The Abbess of Norburyness

The Abbess of Norburyness cover

The Abbess of Norburyness is the eighth in a series of Queen of Gondal books and is a quasi-historical AU of the BBC Sherlock series set (more or less) in three fantasy kingdoms devised by the Bronte children. The earlier part of The Abbess of Norburyness takes place over the years preceding the events ofThe Crown Princess of Gaaldine; the final part occurs approximately six months after the events of The Curious Incident of the Knight in the Library. You might like to refer to their suggested reading order, family trees & series information.

David Hebron grows up on a secluded country estate as a ward of the Abbey of Norburyness, kept in ignorance of his true origins, his very name selected from the Bible by random chance. As he passes from boyhood to adulthood a sequence of apparently chance events begin to show him who he is and what he has the potential to become. Others, though, also have plans. For them, David Hebron represents an new battlefield in the unending struggles between Gondal and Gaaldine, aristocracy and monarchy, religious tolerance and  repression. On a bridge above a rushing beck in the mountainous North-East corner of Gaaldine David Hebron is about to come face to face with a member of his true family for the first time. The consequences will shake kingdoms to their foundations.

Warnings: The author chooses not to warn.

Advisory: The time period is the late seventeenth century and readers should bear in mind that this saga contains the doings of a set of supremely dysfunctional more-or-less European Royal families steeped in the “divine right of kings” ideology of monarchy, filtered through an early nineteenth century Romantic/Gothick sensibility and then depicted using the freedom of expression afforded by the early twenty-first century internet.

Furthermore, if the Greek myths contemplated it, some member of the Royal houses of Gondal, Angria or Gaaldine has probably put it into practice somewhere.

Gentle reader, consider yourself advised accordingly.

Acknowledgements:
As every, thanks to caulkhead for betaing.

The original central cover oil painting is of the ‘Die Teufelsbrücke St. Gotthard’ by Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851). The fonts used in this book are from the Source Serif Pro font family by Frank Grießhammer.

The images and fonts were used under license detailed on their respective website pages at the date of this book publication.

As usual, Russ from shoes for industry designed the book cover, produced the books and compiled the on-line work.

The opinions, prejudices, faults and spelling herein are all my own work, and I apologise in advance for them.


This novella is rated PG. You might also like to consider other books set in the Sherlock fandom or read more books in the Queen of Gondal series.

- First Edition: 24th Apr 2012
- 2nd Edition: 16th May 2012
- 3rd Edition: 12th Apr 2021

This work is created as a transformative work on a not-for-profit basis. All rights in the underlying properties are those of their respective holders.


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