But if you do want a hardback copy of King’s Man, you probably won’t share my delight. I can suggest two things: either you email me – I still have half a dozen copies of the hardback in my garage and I can send you a signed one (for a reasonable price, plus p&p) or you can click on “paperback” on the Amazon page and get one of the trade paperback versions of the book. These are bigger than normal paperbacks but contain the same story. So there you are.

Talking of paperbacks . . . I now have the definitive date for the mass-market paperback release of King’s Man. This is the normal size one that will be, hopefully, in all the supermarkets from July 5th onwards. And the hardback version of Warlord will come out a couple of weeks later on July 19th. And I might as well tell all my American readers that King’s Man is coming out in the US in November – the 3rd, I think.

Here is the cover of the US version which they sent me yesterday; I’d love to hear what you all think:

It’s quite a tough one, actually. Who should be the heroes of the Outlaw Chronicles? I like Johnny Depp enormously, and Jude Law seems like a nice chap, too (I met him briefly before Christmas) and he’s a first-class actor. I don’t really know much about Justin Bieber, except that he’s insanely popular with the young ‘uns, although he seems a bit thick; actually, as dumb as a lump of cheddar – sorry, Beliebers, but there it is!

So who should it be? Who do you think should play Alan? And who would be a convincingly ruthless Robin Hood? Email me and let me know!

Other news

King’s Man will shortly be available as an Audio book, hooray! – and while the hardback is listed as unavailable on Amazon (some sort of glitch that they can’t seem to fix) I have copies of the book at home which I will sign, wrap-up and send to you at a very reasonable price, if you really want one. Contact me if you want a copy, and we’ll make some suitable arrangement.

I’ve just heard that King’s Man is being published in the USA on 13 November 2012 – which seems like a long way in the future but I expect the time will pass quickly. Back in good old Blighty, King’s Man is coming out in paperback in July and the same month Warlord will be published in hardback. So three of my books are coming out in English in a year.

Added to that, the German version of Holy Warrior is due to come out in March 2012, and the Spanish version of King’s Man will also be published in that month.

In other domestic news, my wife is expecting our second child in mid-February.

That’s all for now. I’ll post more updates as I get them.

It’s been a great year: Outlaw and Holy Warrior came out in the US, here in the UK we published King’s Man in hardback (the paperback comes out next summer) and I’ve finished the first draft of Warlord. Over the summer, I visited six medieval festivals, meeting hundreds of readers and having a whole lot of fun dressed up as a monk. I instituted the Golden Arrow scheme in the autumn, awarding GAs to people who help promote the books and I even managed to organise the sending out of two parcels of books to the British troops in Afghanistan. So, all in all, 2011 has been a cracking year – and now I’m going to put my feet up, have a mince pie and spend some quality time with my family.

And, just while I think of it, here is a little blog I wrote for an American website this week, which you might find mildly interesting (Americans don’t have Boxing Day, apparently). Enjoy! And I’ll be blogging again at the beginning of January! Have a very merry Christmas and I wish all my readers joy, love and success in 2012.

BOXING DAY

By Angus Donald

Good King Wenceslas looked out, on the Feast of Stephen, when the snow lay round about, deep and crisp and even . . .

“Good King Wenceslas” is one of my favourite carols; I belt it out in a freezing English country church, my breath pluming before my face, almost every Christmas. And yet, while I’ve been singing it for forty years now, today, when I began doing research for this blog, I realised something about the old carol that had never occurred to me before: “Good King Wenceslas” is not so much about Christmas but about Boxing Day.

Boxing Day is the term used in the United Kingdom for the day after Christmas Day – the 26^th of December, a public holiday. It is celebrated in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and in many former British colonies around the world but not, as far as I know, in America. Its origins are disputed – some speak of church alms boxes in medieval times which were opened by the priest and the coins within distributed to the poor at this time – but most probably the etymology of Boxing Day lie in the old feudal tradition that the lord of the manor should give gifts to his servants on this day. A “box” was a gift given by a superior to an inferior. In the 19^th century, the rich who lived in grand houses would allow their servants to have the day off on the 26^th of December (after they had cooked, served and cleared up the great Christmas Day feast) in order to visit their families, and the workers would be given “Christmas boxes” containing gifts of money or food to take to their less well-off relatives. Indeed, Victorian department stores sold ready-made parcels for employers to buy and give their servants.

The tradition lives on in some 21^st century companies in the form of a Christmas bonus, and in the still-extant custom in Britain of giving tradesmen who regularly visit the house – such as the milkman, the postman, the “binmen” (rubbish-disposal people) or the paper-boy – a small cash gift on Boxing Day as a thank-you for the year’s work.

In modern Britain, Boxing Day, an official holiday enjoyed by everyone in the country, is marked by a number of important sporting contests: football (you would say soccer) matches, horse racing events, and even fox hunting meets – although pursuing foxes has been illegal in Britain since 2004 and the hounds now follow a running man dragging a scented bag. Nevertheless, the sight of all those hearty riders on glossy horses, marvelously bold in their scarlet coats, sipping hot mulled wine and calling out to old friends before the hunt begins, always gives me the warm feeling that I have slipped a couple of hundred years into the past.

In my family, Boxing Day is the day of the Big Walk: after gorging on Christmas Day on roast turkey, cranberry sauce, hot gravy, roast potatoes and vegetables, and Christmas pudding with brandy butter and cheese and nuts and chocolate (not all on the same plate, I hasten to add) everybody feels like taking a bit of exercise the day afterwards and so we stir ourselves on the morning of Boxing Day, wrap up warmly and walk for ten miles or so around the frosty (sometimes snowy) Kentish countryside – before collapsing in front of the TV, and gorging again on a late lunch of cold turkey, cranberry sauce, glazed ham, cold potatoes, cheese, chocolate . . .

For many people in the UK, Boxing Day is a shopping holiday, much like the day after Thanksgiving in the USA. Shops often offer huge discounts on normally expensive household products in the sales which begin on Boxing Day, and Britons turn out in their millions to snap up bargains. In 2009, 12 million UK residents attended the post-Christmas sales – which is twenty per cent of the total population! The queues stretch around the block as people patiently wait for the stores to open; and when they do pandemonium ensues. Injuries sustained in the stampede are not uncommon.

But it would be a shame if, in the commercially-minded 21^st century, we forgot that Boxing Day was originally a day on which those who have plenty give to those who are in need; we should remember that Boxing Day it is also Saint Stephen’s day – the Feast of Stephen mentioned in my favourite carol. Wenceslaus – who was in fact a 10^th century Duke of Bohemia – ventured out on the Feast of Stephen to give a poor, man food and wine and winter fuel; personifying the true spirit of Boxing Day.

“Therefore Christian men be sure, wealth or rank possessing, ye who now will bless the poor, shall yourselves find blessing.”

PRESS RELEASE

15^TH December 2011

Books for Heroes

Britain’s bestselling historical novelists show their support at Christmas for our frontline troops in Afghanistan

A group of writers from the British Isles, all of whom are members of the Historical Writer’s Association (www.thehwa.co.uk), have decided to demonstrate their support for our troops in Afghanistan by sending them a collective Christmas present in the form of a package of fifty, rip-roaring historical novels.

These bestselling novelists – including Angus Donald, Manda Scott, Ben Kane, Lindsey Davis, Robyn Young, Giles Kristian, Robert Low, Harry Sidebottom, Diana Preston, Lindsay Powell, Michael Arnold, Ruth Downie, Cassandra Clark, JD Davis and Anthony Riches – have made an informal agreement with British service personnel to ship free copies of their books to the brave men and women serving at the front with the aim of providing them with a little Christmas cheer.

Organizer Angus Donald, bestselling author of the Outlaw Chronicles, said: “For some time my colleagues in the HWA and I have been discussing how we might make a solid gesture of support for our troops in Afghanistan, at a time when public interest in the war seems to be waning. We think it is important to show our admiration for them and acknowledge the difficult and dangerous job that they are doing so well. As historical novelists, we decided that the simplest thing to do would be to send them free books. The troops often have to live in rather uncomfortable conditions and, when not engaged in their dangerous duties, can become a little bored. We are hoping that we may be able to provide some comfort and cheer at Christmas to men and women who are far away from family and friends. We also want them to know that we are thinking of them.”

The HWA was set up in October 2010, in a move spearheaded by bestselling novelist Manda Scott, and a group of influential writers came together to form the Association. The HWA was formed out of a belief that historical writers needed to have the same kind of professional body run by professional writers for professional writers to sustain, promote and support each other and their work in the way that the Crime Writers’ Association provides professional and social support for its members.

In November 2011, the HWA sent out a package of forty books to Afghanistan, via serving military personnel, which was very enthusiastically received, and the Association is organizing another larger package of about fifty to sixty books containing the works of a dozen or so authors, which should arrive in theatre by mid-December. The HWA also has future plans for an ongoing scheme that would allow for a steady stream of free books to be sent out by the HWA to the troops, perhaps twice a year, and also possibly for books to be provided for injured service men and women in British hospitals.

Happy Christmas everyone!

This is the state of play in the Golden Arrow competition as of 5th December 2011

Jeanne Lemieux 

Alex Sprackling 

Jerelyn Hodges 

Nick Britton 

James Sutton 

Jim Bennett 

Robin Carter 

Ben Starmes

Evelyn (Poland) 

Pete Wilkinson 

Corey Grier 

Rory Standley 

Alex Sprackling

Evelyn (from Poland)

Jeanne Lemieux

Jerelyn Hodges

Pete Wilkinson

This is the wheeze: you tell me by email when you have done a bit of promotion for the books – telling your friends about it, posting something online, mentioning my books on TV (I wish!); I judge your promotion and give you the appropriate number of Golden Arrows (up to a maximum of five). I keep the score and the judge’s decision is final. (But you can remind me if necessary). In July 2012, when I get my quota of free copies of Warlord (I only get five of them, I think, and some I need to keep) I will send the winner a signed, personally inscribed copy of the book.  If we get loads of people involved, I may send out more than one prize, and maybe give away some Outlaws, Holy Warriors, and King’s Mans, but no promises at the moment.

How does that sound?

Angus