Battle Stone — David Bradley

'1066'. As always, the winners wrote the story - we only knew what the conquerors told us - what they wished us to hear. Although Harold Godwinssen - a decent man, but reluctant nobleman - treads a caring, considered path through conflicts of intrigue, love and war, he finds himself - for worthy reasons - the most powerful man in turbulent, mid-11th.century England. Briefly, he escapes from the world of corruption, power and blood, but is called back by duty. He sees that he will never be free again, unless he expunges the hidden legacy of dishonour bequeathed by his father and tries to avert the bitter chain of events it has begun. Macbeth once told a younger Harold that our fates are indeed predetermined - not by fate - but by our natures - the characteristic decisions we will allow ourselves to make when faced with choice ... and chance .. We are our futures. Can Harold alter what surely must come for his country and those he loves - disregard truth and honour - and change himself? True to the history as we have received it, 'Battle Stone' and its sequel, 'Tailed Star' tell a plausible tale of what might have happened then, and why.