The Cock o’ the North
A.J. Hall
The Cock o’ the North is the fifteenth 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. It is also a cross-over with the BBC Life on Mars series. You might like to refer to their suggested reading order, family trees & series information.
The border between Gondal and Gaaldine is a turbulent land, ruled by blood and feud and whose mailed fist strikes hardest. The five short days of the Pentecost Truce offer the only interval of peace in the Border year. For the first time Charis sits in her mother’s place as President of the Truce, and everyone is watching, waiting for her to make a mistake.
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.
Dedicated, with enormous gratitude, to my beta caulkhead.
Acknowledgements:
As every, thanks to caulkhead for betaing and clanwilliam for hoof-picking.
The original central cover image is based upon a photograph of the painting ‘Old Fox held by a Groom’ by James Seymour (1702–1752). 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 short story is rated
PG.
You might also like to consider other books set in the Sherlock or Life on Mars fandoms or read more books in the Queen of Gondal series.
- First Edition: 15th Jun 2014
- 2nd 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.