• Author
  • Book
  • Story behind the book
  • Media Links
  • Reviews
Neil M Campbell

Neil M Campbell

About

I live on the west coast of Scotland, where I do landscape gardening and walk a lot amid splendid maritime and mountain scenery. I've always loved to write, finding it spiritually, psychologically and indeed physically beneficial. 
The story of Beauty and the Beast has fascinated me since childhood. I was swept away by La Belle et la Bete - still am every time I see it - but it wasn't until an event, described on the website shown above, took place in my own life that the seed was planted which later became The Advent of Lena.
 

 

A King Under Siege: Book One of The Plantagenet Legacy

A King Under Siege: Book One of The Plantagenet Legacy

0.0
0 ratings

Description

<p>Richard II found himself under siege not once, but twice in his minority. Crowned king at age ten, he was only fourteen when the Peasants' Revolt terrorized London. But he proved himself every bit the Plantagenet successor, facing Wat Tyler and the rebels when all seemed lost. Alas, his triumph was short-lived, and for the next ten years he struggled to assert himself against his uncles and increasingly hostile nobles. Just like in the days of his great-grandfather Edward II, vengeful magnates strove to separate him from his friends and advisors, and even threatened to depose him if he refused to do their bidding. The Lords Appellant, as they came to be known, purged the royal household with the help of the Merciless Parliament. They murdered his closest allies, leaving the King alone and defenseless. He would never forget his humiliation at the hands of his subjects. Richard's inability to protect his adherents would haunt him for the rest of his life, and he vowed that next time, retribution would be his.</p>

Story Behind The Book

A few years ago, one of my sons and I were having a midday drink in a City of London tavern. Some fellow customers, lunch break evidently over, started to head our way ― making for the exit, which happened to be close by us. As we stood aside to let the group filter by, my attention was snagged by the appearance in passing of the ugliest female I had ever seen in my life. The words just came out ― too loud: "How ugly is that?" "She heard you, Dad, she heard you," my son protested, appalled, and disgusted. And I knew she’d heard me ― I had seen it in her stricken eyes as she passed. I never will forget that look. The incident will haunt me to my dying day. I often wonder how she is ― how life has treated her, how she’s coping with the burden of her looks. I hope she’s found love and happiness, someone to adore her. This novel is a tribute to her, that stranger, and personal act of exorcism.

Media Links

Reviews

<p><small><big><span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:20px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);">What an utterly brilliant novel - an unique take on the Beauty and the Beast fable. In the hands of the immensely talented Neil Campbell,the story and the characters resonate with readers in a very personal and intense manner. Amazon Reviewer.</span></big></small></p> <p><small><big><span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:20px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);">Who's Beauty? Who's Beast? A wonderful twist to a classic tale. Amazon Reviewer</span></big></small></p> <p><span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:20px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);">If we are to believe that &quot;Beauty is in the eye of the beholder&quot;, then The Advent of Lena is not a tale about Beauty and the Beast, but the tale about beauty and one man's attempt at realizing it, within himself and in others.</span></p> <p><span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:20px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);">The Advent of Lena is a wonderfully written novel, with charm, character and wit. It's not just a Disney fairy tale - it is an honest take on a man searching for redemption, after an epiphany that the only path to his salvation goes through a woman he finds most repulsive. Amazon Reviewer</span></p>