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Garry Douglas Kilworth is a British author of young adult, science fiction, and historical fiction novels. He was born in York, England during World War II in 1941. He spent much of his childhood traveling across the globe with his brothers, mother, and father who was a soldier in the Royal Airforce. His favorite years were when the family lived in Yemen as he got to live like Kipling’s Kim and read a lot of classics from Rudyard Kipling and William Shakespeare. By the time he was fifteen, he had attended twenty-two different schools before he joined the Boy Entrants training school. It was a school that prepared youths that wanted a career in the RAF, which is a career he had always wanted to pursue. Once he graduated, he got into the RAF, where he spent nearly two decades and then went on to work in Cable and Wireless for nearly a decade. During that time, he was writing stories though he never got published. His big break came when he submitted a short story named “Let’s Go to Golgotha” that won the Sunday Times/Gollancz short story competition. Kilworth would later go back to school at King’s College, London University from where he graduated with an honors degree in English.
At 35 he published his debut novel, a science fiction novel titled “In Solitary.” Since then he has published several more titles in the fantasy and science fiction genre and several novelizations such as the historical “Highlander” novels that he wrote as Garry Douglas. He has written general fiction works such as “In The Hollow Of The Deep Sea Wave” and “Witchwater Country.” He has also written historical novels about country matters under the pseudonym FK Salwood. Unlike many of his contemporaries that stick to one genre or subject matter, Garry Douglas has written in a variety of genres and topics. His characters are also just as varied. However, when it comes to his personal life, he tends to be very loyal as he has been with the wife he married at 21 though he is now in his sixties. Together they have two children Chantelle and Richard who are also married and between them have given Garry five grandchildren.
Writing is something that Garry Douglas Kilworth has asserted that it is a compulsion that would make him an instant criminal if it was banned. He began writing children’s fiction in 1980 and this has become one of the major genres he has specialized in. However, Douglas believes it is still in the realm of ghost stories, science fiction, fantasy, speculative and imaginative fiction just like his straight fiction and adult novels. Over the years, he has been invited to give talks to aspiring authors in schools which he finds to be a lot of fun and a great learning experience. He currently has more than sixty novels in the “Angel,” “Electric Kid,” “Navigator Kings,” “Welkin Weasels,” “Fancy Jack Crossman,” “Red Pavilions” (as by Kim Hunter), “Knights of Liofwende,” and “Ensign Early” alongside several single standing novels. He has won several awards over the years including the World Fantasy Award, the British Science Fiction Award. He has also twice made the shortlist for the Carnegie Medal award and been the winner of the Lancashire Children’s Book of the Year Award. Overall, he has made the shortlist for more than twelve awards over the years in addition to winning the best short story at the Interzone Magazine poll for his novel “The Sculptor.” His short fiction and novels have been translated into more than 17 languages including Japanese and Hebrew.
Garry Kilworth’s “The Roof of Voyaging” that is the first of the “Navigator Kings” series is the fascinating story of one of the great Polynesian voyagers named Kupe. He had chased an enormous octopus across the ocean and discovered the mysterious and strange “Land of Mists” where he had rescued a woman and man from the wild sea. He had carried them to Raiatea, an island where the pale strangers are witness to the historic moments following the king’s death and the resultant succession struggle. But the gods are also interested in the happenings and when Tangiia the prince and his followers secretly abandon the island to go find a new home, the gods are forced to butt in. Delighting in the colorful and rich detail and Polynesian life, the novel is the first of beautiful tales that introduce the “Navigator Kings” series.
“The Princely Flower” by Garry Kilworth is set in the Land of the Mists. Kieto believes that his fate is to conquer the land but knows that the quest will be hard and long. The native tribes have horses and iron to their advantage but Kieto had once been told of the Maori, a vicious warrior tribe from whom he hopes to learn some valuable secrets of war. The fantasy novel is set in the Polynesian islands and Kilworth has perfectly described the manufacture of war clubs and other tools used in war. Kieto also has to study the beliefs and values of the cultures of the Polynesians that play a significant role in winning wars. Overall, he does not need to worry about food as they can get fish, breadfruit, and other foods on the islands easily. But he also needs to know how to navigate by using the smell of plants, the sound of breakers, and the color of the sea. He also needs to learn how to handle the gods that get angry at the slightest provocation.
“Land-of-Mists” by Garry Kilworth continues with the story of Keito who believes that he was fated to lead the Polynesians against the Picts and Celts of the Land of Mists. It is now time for him to fulfill his destiny as the boats are ready, the warriors are in formation and the gods are ready for war. Only the Celtic warrior Seumas, who had been kidnapped from the Celt homeland several years past dares speak out against the quest. But now that he is advancing in years and in pain from the loss of Dorcha his wife of many years, he is bitter with the world and no one takes him seriously. The great assembled army soon breaks camp and moves across the sea heading to a dangerous and unknown land. As expected, they have to deal with tragedy, storms, monsters, and magic en route to their destination where their fate will be decided by the gods. It makes for an exciting end to the Navigator Kings series.
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