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David Clement-Davies | |
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| Born | 6 January 1964 London |
| Occupation | Author, Sculptor |
| Nationality | British |
| Genre | Animal Fantasy Fiction |
| Notable works | Fire Bringer The Sight Scream of the White Bears |
David Clement-Davies (born 6 January 1964) is a British author and sculptor. He is known for animal fantasy fiction The Sight , Fire Bringer and Fell (sequel to The Sight).
David Clement-Davies was born in 1964 and went to Westminster School and Edinburgh University where he read History and English Literature, specialising in the Italian Renaissance, and Russian Literature and Society. He began his writing career as a freelance travel journalist, and his first novel, Fire Bringer , was published in 1999. It was followed by The Sight and Fell . He has also written a musical, two adult novels, and is currently working on a play, set in the present and the 17th century, called Startled Anatomies, alongside his children's books. [1]
Clement-Davies lived in the Andalusia region of Spain, and in London. [2] He now lives and works on sculpting in Pietrasanta, Italy, where he moved in 2017 with his dog Rascal.
Fire Bringer is a novel about Rannoch, a red deer, born in ancient Scotland on the same night that his father was murdered. [3] But Rannoch is no ordinary deer; he is special, for he bears a white mark on his forehead resembling an oak leaf. To the Herla, as the red deer called themselves, this white mark holds great meaning and power, for it was stated in a prophecy that the deer who was born with the mark would bring freedom to all Herla in the future, and that the bearer of the oak mark would have the ability to communicate with all animals.
First however, Rannoch must survive. Bucks formerly brawled and fought for the leadership, but that way was erased completely, instead replaced by a Lord of Herds, Drail. His helper, Sgorr, who has militarised the herd by making the stags sharpen their horns, training and drilling the young bucks, and will take no resistance. He realises the threat Rannoch poses to his leadership. Rannoch escapes from the herd, but deep down in his heart, he knows that he must return, to unite the deer, and end Sgorr's reign of terror. [4]
Richard Adams, author of the classic Watership Down, called Fire Bringer 'one of the best anthropomorphic fantasies known to him'. It was long-listed as a first novel for the Carnegie Medal in the UK. Fire Bringer and The Sight have received starred Kirkus Reviews, Famils Awards in the US, and made him a Booksense 76 Collection choice.
Clement-Davies's second novel, The Sight, is set in Transylvania (modern-day Romania), and is about a pack of wolves, seeking shelter from the harsh winters in the shadow of an abandoned castle (named the "Stone Den"). Palla, the alpha female of the pack, is about to give birth to a litter. They are being pursued by Morgra, Palla's half-sister, and her raven, Kraar. Morgra possesses the gift of the Sight, a strange power that gives her many abilities, among them the power to look through the eyes and mind of birds. It is revealed to her that one of the cubs born to Palla (Larka), has the gift of the Sight, only far more powerful than her own ability. Morgra wishes to use this power, to take control of this world and the next, but the pack she hunts is brave and loving. They will do anything, and everything, to protect one of their own, even if it sets in motion a battle that will involve all of nature, including the creature the wolves fear most: Man.
The Sight was inspired by Clement-Davies' travel to Romania in the winter, 1990, where he learned of superstitious tales and local folklore (such as Dracula). [ citation needed ]
His third book, The Alchemists of Barbal, is an adventure story about a bold character named Silas Root.
The walled city of Barbal lies in the middle of the desert, where Mardak the Dark reigns supreme over the land. There is little knowledge of this mysterious master of Alchemy, except that he wears a golden mask and has a tremendous ambition for power and knowledge. Mardak's obsessions have already resulted in the imprisonment of the Lord Alchemist, his archrival. Now nothing, no one, stands in his path except for young Silas Root. Small and determined Silas sets off for Barbal armed with but a simple stone talisman and control over his own destiny. On his incredible journey, he encounters a winged demon and even an army of lost souls. Can Silas muster the ultimate courage to confront and defeat such evil and the man behind the mask? Well – the future of magic depends on it.
Clement-Davies varied slightly from his animal tales when he published The Telling Pool in August 2005. The Telling Pool tells the story of Rhodri Falcon and his crusader father who become entangled in the war of a king and the machinations of a seductive sorceress – one who literally steals men's hearts. Rhodri must discover the hero within him, a hero the amazing magic of the Telling Pool links to ancient heroes and even more ancient faiths. While finding powers within him that he had no idea about Rhodri must reclaim his fathers heart before the damage is undoable.
With only two other novels The Telling Pool was short-listed for the Tir Na Nog prize for best foreign language novel set in or related to Wales.
Fell, released in October 2007, is a sequel of The Sight. In this continuation of the original story the complexities of Larka's brother, Fell, are further explored nearly five years following the initial story. Fell, now a 'Kerl' or loner, having been on a long spiritual journey in search of answers, has instead found himself another task for his lasting youth supposedly preserved by the strange power of the Sight. A human girl, Alina Sculcuvant, is strangely connected with the past of the black wolf now feared as a ghost or legend. Rescued from the snows as only a child by the shepherd Malduk, who throughout her growing years makes her "dress as a boy and work twice as hard as one".
Even stranger is the odd power Alina holds. The girl possesses the Sight. As the truth comes to the surface Alina finds herself on a journey of self-discovery just like Fell but not entirely willingly. Instead with the bounty of a King on her head she is forced to set off on a journey where her path is crossed by a strange, lonely black wolf, Fell. Her journeys consist of hardship and heart-loss as she learns the true history of her past, and the secrets of life itself.
Like The Sight, Fell further explores the relationship between man and animal in this successful continuation of his original story though travels a different path than the first novel making for a new, intriguing tale of this strange anti-hero.
In 2009, out of a publishing battle in the US and now 'disillusioned with so much of the climate of modern publishing' David Clement-Davies took back the eBook rights to his novels from all his publishers, in the UK and US, and founded his own Press – PhoenixArkPress – 'The Storyteller's Publisher', founded by writers and artists, for writers and artists. He started a blog, to tell some truths about books and publishing, to create 'cultural essays' and to give readers a novel 'as it is written' – "Dragon in the Post".
One of his first stories in three years, published in 2011 and for a younger audience, it is the tale of Jotto, the brave mouse with sea blue eyes and a leather waistcoat, who can draw perfect circles and who escapes his brow-beaten home to become an artist in the dangerous Renaissance city of Florence. There he has many adventures, meets none other than the great Michelangelo himself and learns how to become 'famous'. It mixes real history with comic fact in a romp through art and culture, that is basically about the fighting artistic spirit.
David Clement-Davies made his first outing into adult fiction in early 2011 under the pen name David C Davies. The Blood Garden is a very adult thriller, that virtually creates a new genre, the vampire and modern crime story in one. It is highly wrought, set in Covent Garden in London and at Britain's Royal Ballet, as well as many other London locations, where he intricately weaves his common themes of fantasy versus reality, with a dark love story.
Clement-Davies is currently working on a new series too, the first of which will be called The Terror Time Spies. [5] He also wrote a book called Scream of the White Bears
In Greek mythology, Narcissus was a hunter from Thespiae in Boeotia who was known for his beauty. According to Tzetzes, he rejected all romantic advances, eventually falling in love with his own reflection in a pool of water, staring at it for the remainder of his life. After he died, in his place sprouted a flower bearing his name.
Zhu Bajie, also named Zhu Wuneng, is one of the three helpers of Tang Sanzang and a major character of the 16th century novel Journey to the West. Zhu means "swine" and Bajie means "eight precepts". Buddhist scholars consider that both expressions are related to "Śīla pāramitā". In many English versions of the story, Zhu Bajie is called "Pigsy" or "Pig".
Viriconium is a series of novels and stories written by M. John Harrison between 1971 and 1984, set in and around the fictional city of the same name.
In English folklore, Herne the Hunter is a ghost associated with Windsor Forest and Great Park in the English county of Berkshire. He is said to have antlers growing from his head, ride a horse, torment cattle, and rattle chains. The earliest mention of Herne comes from William Shakespeare's 1597 play The Merry Wives of Windsor, and it is impossible to know how accurately or to what degree Shakespeare may have incorporated a real local legend into his work, though there have been several later attempts to connect Herne to historical figures, pagan deities, or ancient archetypes.
Scream of the Shalka is a Flash-animated series based on the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was produced to coincide with the 40th Anniversary of the series and was originally posted in six weekly parts from 13 November to 18 December 2003 on bbc.co.uk's Doctor Who website.
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Owain Lawgoch, full name Owain ap Thomas ap Rhodri, was a Welsh soldier who served in Lombardy, France, Alsace, and Switzerland. He led a Free Company fighting for the French against the English in the Hundred Years' War. As a politically active descendant of Llywelyn the Great in the male line, he was a claimant to the title of Prince of Gwynedd and of Wales.
Herla or King Herla is a legendary leader of the mythical Germanic Wild Hunt and the name from which the Old French term Herlequin may have been derived. Herla often has been identified as Woden and in the writings of the twelfth-century writer Walter Map, he is portrayed as a legendary king of the Britons who became the leader of the Wild Hunt after a visit to the Otherworld, only to return some three hundred years later, after the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain.
Uncle Silas, subtitled "A Tale of Bartram-Haugh", is an 1864 Victorian Gothic mystery-thriller novel by the Irish writer J. Sheridan Le Fanu. Despite Le Fanu resisting its classification as such, the novel has also been hailed as a work of sensation fiction by contemporary reviewers and modern critics alike. It is an early example of the locked-room mystery subgenre, rather than a novel of the supernatural, but does show a strong interest in the occult and in the ideas of Emanuel Swedenborg, a Swedish scientist, philosopher and Christian mystic.
The Graveyard Book is a young adult novel by the English author Neil Gaiman, simultaneously published in Britain and America in 2008. The Graveyard Book traces the story of the boy Nobody "Bod" Owens who is adopted and reared by the supernatural occupants of a graveyard after his family is brutally murdered.
Fire Bringer is a young adult fantasy novel by David Clement-Davies published in 1999, in the United Kingdom and 2000, in the United States. It tells the story of Rannoch, a red deer whose life is the subject of an old prophecy among the deer.
Billy Webb's Amazing Stories is a 1991 CBBC mini series by Steve Attridge, continuing the story of Billy Webb, a character in the book the series was based on, Alfonso Bonzo created by Andrew Davies.
"The Unicorn and the Wasp" is the seventh episode of the fourth series of the revived British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was aired by BBC One on 17 May 2008 at 19:00.
The Sight is a young adult fantasy novel written by British author David Clement-Davies. It is the first novel in The Sight series, with its sequel Fell taking place after. It follows a pack of wolves cursed by a lone wolf, Morgra, whose powers fortell the destiny of one of the mother wolf's pups: Larka, a white wolf gifted with a mysterious power known as The Sight. The story follows Larka's life as she is burdened with pain and terror that comes with the prophecy, as well as seeing the viewpoints of Larka's parents, Huttser and Palla, and her adoptive brother Kar.
"Journey's End" is the thirteenth and final episode of the fourth series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast on BBC One on 5 July 2008. It is the second episode of a two-part crossover story featuring the characters of spin-off shows Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures, preceded by "The Stolen Earth", which aired on 28 June. At 65 minutes in length, it was approximately 20 minutes longer than a standard fourth series episode. It marked the final regular appearances of every companion introduced in the Russell T Davies era, including Catherine Tate as Donna Noble.
Sight is visual perception.
Fell is a novel, written by David Clement-Davies as a follow-up to The Sight. The book was published in 2007 by Amulet Books. It follows the story of Fell, a wolf who left his pack after the events of The Sight.
Neverland is a fantasy miniseries that aired on the Syfy network on December 4 and 5, 2011, and Sky Movies on December 9 and 16 December on Zee Cinema (India), written and directed by Nick Willing. It is a prequel to the story of Peter Pan.
Shadow and Bone is a young adult fantasy adventure and debut novel written by Israeli-American author Leigh Bardugo. It was published by Macmillan Publishers on June 5, 2012. The novel is narrated by Alina Starkov, a teenage orphan who grows up in the Russia-inspired land of Ravka when, unexpectedly harnessing a power she never knew she had in order to save her childhood best friend, she becomes a target of intrigue and violence. It is the first book in the Shadow and Bone trilogy, followed by Siege and Storm and Ruin and Rising. It is also the basis for the Netflix adaptation, Shadow and Bone, which premiered in April 2021.
The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter is a 2017 novel by Theodora Goss. It is her debut novel, though she is an author of many short works. Strange Case is the first installment of The Extraordinary Adventures of the Athena Club series, and is followed by European Travel for the Monstrous Gentlewoman. The story follows Mary Jekyll, daughter of the literary character Dr. Jekyll, as she meets and connects with the fictional daughters of major literary characters, and works with and faces various famous 19th century literary personae, including Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, Frankenstein's monster, and others to solve the mystery of a series of killings in London, as well as the mystery of her own family story. Drawing on classic gothic and horror creations of the 19th century, such as The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, Frankenstein, Rappaccini's Daughter, The Island of Doctor Moreau, Dracula and the Sherlock Holmes stories, Goss reimagines the works of such literary greats as Mary Shelley, Robert Louis Stevenson, H. G. Wells, Bram Stoker and Nathaniel Hawthorne from a feminist perspective, as well as the historical record of the Jack the Ripper murders. At the center of the narrative is the connection and various experiences of the women who form the Athena Club, the oppressions they experience, and how they empower each other to accomplish great things.
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