about the author

Paul Hawkes is a lover of Greece and her beautiful countryside, in particular the magical isles with their own character and light, giving rise to the richest mythology on the planet. Paul has chosen to try to bring up to date and introduce to a much wider audience than the traditional classics perhaps our best book – certainly one of the oldest.
Paul also writes poems about the environmental crises. He came eighth in 2014 in the International Welsh Open Poetry Competition (with TolkienWW1Thomas and second in 2016 (with Shattering Earth 2016) and again in 2022 (with Ukraineing).
He lives in Aberteifi, by the River Teifi, near the coast of wonderfully wild south-west Wales, where the Welsh dolffins play

about the book

 Long ago in a far distant and different – though maybe not so – world, 1,250BCE, yet-to-be Greeks tried to retake that world’s most beautiful woman, Helen of Troy, ‘the face that launched a 1,000 ships’ (actually 1,034). She’d been seduced/abducted by Paris, the Trojan prince. If she existed she may have been an excuse for colonial conquest, like the non-existent ‘weapons of mass destruction’ of Iraq 2003, as Troy was a key trading centre. Or the war may have been due to widespread famine, thus mass migration in the Med.
This innovative take on Homer’s ancient epic Iliad uses a stream-of-consciousness style within a traditional ten-syllable rhyming structure. There are very graphic descriptions of one of our bloodiest wars, but also magic, as the god(desse)s interweave throughout, dispensing miracles for their favourites, nobbling rivals. Zeus, on Mount Olympus, plays chess master, pulling the strings, alongside Fate. And there are wonderful similes from the natural world.
Given new resonance by the continuing war in Ukraine, Troy’s timeless lessons are unfortunately likely to become more, not less, relevant with increasing competition for shrinking resources, and now that the crises of global heating and nuclear Armageddon threaten practically all life on the planet. The futility of war and destruction has always been humankind’s Achilles Heel! The ancient Greek earth-mother goddess GAIA has largely become (G)reed, (A)rrogance), (I)gnorance, (A)ggression. The power-brokers of our brave new world are descendants of those peoples past – do we have enough of whatever wisdom they had to survive?
If you like Greek mythology or history-fantasy or similar, you’ll love this modern twist on a tale of long ago…

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