Visit Shropshire for my next novel

Stephen Palmer

author of books
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Partly because the publishing world is so dire at the moment, partly out of curiosity, and partly because I've stopped giving a damn, my next novel Halfie will only be available from one small bookshop in south Shropshire. Since the Shropshire Hills are beautiful and unspoiled, visitors will be welcome. I'm doing a signing on Saturday 15th April. Come on down!

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PS. There will be chocolates.
 
Nice cover art.

Ludlow is a beautiful market town and hosting the significant remains of Ludlow Castle, which has a lot of history.

Also the home of 'Crash Towers' where were created the wonderful 8 bit computer magazines of the 1980s.

With the release of this book, yet another reason to visit.
 
Nice cover art.

Ludlow is a beautiful market town and hosting the significant remains of Ludlow Castle, which has a lot of history.

Also the home of 'Crash Towers' where were created the wonderful 8 bit computer magazines of the 1980s.

With the release of this book, yet another reason to visit.
That's the Ludlow Castle of Milton's Comus masque? Wow!
 
That's the Ludlow Castle of Milton's Comus masque? Wow!


I wasn't aware of that, but for most of its life it was in action, being on the Welsh Marches, and was home to a number of future Kings of England as it was a educational in relation to running kingdom, it being effectively used for the ruling and administration of Wales (from an English perspective).

A few years ago the castle was host to the Heritage Cup which was effectively a cross between an MMA fight and the Royal Rumble, but wearing armour and sporting unsharpened knightly weapons. It truly was an awesome experience to see up to 8 knights facing off against each other. There are videos available on Youtube, and it's a real shame that they don't seem to host it any more.
 
I'll always have a fondness for Milton's Comus masque, for its own delights and because it was a good way to lead students into Milton. I taught a two-semester introduction to British literature course, and included this and several shorter poems ("L'Allegro" and "Il Penseroso," etc.). The students didn't read any of Paradise Lost, but they learned that Milton was a poet they could enjoy. Since we didn't use a big doorstopper literature anthology, I gave them the text of the masque as a photocopied booklet, wrapped in a couple of pictures from Trina Schart Hyman's pictures for Margaret Hodges' retelling. That looks like Ludlow Castle -- !
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