John Drake

Thanks! Before anything else my thanks to the many generous people who have given stars to my books. Thanks for reading the books, thanks for taking time to comment, and thanks even if you didn't like the books, because at least you read them.The best insight that can be given into the mind of an author - assuming anyone is interested - is to say that writing is a solitary occupation and every writer wants to know that someone reads what you write. Thus I state as fact that every opinion expressed on one of my books - be it positive or negative - is valid, true and immune to argument, since nobody asked me to write. Rather, I wrote in the vanity that someone would want to read the result. That's why I am so happy when someone likes my work, and philosophical when someone does not.After which proclamation of belief, I present for your delectation and delight, my latest book, 'WAYFINDER' a Viking Saga.I wrote this one strictly for fun, rather than the usual novelist’s uphill plod: ever stumbling, ever persevering, in the attempt to entertain, amuse and sustain interest over three hundred pages. But not this time, because Wayfinder was inspired by Franz Bengtson’s book The Long Ships, written in 1954, and which I dearly love for its dry humour and vigorous portrayal of Viking life. Please read it and enjoy it, and may you find Wayfinder even half as good as it. And so to an oddity. My hero - Olof Torkilsson - is a famous deep-sea navigator. He is wise, cunning and skilful as any Viking leader should be, but he has a magic sword with the outlandish name of Nihontō. Modern readers will recognise this as the Japanese word for sword, which explains why Nihontō cuts deep into the steel of ordinary Viking swords, and is beyond price in the Northlands. Who knows how Torkilsson won this sword? Perhaps later books will explain. And so to beauty. Aside from Frejda Hakonsdottir who captures Olof’s heart, and Mirian the Black for whom Olof’s follower Gunnar fights a thousand men – the most beautiful thing in the book is Jarl Sjur’s ship Long Serpent: a craftwork so wonderful that there is no direction from which a man might look at her, and not be ravished by her beauty. Those were my own genuine reactions on seeing The Gokstad Ship at the Viking Ship Museum, Oslo, Norway in 2015. I judge this thousand-year-old ship to be one of the most beautiful artefacts ever made by the hand of man, and if you think I’m exaggerating then go to see her, because pictures don’ t do justice. You have to be there. And so to ugliness. My villains are Jarl Sjur Hakonsson, and Ibn Fadlan the Persian wizard. Jarl Sjur is the illegitimate son of the late King Hakon of Denmark. Sjur is handsome, splendid, and the leading contender for the throne. But he is rotten with secret lust for his sister Frejda Hakonsdottir, and hates every man who looks on her, including Olof Torkilsson whom Sjur choses as navigator to lead his latest and greatest fleet raid into England, causing deadly rivalry to split the expedition. Returning home after fighting Saxons ashore and Swedish Vikings afloat, Olof - and even Sjur – face a greater threat than armies or fleets: Ibn Fadlan whose intellect is so powerful that he controls the minds of men with hypnotism, perceived by the Northmen as dark magic. And of course there are many other characters in the book: the effete King Bealdgar The Good who raised armies against the Northmen, his brother the monstrously fat Archbishop Ethelwulf , both routinely humiliated by their mother Queen Guthild: a plump and comely woman much admired by men, and of course the delectably naughty Ethelhild, saved from rape only because three stupid Vikings slaughtered one another in the rush to grab her.After that you might like to try: 'AGENT OF DEATH' Imagine a weapon worse than the atom bomb. A weapon that kills all living things in a whole city, but leaves the city intact.