BEHIND THE SCENES

“Writers must believe what they write,” says Warner; “otherwise, they don’t write at top form. When something devastating happens to one of my main characters, it is almost akin to having it happen to a living person in my life.”

Warner was inspired to write THE LIFE & TRAVELS OF SAINT CUTHWIN by his love of medieval literature and history. “The 11th century was so central to the changes and impact on our language,” says Warner. The novel took Irving Warner seven years of arduous research and six years to write. It was no small task. His research included many handwritten notes, which he then transferred to his computer files. It was his objective to remain faithful to the texture and ambience of the 11th century Saxon world of his fictional character, Cuthwin, and to that end he has written an extraordinary novel. I hope you will consider reviewing this outstanding literary achievement.

Vetted by medieval scholars for historical detail and authenticity, the reader is thoroughly immersed in the medieval period, experiencing in one’s imagination along with the narrator, what it was like for an ordinary person living in the 11th century. For the common folk, life was filled with hardship and constant struggle: most importantly the struggle just to stay alive. Famine and poverty were rampant as well as lawlessness. One’s life was always at risk from marauding bandits. The only safe havens were the abbeys and, living under the of auspices of the clergy, one was subject to their avarice and their corruption, and their often ruthless and hypocritical behavior, as young Cuthwin learned as a young boy, when he ran away to escape being brutally flogged for imitating the untoward behavior of one of the abbey’s guardians.