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Leslie Barringer

(1895-1968)
Leslie Barringer was born in Yorkshire England and was a Quaker. He was wounded while serving in World War I. After returning to England, he held several jobs, including working as a civil servant at the Central Office of Information, as an editor for Thomas Nelson & Sons, and as an editor for the BBC and the Amalgamated Press. While he worked at Amalgamated Press, he wrote outlines of world history for their Children’s Encyclopedia. Leslie Barringer and his wife had four daughters. Besides The Neustrian Cycle, he also wrote historical fiction.
The Neustrian cycle

The Neustrian cycle — (1927-1948) From Wikipedia: Barringer’s main body of work, the Neustrian Cycle, is a trilogy beginning with Gerfalcon; these novels were set around the fourteenth century in an alternate medieval France called Neustria (historically an early division of the Frankish kingdom). According to John Clute, “The basic premise, vaguely presented, is that the Merovingian Dynasty does not split apart cAD750; instead, Neustria survives, and at the time of the three tales (c1400) is still thriving.” He notes further that “The sequence’s alternative-world displacement serves not as an opening for magic but as a freeing of LB’s imagination; the Neustria Cycle is far more intense and eloquent than his more-straightforward historical novels.” The three books revolve around the character of Raoul of Ger, the protagonist of the first book and a secondary character in the later two, Joris of the Rock and Shy Leopardess. Each is a coming of age story.

Leslie Barringer Neustrian Cycle Gerfalcon Joris of the Rock Shy LeopardessLeslie Barringer Neustrian Cycle Gerfalcon Joris of the Rock Shy LeopardessLeslie Barringer Neustrian Cycle Gerfalcon Joris of the Rock Shy Leopardess

Gerfalcon: Great read for a mature teenager

Gerfalcon by Leslie Barringer

Raoul will one day be baron of peaceful marshy Marckmont, but until his eighteenth birthday, he’s under the protection of his Uncle Armand, Count of the bleak and windy crags of Ger. Armand has no love for the slight and introspective Raoul, and can’t understand why his nephew would rather play chess and write songs than hunt animals. Raoul, a romantic, likes to think about beautiful things, but at Ger, “you must be smothered in blood before they think you are a man.”

When Raoul is told he can’t go with Armand’s company to the tourney in Belsaunt, he sneaks away and visits the tourney anyway. There he sees, and instantly falls in love with, the beautiful lady Yseult de Olencourt. He is flogged when he returns to Ger, so he runs away and seeks a position in a noble house until he is old enough to claim his quiet and solitary barony.

After leaving Ger, Raoul meets the folk of ... Read More

July 13th, 2011. ´s rating: | | SFF Reviews | no comments