Synopses & Reviews
A dramatic find at Stonehenge and another, quieter discovery in the Bodleian Library set in motion a riveting scholarly detective story and a romance, unfolding across a rich historical landscape evoked by the secret places and half-forgotten legends of the British countryside.
Archaeologist Donald Gladstone knows there is no solid evidence that King Arthur ever existed. And yet medieval tales of this legendary warrior must have found their inspiration somewhere, and Donald is determined to discover their true source. A chance encounter with the beguiling Julia Llewellyn, a gifted linguist working at the Oxford English Dictionary, sets them both on the trail of elusive clues embedded in an old Welsh battle poem. Their quest will intersect in unforeseen ways with their own troubled lives and will lead them at last to a deeper understanding of the origins of Arthur.
Review
"Finding Camlann delivers a wallop of pleasure to both the head and the heart. It is suffused with an irresistible sense of mystery, its many paths, whether to the unknowable past or to the inner truth of those we love, disappearing into swirling fog." Rebecca Goldstein, author of < i=""> Thirty-Six Arguments for the Existence of God: A Work of Fiction <>
Review
"Sean Pidgeon has given us an experience so rich and engrossing that attempts to slow my reading to savor the novel longer were foiled by the fact that I couldn't put it down. If you are not already excited by the fascinating legends and vibrant scholarship around King Arthur, you will be once beginning Finding Camlann." Matthew Pearl, author of < i=""> The Dante Club <>
Synopsis
Not since A. S. Byatt's Possession has there been a novel so perfectly attuned to readers who love the history and mythology of the British Isles.
Synopsis
And then a tidal wave, which destroys half the atoll, provides a chance of escape. A wrecked motor launch that Fenn is able to repair is washed up on shore. he names his makeshift craftProvidence and sets off across the Indian Ocean. This is one of the most unusual books to appear in a long time. The two elements, action and soliloquy, are counterpointed in a remarkable way, and the result is a book of originality and force.
Synopsis
Not since A. S. Byatt’s Possession has there been a novel so perfectly attuned to readers who love the history and mythology of the British Isles.
Synopsis
Charles Fenn, a sixty-year-old writer, set off from Ceylon with a friend to sail to the Maldive Islands. But what started as a leisurely holiday turned into a nightmare when his friend was drowned during a storm and he himself marooned on a remote atoll. Fenn had little but a few tins of food he had managed to salvage, a pencil stub, and enough paper to keep a diary.
Synopsis
In this diary, he chronicles the day-to-day struggle to stay alive, alternating his accounts of hunger and thirst, of fishing and fire-lighting, of improvisation and experiment, with his notes for a book he was planning on the New Veda. The resulting soliloquies cover an impressive range of subjects from Chinese culture to the life of beetles, marriage, sex, and death.
And then a tidal wave, which destroys half the atoll, provides a chance of escape. A wrecked motor launch that Fenn is able to repair is washed up on shore. he names his makeshift craft Providence and sets off across the Indian Ocean.
This is one of the most unusual books to appear in a long time. The two elements, action and soliloquy, are counterpointed in a remarkable way, and the result is a book of originality and force.
About the Author
Sean Pidgeon is a reference publisher at John Wiley & Sons. Born and raised in the UK, he now lives in New Jersey with his American wife and children.
Exclusive Essay
Read an exclusive essay by Sean Pidgeon