Up and Running

My debut novel is now available on Amazon Kindle:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Poisoned-Cup-Edward-Lanyon-ebook/dp/B00I486IJM/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1391065705&sr=1-1&keywords=the+poisoned+cup

About Me

I began my working life in an office in Holborn, in central London. Every day I commuted from a modest bed-sit on the edge of Wimbledon Common. On average it took me an hour and a half to get to the office, and another hour and a half to get home again in the evening. I hated that, and I hated the tedium of the job. Pouring over endless masses of figures just wasn’t for me. However, it was a job with a reasonable salary and so I stuck with it for two years. Finally, I decided that decisive action was needed if I was to actually enjoy my adult life. So I gave up the job. I now live far from London in glorious English countryside, and I write.

The Poisoned Cup is my first published novel. It stems from my love of history and historical novels. I am a big fan of Bernard Cornwell’s books, especially the Sharpe series. When I have the spare time - something I had to largely put aside in order to write The Poisoned Cup - I love to ramble in the countryside. Ideas for further stories often come to me when I am walking in remote places.

I also enjoy travelling. In recent years I have visited various far-away places including Russia, China, Canada and the Antipodes. I love to learn about other people’s cultures, but I am always happy to return to my home in rural England.

 

The Birth of a Novel

It was pure co-incidence that the Braveheart movie was broadcast on television at the same time I was reading Marc Morris’s book, A Great and Terrible King, a fascinating account of the life of King Edward the First. The two histories just didn’t go together and I became keen to dig deeper into other accounts of what actually happened in that era.  

I was aware that the film had been widely condemned in the press for its inaccuracies, but I wasn’t at first aware just how deeply those inaccuracies went. I borrowed and bought other non-fiction books, and I gathered academic papers from the internet. The journey towards discovery led me along avenues I found illuminating. I was captivated by events which I found more interesting than those portrayed in the film. Why were others not aware of the real story? Why hadn’t I learned more of the detail of that period of history when I was at school? I had, I decided, missed out by not making these discoveries earlier in my life.

In time I became keen to share my discoveries with others, but the information was already out there for others to read if they chose. It was there in books sitting idly on library shelves, and in well-written papers that few people read. How could I share my enthusiasm for this period of history in a different way? That was when I decided to write a novel set in the thirteenth century. The public at large will not usually go to the trouble of reading academic studies, but they would read a novel if I made it interesting enough. Wasn’t that how Bernard Cornwell gave us all a more detailed insight into the Peninsula War?

Thus was born The Poisoned Cup.

Edward Lanyon

Welcome to my web site. This is a new site set up to give you some background to myself and my writing. I shall be telling you more when my novel, "The Poisoned Cup, is published.