Story of death, betrayal love and hope in 499BC (From Wharfedale Observer)

Story of death, betrayal love and hope in 499BC

9:00am Saturday 15th September 2012 in Local news

Wharfedale’s dramatic landscape has inspired a new novel set 500 years before the birth of Jesus.

Otley resident and keen walker Rob Godfrey says the ancient stone carvings he has encountered on the moors gave him the idea for his book Year of the Celt: Imbolc.

The story, which Rob describes as showing “how people have to come to terms with climate change”, is set in Otley in 499 BC when a tribe are facing all kinds of new challenges.

The publicity for the novel sets the scene: “The ice sheets are coming, driving all before them. From the northern lands, deer, wolves and people flee the encroaching snow and ice.

“In their wake comes death, betrayal, love and hope. A small village of the Brigantes tribe in northern England will be changed forever. This is their story.”

Rob, 58, said: “I’d done a lot of walking in Wharfedale for my earlier walking book, and I was mostly inspired to write this one by the local landscape, and also the many ancient stone carvings on the moors.

“It’s a story of how people have to come to terms with climate change, set at the onset of a mini ice age, in order to survive, which is something relevant to where we are today.”

The tale, the first part of a saga, follows the fortunes of the Scefinge, whose settlement occupies the site of modern-day Otley. They have to adapt to a large influx of refugees from the north, who are fleeing encroaching ice-sheets.

More details about the book, which is on sale online now, and of walks that take in the locations around Otley and Ilkley featured in it, can be found at yearofthecelt.co.uk.