From Publishers Weekly
Screenwriter Galland debuts impressively with a steamy historical romance about a medieval Welsh queen's love affair with the king's best friend—his profane, hyperactive royal fool. The year is 1198, and King Maelgwyn (mercifully nicknamed Noble) of Maelienydd has wed the young Englishwoman Isabel Mortimer in hopes of neutralizing her uncle Roger, a powerful baron with designs on Noble's small kingdom. But almost from their wedding night, the political marriage of Isabel and Noble is a disaster: she is headstrong and tomboyish, "far from his ideal"; he is temperamental, tyrannical and unwilling to give up "nonconjugal fornication." Even worse for Isabel is his unfathomable relationship with the fool Gwirion, whose outrageous pranks and lewd public performances humiliate her. But when Noble goes off to fight Roger Mortimer, a siege on the castle by an opportunistic Welsh prince forces Isabel and Gwirion to confront each other, and to finally acknowledge their traitorous passion. Galland creates memorable characters—particularly Gwirion—who sound authentically regal yet earthy. She strikingly captures the murky Welsh setting and even murkier politics. The novel is occasionally short on plot, but readers will relish the energetic emotional back-and-forth of the protagonists' ceaseless trysting. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
It is Wales, in the year 1198, and King Maelgwyn ap Cadwallon, better known to his people as Noble, is fighting to keep his kingdom from falling to the English. To create an alliance, Noble weds Isabel Mortimer, the niece of the English baron Roger Mortimer, who years earlier killed Noble's father. Isabel has no easy time of it as Noble flaunts his mistresses in her face and allows Gwirion, Noble's oldest friend, to ridicule her without reproach. Gwirion, of unknown birth, holds the highest honor in Noble's court but has no real power. His sole purpose is to amuse the king, who gives him the affectionate title of "fool." But as threats of war from the English consume Noble, Gwirion and Isabel come to a truce, and their new relationship may also threaten Noble's crown. Galland's first novel is an entertaining saga adeptly weaving together political intrigue and deceit, love that both unifies and divides, loyalty that teeters on treason, and the desire for freedom, which comes with a hefty price. Carolyn Kubisz
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Book Description
A spellbinding voice in historical fiction makes her remarkable debut in a moving and beautifully rendered tale of love and politics, loyalty and duplicity -- and the extreme lengths to which such forces drive us
The year 1198. All of Wales is in turmoil. King Maelgwyn ap Cadwallon, known to his people as Noble, is struggling to protect his small kingdom from treacherous Welsh princes and Roger Mortimer, an ambitious English baron who murdered Noble's father years earlier. Desperate to secure a peace treaty, the king grimly agrees to a political marriage with Isabel Mortimer, Roger's niece.
Isabel, not yet twenty, is confounded by the intimacy and informality of the Welsh court, which to her foreign eyes looks barbaric and backward. As determined and willful as she is naïve, she eventually earns the respect and affection of her husband and his subjects -- with the notable exception of Gwirion, the king's oldest and oddest friend, who has a particular, private reason to hate Mortimers.
Gwirion's rascally tricks and diversions are expected -- and relished -- by all at Cymaron Castle. But a disastrous prank played during the royal wedding ignites a volatile competition between queen and confidant for the king's affection, with most unexpected consequences.
As Mortimer makes it apparent that he has no intention of honoring the peace treaty, the bond between Noble and Isabel grows strained. And when Gwirion and Isabel's mutual animosity is abruptly transformed, Noble finds himself as threatened by those he loves best as by the enemies who menace his crown.
A masterful debut novel by a gifted storyteller, The Fool's Tale combines vivid historical fiction, compelling political intrigue, and passionate romance to create an intimate drama of three individuals bound -- and undone -- by love and loyalty.
The Fool's Tale: A Novel of Medieval Wales FROM OUR EDITORS
The Barnes & Noble Review from Discover Great New Writers
The Fool's Tale is a thoroughly enjoyable romp through medieval Wales, told from three primary points of view: that of Gwirion, court Fool; King Maelgwyn ap Cadwallon, known as Noble; and Isabel, Noble's newlywed queen and niece of his sworn English enemy. Gwirion has a tenuous position to uphold: He is both the court jester and the king's best friend. He alone may criticize Noble, provided he does so with wit, and he repeatedly takes public liberties that would mean immediate execution for any other royal subject.
Noble wishes to quell the deep animosity that exists between Gwirion and Isabel, who must each fight for their share of Noble's attention; but this pursuit is overshadowed by his need to protect his kingdom from both English invaders and other ambitious Welsh princes. As the king becomes consumed with maintaining power and strives to establish contested borders, other boundaries within his court are suffering breaches, and with much greater potential risk.
Though it is Gwirion's role to turn things at court upside down with his truth telling, it is also his role to stay forever a winsome and clever fool. Noble considers him irreplaceable but, with the threat of his loss, finds himself fighting inner battles that are much more challenging and infinitely more dangerous than the mere securing of borders. (Spring 2005 Selection)
FROM THE PUBLISHER
A spellbinding voice in historical fiction makes her remarkable debut in a moving and beautifully rendered tale of love and politics, loyalty and duplicity—and the extreme lengths to which such forces drive us
The year 1198. All of Wales is in turmoil. King Maelgwyn ap Cadwallon, known to his people as Noble, is struggling to protect his small kingdom from treacherous Welsh princes and Roger Mortimer, an ambitious English baron who murdered Noble's father years earlier. Desperate to secure a peace treaty, the king grimly agrees to a political marriage with Isabel Mortimer, Roger's niece.
Isabel, not yet twenty, is confounded by the intimacy and informality of the Welsh court, which to her foreign eyes looks barbaric and backward. As determined and willful as she is naïve, she eventually earns the respect and affection of her husband and his subjects—with the notable exception of Gwirion, the king's oldest and oddest friend, who has a particular, private reason to hate Mortimers.
Gwirion's rascally tricks and diversions are expected—and relished—by all at Cymaron Castle. But a disastrous prank played during the royal wedding ignites a volatile competition between queen and confidant for the king's affection, with most unexpected consequences.
As Mortimer makes it apparent that he has no intention of honoring the peace treaty, the bond between Noble and Isabel grows strained. And when Gwirion and Isabel's mutual animosity is abruptly transformed, Noble finds himself as threatened by those he loves best as by the enemies who menace his crown.
A masterful debut novel by a gifted storyteller, The Fool'sTale combines vivid historical fiction, compelling political intrigue, and passionate romance to create an intimate drama of three individuals bound—and undone—by love and loyalty.
About the Author:
Award-winning screenwriter Nicole Galland is the literary manager at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. Raised on Martha's Vineyard, she now lives in the Bay Area in California, where she is working on her second novel.
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
Screenwriter Galland debuts impressively with a steamy historical romance about a medieval Welsh queen's love affair with the king's best friend-his profane, hyperactive royal fool. The year is 1198, and King Maelgwyn (mercifully nicknamed Noble) of Maelienydd has wed the young Englishwoman Isabel Mortimer in hopes of neutralizing her uncle Roger, a powerful baron with designs on Noble's small kingdom. But almost from their wedding night, the political marriage of Isabel and Noble is a disaster: she is headstrong and tomboyish, "far from his ideal"; he is temperamental, tyrannical and unwilling to give up "nonconjugal fornication." Even worse for Isabel is his unfathomable relationship with the fool Gwirion, whose outrageous pranks and lewd public performances humiliate her. But when Noble goes off to fight Roger Mortimer, a siege on the castle by an opportunistic Welsh prince forces Isabel and Gwirion to confront each other, and to finally acknowledge their traitorous passion. Galland creates memorable characters-particularly Gwirion-who sound authentically regal yet earthy. She strikingly captures the murky Welsh setting and even murkier politics. The novel is occasionally short on plot, but readers will relish the energetic emotional back-and-forth of the protagonists' ceaseless trysting. Agent, Liz Darhansoff. (Jan. 4) Forecast: Galland's story of her charmed research trip to Wales (among other lucky breaks, a random couple invited her to stay with them while she wrote the book) could help rouse bookseller interest in this promising debut. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
Library Journal
The plot of this first novel strongly resembles the saga of King Arthur, Guinevere, and Lancelot but with alterations of character and place (medieval Wales instead of Cornwall). The King, nicknamed Noble, believes that the end always justifies the means, while "Lancelot" is the king's companion and friend, a foundling of heroic spirit who lives on sufferance until he saves the king's life during an ambush. Noble maintains Gwirion as his fool, encouraging his pranks, indulging him with favors, and allowing him to ridicule everyone at court. Enter Isabel the bride, beautiful, intelligent, devout, and determined to win Noble's regard and put up with his imperial ways, including his fondness for the crude, scruffy Gwirion. The author's credentials from stage and screen work (Berkley Rep) are evident in her deft, dramatic dialog and pacing. This is less slick than James Patterson's The Jester but more believable. For all public libraries with historical fiction enthusiasts.-Mary K. Bird-Guilliams, Wichita P.L., KS Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
A strange triangle of relationships exhaustively analyzed in a debut historical set in late-12th-century Wales. In the time when that small country is divided into four "kingdoms," young monarch Maelgwyn ap Cadwallon (a.k.a. "Noble") contends with external threats (from English barons whose lands abut his own northwest border) and quarrels with rival Welsh princes. A prologue recounts the preadolescent prince's escape during the Norman attack that brought his father Cadwallon's death, the escape accomplished through the courage and guile of Noble's boyhood friend, lowborn foundling Gwirion. Years later, the adult Noble weds aristocrat Isabel Mortimer (daughter of his father's mortal enemies), hoping to cement truces and strengthen his kingdom's preeminence. But Isabel "fails" to bear him an heir and haughtily endures her unwelcome marriage (to a sovereign who prefers to bed comely kitchen wenches) and the impudent wit of Gwirion. The latter, now ensconced as Noble's court jester (or "fool"), is an inveterate prankster whose brazen disrespect for all authorities sometimes amuses the indulgent king, and sometimes puts Gwirion's very life in real peril. Things change when, after Noble goes off to battle, his castle is captured by Welsh invaders and his queen and fool are imprisoned together-and, to their mutual amusement and horror, start to fall in love. The long aftermath of these developments forces Noble (having recaptured his castle and his power-and eventually having realized how grievously he's been betrayed) to consider ridding himself of the one betrayer he considers expendable (for "Gwirion was nearly the only constant in the king's life since infancy. He could not be so rudelydispatched"). Galland's impressively researched potboiler suffers from random anachronisms and tends toward the underplotted. But the characters of Isabel, Noble, and especially Gwirion are deftly drawn, and racy depictions of their fateful interactions become quite compulsively readable. Not a major historical novel, but a highly entertaining one. Agent: Liz Darhansoff/Darhansoff, Verrill, Feldman
Art & Photography
Book Info
