Steven Smith

'This Sacred Isle' is an historical fantasy set in Dark Age Britain.

The year is AD 593 - with Roman rule a distant memory, Anglo-Saxon kingdoms now dominate most of Britain, with the native Britons driven out or enslaved in their own lands. But rumours whisper that Merlin the Sorcerer has returned to unite the Britons and defeat their hated enemy.

Meanwhile, fourteen-year-old Morcar daydreams of battles and heroic deeds. However, when his village is attacked, Morcar is forced to venture into the wild - and there he must confront the danger that threatens to destroy his people...

'This Sacred isle' combines gritty historical detail with the powerful mythology of the Anglo-Saxons - with an exciting plot and rich characters, it is a story to keep readers intrigued and entertained.

The period known as the Dark Ages has long fascinated me, a period when kingdoms and regional identities started to coalesce, with the very foundations of the nations of Britain taking shape. At this time, Britain was largely a wild land, rich in myth and ruled by warrior-kings, and a land where the people faced perils that many parts of today’s world still endure: war, disease and famine.

In some ways, this is a post-apocalyptic world, with scattered groups of individuals struggling to establish order within the ruins of Roman Britannia. In addition, the plight of the Britons intrigued me; how would they feel, often supplanted by the aggressive newcomers from across the sea, the last remnants of the civilisation of Roman Britannia crumbling?

The Anglo-Saxon cosmology and mythology feels fantastical to the modern mind, but it would feel real to the people of the time, they would make no distinction between what might be called ‘supernatural’ and real life – and this was something I wanted to explore in the novel.