Dave Emmerson
/
RSS Feed
This month CM Lowry is talking to author Cécile Cristofari, about The Accursed Kings book series by Maurice Druon in ‘This Book I Read…’
Topics covered include:
- The Accursed Kings is series of Historical Fiction books about the Capetian Kings in France. These books are based on the legend that this dynasty were cursed by the Grand Master of the Knights Templar while King Philip the Fair burned him at the stake.
- Cécile & CM have a fun chat about opposing views on the role and importance of France and England in European History
- Cécile reads a quote for us, which she has translated herself from the French language copy of Le Roi de fer (The King of Iron), book one of the series, which was first published in 1955. It gives us a wonderful example of how incredibly vivid Druon’s writing is.
- Cécile shares her favourite thing about the book – that even though it was written about the middle ages, it was filtered through the history of the time – Druon used this historical narrative to encourage the French people of the 50’s as they were busy trying to rebuild their country and society after the 2nd World War. The book has layers – it is both about French history and the Monarchy, and also about modern times and the corrupting nature of political power.
- CM Lowry asks Cécile has the book is as a story since it’s 2000 pages as therefore has the potential to be quite dense! Cécile shares that there are a great deal of characters and storylines and that it gained some attention recently as it was revealed that it inspired George R. R. Martin who wrote A Song of Ice and Fire, the book behind the TV series Game of Thrones. Like Game of Thrones there is a lot of brutality, sex, murder and intrigue in this series of books. However it maintains your interest with vivid detail.
- Cécile & CM have an interesting discussion about historical fiction and how you have to be careful to read it as literature & myth first, rather than assuming it’s all historically accurate.
- Cécile shares some problems with The King of Iron – Druon was a rather reactionary conservative, writing in the 1950’s! He is surprisingly compassionate in his writing about women and gay characters. However he’s overall thesis is that what a nation needs is a strong male leader which is problematic. His desire of great men to lead the world is borderline fascist and therefore very concerning.
- CM asks Cécile for other book suggestions that folks might want to read if they enjoy The Accursed Kings. They discuss how fantasy and sci-fi can be coupled with historic fiction to make for excellent literature.
Links to things we discussed:
- The Accursed Kings by Maurice Druon
- All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
- A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin
- The Sharpe series of books by Bernard Cornwell
- Civilisations by Laurent Binet
- The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
- The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay
- Elephants in Bloom by Cécile Cristofari
More about Cécile
- Cécile Website – Stay Where People Sing
- Cécile’s Blog – WordPress
More about us
- CM Lowry on X – @cmlowryauthor
- CM Lowry’s website – All About Chris
- Website – beyondcataclysm.co.uk
- Patreon – Patreon.com/beyondcataclysm
Music by CM Lowry. Editing by Dave Emmerson
