Izar, The Amesbury Archer: A Pioneer Metal Smith
By Michael E Wills
Publication Date: 1st June 2021
Publisher: Independently Published
Page Length: 248 Pages
Genre: Historical Fiction
A Skeleton that tells a story!
Amesbury, just two miles from Stonehenge, is regarded as one of the oldest towns in Britain, with evidence of habitation for over 5000 years.
In 2002, a male skeleton was discovered there. It had lain undisturbed for almost that length of time.
Archaeological research showed that the man was born almost a thousand miles from where he died. He had lived in the period when the Stone Age was ending and the age of metal was dawning. The numerous items buried with him give tantalising clues about his way of life. In addition to archery equipment, there was evidence that he had been a pioneer metal worker.
This is the story of how he could have lived and died.
Pick up your copy of
Izar, The Amesbury Archer: A Pioneer Metal Smith
Michael Wills
Michael Wills was born on the Isle of Wight, UK, and educated at the Priory Boys School and Carisbrooke Grammar School. He trained as a teacher at St Peter's College, Saltley, Birmingham, before working at a Secondary school in Kent for two years.
After re-training to become a teacher of English as a Foreign Language he worked in Sweden for thirteen years. During this period he wrote several English language teaching books. His teaching career has included time working in rural Sweden, a sojourn that first sparked his now enduring interest in Scandinavian history and culture - an interest that after many years of research, both academic and in the field, led him to write Finn's Fate and the sequel novel, Three Kings, One Throne.
It was on a visit to New York in 2012 that Michael developed an interest in the American War of Independence. Subsequent research in Canada and USA led him to write The Wessex Turncoat, a novel about the life of a common soldier in the British Army of 1777, an army charged by the British monarch to retain the 13 American colonies for Britain.
With a background in teaching he has always been interested in providing reading opportunities for children. With his in mind, Michael embarked on writing a quartet of Viking adventures for young readers. The series is called "Children of the Chieftain". The first book, "Betrayed", was published in June 2015 and was long listed for the Historical Novel Society Indie Literature Competition 2016. The second book, "Banished" was published in December 2015. Bounty in 2017 and Bound For Home in 2019.
At the request of young grandchildren, Michael wrote a Viking story for children aged 5 to 9. Sven and the Purse of Silver was published in 2019. The book won a winner's medal in the 2020 "Wishing Shelf Awards".
In 2021 Michael published a story called "Izar, The Amesbury Archer". It is based on the discovery of the skeleton of a man who lived 4,500 years ago. His grave and the items in it, together with clues about his life from the features of the skeleton inspired a tale about a man who died over a thousand miles from his birthplace even though he had a severe handicap.
Moving from the Stone Age to the Second World War, in 2022, the author published children's books about young people who had been evacuated from big cities, to protect them from bombing. A boy and two girls swap city life for that of young farmers, but in so doing, they get involved in thrilling adventures. The award winning series is called, "Clifftop Farm in Wartime".
In 2021, Michael found an eleventh century runestone outside of a church near to Stockholm airport. The carving on the stone briefly told of the story of a Viking raider. Based on this and subsequent research, Michael wrote a novel called, "For the Want of Silver".
Although a lot of his spare time is spent with grandchildren, he also has a wide range of interests including researching for future books, writing, playing the guitar, and electronics.
Connect with Michael:
I have never read a book set in this era. How did you go about researching this era, it must have been very challenging?
ReplyDeleteI am really lucky to live in an area where there are still many vestiges of the Stone Age. I was able to visit many historic sites and see lots of artefacts in local museums. What I really had difficulty in appreciating was how slow was the advance of technology and what a huge leap was the coming of metal. A Stone Age axe made ten thousand years ago, was the same as one made five thousand years ago! And then almost suddenly came the jump to the new metal technology.
DeleteResearching this era must have been an incredibly challenging endeavor. I can only imagine where one would even begin, considering the scarcity of written sources available from that time. The process likely required extensive digging through archaeological findings, oral histories, and possibly even speculative interpretations of material culture. The sheer volume of time and effort you must have invested in sifting through such limited resources is truly impressive.
ReplyDeleteYes, it really was a challenge! For example, did people have names? Did places have names? How did they measure distance? (Stonehenge required very sophisticated measurements). I spent a lot of time in the pre-history department of Salisbury Museum. It may sound weird, but I also felt some kind of bonding with the man, Izar, whose skeleton and belongings are in the museum.
ReplyDelete