to the despair of second-language learners. The Americans knew it was a mess… Continue reading Our Alphabet Sucks, We Need A New One
I recently did a silly, off-the-cuff tweet that actually got some traction: I asked people what their favourite castles were. I got some obvious ones, like the castle from Beauty and the Beast and the Disney castle. And a few conventionally awesome ones, like Leeds and Warwick castles, both of which are stunning. But the… Continue reading Is Neuschwanstein Castle… Actually A Castle?
I bought House of Treason in a small bookshop in North Wales. I was drawn to it by the gorgeous cover, which was designed by David Wardle - who has since designed many beautiful covers for both fiction and non-fiction books. (I was also tempted by the reduced price sticker.) What a pretty cover! It… Continue reading Review: House of Treason by Robert Hutchinson
In the past I've enjoyed reading AARs (After-Action Reports). They're blog write-ups of someone's playthrough of a game. Sometimes they're even more fun than actually playing. They add a bit of story to the game, a bit of extra imagination. I played Minecraft again, so here's a little AAR for you. I woke up on… Continue reading A Minecraft Tale
Let me preface this by saying that I've been a fan of Warhammer forever. I spent my childhood reading books where heroes slaughtered beastmen en masse; I grew up wanting to lead my plucky plastic dwarven armies to battle against the dastardly orcs and goblins. I also want to say that I wholeheartedly enjoy those… Continue reading Why Dungeons And Dragons Is Right To Get Rid of ‘Evil’ Races
Just a quick one today because I wanted to get this idea down on paper. (Or pixels. Eh.) I was helping someone with some work on the Normans the other day. Medieval history, my specialty, and of course it was to do with castles. I wrote them a few brief notes, and one key phrase… Continue reading Oppression vs Repression: Approaching History Without Bias
It's a question we should ask ourselves more often. Or answer, I suppose, because I see lots of people get it wrong. "To know what happened so we can't make the same mistakes again!" "To appreciate and understand the past." "To shape the future!" "To help us understand the present." Good tries. And they all… Continue reading What’s the Point of History?
More than any other genre, fantasy is a place where people like to build big plots. After all, the world is literally yours to make: everything from the mountains to the countries to the person living in that tiny house on that farm - it's yours, built from scratch. We all want to impress people… Continue reading How to Write Fantasy Heroes
Dewi Hargreaves 