Forbidden love vs lethal hatred in East Sussex novel

Ellen Alpsten, aged 52, said: “The Last Princess is Gytha, the daughter of Harold II, who gives a feminine take on 1066, the founding myth of England: she flees the Normans, becomes a Viking slave and is caught up in a lethal conflict of faith and superstition, until a passionate love story lets her create an empire of her own.

“It's the first-ever novel about her and she is neither Tudor, nor Greek myth, but she is about us, albeit an utterly surprising, shocking, seductive and hitherto unknown us. The novel's accuracy touches on Ramirez's Femina, her epic sweep on Samantha Shannon's Priory work. Also, the book's themes of loss, displacement and betrayal are as Zeitgeist as Gytha's quest for trust, love and friendship.

“In a time, when women were perceived as cup-bearers, peace-weavers and memory-keepers, Gytha dares the unprecedented: she writes world history! She bridges myth and modernity. While the book is stringently researched historical fiction, it also teems with trolls, fairies, the wild hunt, handsome hunks, giants, malevolent stars, nasty Norse sorceresses and a beautiful, flame-haired Princess struggling to evade an evil spell.

“Also, she’s a true family affair. Not William brought the kingdom down, but the ferocious in-fighting of the Godwinsons. Also, Gytha Godwinson is an ancestress of my husband.

“The Last Princess was years in the making. This means hundreds of days of writing and re-writing just as many drafts – because the real work of a writer is in the ruthless edit! Yes, writers must torture the darlings properly before killing them. Crafting a novel is like baking a layer cake. So it is no wonder that if the novel starts out as a female retelling of 1066, it quickly becomes so much more than that.

“Ever since my father-in-law, who is a keen genealogist, told me about Gytha, her compelling story captivated me.

“It took me a long time to find the right starting point for The Last Princess: the novel’s narrative is set between December 1065 and Spring 1067. But then I had it. The Last Princess starts with a classic, introductory trick of historical fiction – a prologue. In autumn 1066, the English have seen off a Norwegian invasion and it seems too late in the year for any enemy to cross of the stormy, grey channel waters. Only a fool or a madman will dare to set sail. But then Halley’s Comet appears in the English night-sky. According to the Anglo Saxon Chronicles the celestial body heralded ‘great change for the kingdom’. These first pages set the scene for the whole novel: The Last Princess is about a new faith vs a deep-rooted superstition; unbreakable, sacred vows vs treachery that runs generations deep; and passionate, forbidden love vs lethal, unforgiving hatred.”

“It is book one of The Last Princess trilogy, which has the subtitle The Daughter of the House of Dragons. By the end of it, the reader will understand how it links up to my best-selling Tsarina series.”