“No-one needs to fight a war, no-one needs to hurt their neighbours or their friends; there is no point in time when such actions become a just cause, yet I tell you to stand for what you believe in, to be strong together. You can find your future without war. You are great in number. If you stand side by side and do not waver, you will succeed. I believe that you know this is true. You only need to believe your own strength, and feel your own strength together to understand that you can yet win back your lives against all odds.”
This quotation from my book The Legends of the Ages makes a point about power of a widely held belief that seems to resonate in today’s world. As I write this (March 2026) there are wars raging in a number of places started by world leaders who are little more than childish bullies abusing their positions of power to everyone’s cost. Indeed, it is a sad state of affairs. How can they be stopped and the murder of innocents cease? There is no easy answer.
In a way, The Legends of the Ages is about this dilemma. Just a story and a fantasy at that, I realise, but the impetus was the ongoing destruction of all our societies my a small number of self interested and arrogant politicians failing their constituents in whatever country they may reside. That was one reason for placing the story in an imaginary place; so it can apply to all. Readers will recognise some of the behaviours described from past and present events in the real world. My hope is always that it might make people think about the world in which we live and the need to care about our fellow man. The following quote from the book makes this point.
“I have come to believe many things these last days and this I know: none of us owns anything on this earth – we are all just keepers in trust of all we survey. Our work is to nurture the world and make it better for our children. Greed and fighting, and hate can never succeed beyond the moment it ceases, and cease it must. It is our task to stop it this day.”
A further quote to add to the argument: ‘Revolutions are not righteous, romantic affairs such as may be found in epic stories; they are an ugly, violent, painful, murderous madness where all are blood brothers with the devil and carry his barbed knife intent in their obsession. They tear apart society, families, individuals, lovers, colleagues, friends and leave only tears to soak into the blood-stained muddy ground. They take all that is good and feed it into the furnaces of evil.’
The Legends of the Ages is a faerie tale in the old tradition: of greed, of hunger, of war, of hope and love. When grief and suffering are inflicted on a struggling people by their arrogant leaders, ignorant and disdainful of the needs of those around them, it is no surprise that a small group of revolutionaries vow to bring down those in power.
Bella returns to a land where revolution and war are close at hand and finds an uneasy quiet. She is driven to help the innocent citizens caught up in the turmoil, and seeks to put right the wrongs with all her energy and belief, only to encounter the full horror of tragedy and disaster.
Paperback edition: 282 pages. Approx 142,000 words. ISBN: 978-1-9999455-4-1.
Available to buy online from: Great British Bookshop
Exoddy 