The Mortimer Seal
An aura of mystery surrounds a medieval ring that was once the seal of a powerful Marcher Lord. The story that unfolds around its possessor tells of treason and rebellion, betrayal and intrigue. It tells of love too, a love that spans the centuries.
Medically discharged from the army in 1999, Eddie Mortimer is on his way to Ludlow, the seat of his Marcher Lord ancestors, hoping to sell a family heirloom, the Mortimer Seal, when he has a brief but passionate interlude with a mysterious Welsh girl called Cathy.
Hospitalised after foiling a robbery, he finds that the people and events leading to his injury seem to coincide and become entangled with events from the early fifteenth century, where he becomes immersed in Owain Glyn Dwˆr’s struggle for Welsh independence and the part played in it by the Mortimers. In his traumatised state it is he who meets Glyn Dwˆr in the fateful battle at Pilleth in 1402.
He becomes enchanted too with Glyn Dwˆr’s daughter Catrin, although consumed with jealousy over her flirtations and continually haunted by distant memories of the wraith-like Cathy. He is an observer of Glyn Dwˆr’s early success in the war of independence, when the rebel becomes acclaimed Prince of Wales. Glyn Dwˆr’s power gradually wanes however, as Henry IV’s superior forces gain the advantage. For Mortimer the climax of the rebellion is reached when Harlech Castle is besieged by Prince Hal, the English Prince of Wales.
Thus Eddie’s dream is etched with historic reality, though perhaps the vicious battles and his two loves are all part of a dream from which there is no awakening.
ISBN: 9781852001148
Size: 217x140mm
Binding: hardback
Length: 327pp
About the author:
Bill Bailey
After leaving school in South Wales at fourteen, Bill Bailey worked as a steelworks laboratory assistant before joining the Royal Navy in which he served as a diver and, after gaining a commission, served in submarines.
Following his service career, he worked in various industries as a personnel manager or director and before retiring was a consultant to the then Secretary of State for the Environment.
With his first three published novels of historic Welsh interest, this and his previous book, Fortune ’s War, draw from his own experiences and knowledge of the navy as well as historical interest in the Second World War.
