News
Bracelet of Bones...
March 1st sees Bracelet of Bones published in paperback. Here are a some of the reviews for the hardback:
'Its writing and story sweep the reader away on a vivid voyage of adventure...mesmerising'
Amanda Craig The Times
'His handling of dialogue and badinage is especially rich and often extremely witty'
Robert Dunbar The Irish Times
'A Viking adventure with a difference...brilliantly compelling'
James Lovegrove The Financial Times
'Both Sutcliff and Treece wrote novels of quest to Milklagard, and Bracelet of Bones has the same feel...Crossley-Holland writes prose with a poet's eye and love of words, painting a vivid picture of the world his characters move through'
Guardian
'Will haunt older children who love things historical and mystical'
Literary Review
'Artfully combines swift-paced adventure to attract his twenty-first century readers, with the poetic language of Viking saga.'
Booktrust
'A richly satisfying story, with a strong, believable heroine'
Carousel
'A wealth of fascinating detail as well as a plot rich in danger, tension and drama… The novel's strongest point is adventure, suffused with an underlying sense of wonder: wonder at the physical world, the possibility of things more ethereal, the many faces and talents of mankind, the joy and craftsmanship and the marvels of travel'.
Inis
The Mountains of Norfolk: New and Selected Poems
Published by Enitharmon Press, The Mountains of Norfolk brings together poems from eight previous collections, spare yet sensuous, bearing witness to relationships, history, East Anglia, language and the craft of writing, and the meeting-places of body and spirit. The volume also contains a group of new poems musing on youth and old age, friendship, love and the layers of landscape.
The Trafalgar Square Christmas Tree
For the third year running, a joint project between the Poetry Society and the Royal Norwegian Embassy wrapped the Trafalgar Square Christmas tree in a poem, to celebrate the City of Oslo’s annual gift to London. The poem was read at the lighting ceremony by three children from St Mary of the Angels Primary School in the London Borough of Westminster.
This project, called ‘Look North More Often’, brings established poets together with schoolchildren to create a poem to go on display around the tree. This year, five poets worked with children from twelve schools – eleven in London and one in Immingham, Lincolnshire, the port where the tree enters the UK – to write poems on the theme of Journeys, imagining the journey of the tree from its forest outside Oslo to pride of place at the centre of London.
Kevin has been involved with ‘Look North More Often’ for all its three years, and was at this year’s felling ceremony. He said: “There could not be a more symbolic gift than a tree, for a Norwegian. The giving of a great tree as a gesture of gratitude is simple and profound.”
Bracelet of Bones...
A very busy spring...
Kevin has three books out during the next few months.On Thursday March 3rd the Oxford University Press will publish Short Too! the follow-up to the hugely popular Short!. March 31st will see Quercus Books publish Bracelet of Bones and finally April 7th will see Penguin Books publish a new issue of The Penguin Book of Norse Myths.
Bracelet of Bones will be published on March 31st 2011
'Will you swear to take me?'
Halfdan stared gravely at his daughter. 'In my heart, I will.'
One morning Solveig wakes to find her father, Halfdan, gone.
Halfdan is a Viking mercenary who longs to rejoin his friend, Harald Hardrada, in Constantinople where he is serving in the Empress's guard. But when he goes, he breaks his promise to take his daughter. Solveig decides to follow him. She sets off in a tiny boat and into an adventure through the Viking world. She joins forces with Swedish traders, is befriended by an English slave, meets a Russian laughter-maker and suffers an arrow-storm from Slavic tribes. She narrowly misses being sold as a slave herself, is pursued by a young man who won't take no for an answer, is savaged by wild dogs, and witnesses a living sacrifice. Through it all, her belief in her father is unwavering. Will she ever reach him? And if she does, what will she find?
Published by Quercus Books on March 31st 2011, this is a glittering novel that revolves around friendship and betrayal, fathers and daughters, the clash of religions and a perilous journey to young womanhood.
Blogging...
Kevin's Blog is now up on the Quercus website - do please have a look!