Rise of the First Wessex King follows the life of author Alex (AJ) Proudfoot’s earliest known ancestor, traced back over 1,500 years of his family history.
The novel highlights the Romano-British origins of the great Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex.
Mr Proudfoot, a Fisherrow resident, is originally from Leith but has lived in East Lothian for 22 years – 11 years in Musselburgh and, before that, 11 years in Dunbar.
He started his career as an accountant, working in the brewing, publishing and financial sectors, before qualifying as a chartered marketer, working at the University of Edinburgh for more than 20 years.
After retiring in 2018, he spent his free time studying his Proudfoot family history.
He traced his ancestors through Annandale in Dumfriesshire and County Meath in Ireland, back to the first man to bear the Proudfoot surname, an early 12th-century sheriff of London called Gilbert Prúdfot, the son of a Norman merchant who brought his family to England after the conquest.
Further research through Gilbert’s Anglo-Saxon wife’s family led back to fifth-century Britannia, after the Roman withdrawal, and a mysterious chieftain called Cerdic, who founded the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex.
Mr Proudfoot said: “I was intrigued why this important figure in English history has been largely ignored by historians, so I set out to find out more about the life of Cerdic, or Ceredig to give him his likely Brythonic name.
“I felt compelled to use what I have learned to tell the story about my earliest-known ancestor and his crucial role in Anglo-Saxon history, based on actual events in Dark Age Britain.”
The book, priced £9.99, is due to be published this Sunday.
The book’s blurb says: “When Saxons, invited to settle in Britannia by King Wyrtgeorn, brutally murder the father and brother of Ceredig, the second son of a fifth-century Romano-British chieftain, he flees the land of his birth.
“While the Saxons expand their control over Britannia, Ceredig grows up in Armorica, learning the ways of the Gewisse, and ultimately taking command of this elite force of warriors, who had remained loyal to his father, Elisedd.
“Despite ruling as a chieftain in Armorica, Ceredig remains determined to return to his homeland, avenge his father and brother’s murder, and finally reclaim the lands his father had once ruled in southern Britannia.
“After over 40 years in exile, Ceredig, his son and a force of Gewisse warriors return to Britannia, joining a large army of Britons who are preparing to take on the Saxons in battle at Badonbyrg.”
The book can be purchased from The Book Guild website bookguild.co.uk/bookshop/rise-of-the-first-wessex-king or any of the major retailers.
