In late 1950,
a group of students from Glasgow traveled to London and managed to pull off one
of the most famous thefts in British history – the Stone
of Scone in Westminster Abbey. The stone resided in the coronation chair
constructed for Edward I, and it is the chair upon which all British monarchs
are crowned. The 396-pound stone had been the traditional stone where Scottish
monarchs had been crowned; Edward Longshanks of England took it in 1296 and
carried it off to London. The Scots didn’t forgive or forget.
Novelist Michael
Phillips centered Legend
of the Celtic Stone, part one of the two-volume “Caledonia” series, on
the Stone of Scone. Published in 1999 (and recently republished), the theft of
the stone if fast-forwarded to the late 1990s, when Queen Elizabeth has
abdicated and Charles is now king. The theft is connected to leaders in the
Scottish National Party, not unlike the original, true theft story, in which
there was some shadowy involvement of a political leader.
But this
isn’t simply a story of contemporary British politics and the theft of the
stone. Phillips aims a bit higher – at the legend of how Scotland came to be, weaving
the various threads of Celts, Picts, Romans, Irish, Vikings, Englishmen, and
Scots into a coherent narrative that is fascinating. His point is that the past
is never past – it still influences the present in surprising, unexpected ways.
Andrew
Trentham is a Liberal Democrat member of Parliament, representing Cumbria, the
English lake country not far south of the Scottish border. He comes from an old
family, and his mother has had ambitions for him ever since the death of his
older sister. Andrew finds himself unexpectedly thrust into the party
leadership role – and because of a murder connected to the theft of the stone. His
leadership responsibilities arrive at the same time he is wrestling with who he
is and where he comes from. The answers he finds have much to do with Scottish
history.
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| Michael Phillips |
Phillips pairs
the imagined stories of the first Celts to arrive, the Picts battling the
Romans, and the various battles and wars between the Scots and the English with
the contemporary story of Andrew Trentham to provide a broad (and
fictionalized) sweep of Scottish history. The second volume, An
Ancient Strife, completes the two-volume account (and will be reviewed
next week). Phillips also add a possibility of romance for Trentham with an
American journalist working for the BBC.
Phillips is the author of 23 works of
non-fiction. He’s edited 27 works of the Scottish writer George
MacDonald, whose books had such
an impact on C.S. Lewis. He’s edited five works of Harold
Bell Wright and Ralph
Connor. He’s also co-authored 13 novels with his
wife Judith Pella, and written more than 40 original novels on his own.
Legend of the Celtic Stone
is a broad, fictional but realistic sweep of Scottish history and contemporary
British politics. It’s also one dandy read.
Related:
Top photograph: The Stone of Scone
in the coronation throne, also known as King Edward’s throne.
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