Peaks

Peaks is an alliterative verse novel based around a modern reimagining of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.

Readers who are interested in myth, history and a strong sense of place in particular the Peak District and north wales will enjoy Peaks.

I want to first mention how this project came about;

I am Peak district born and bred and spent many summers in Anglesey

This is setting for the Original mediaeval poem, to the point that most literary historians believe that the infamous green chapel in sir Gawain and the green knight is Luds church, a natural attraction ten minutes from my Dad’s house when he was alive. Upon finding this out I began to write Peaks with passion reconnecting to this magical place.

Moving on to the plot

Peaks opens like the original on Christmas morning. Gawain, and his family are enjoying The festivities until they’re interrupted by the entrance of the green knight who challenges Gawain’s uncle Arthur to a strike for a strike.

After an altercation, gawain pushes arthur out of harm’s way and takes the strike himself beheading the giant

The green knight picks up his head and tells Gawain his strike is to be in one year’s time in the green chapel.

We break into Act two with Gawain and his dad Lott walking home. absorbed in a father son snowball fight, neither of them notice the car that strikes and kills Lott. This is the inciting incident that leads Gawain into a spiral of depression, a return to Alcoholism, and eventually an attempt on his own life.

Arthur forces the soon-to-be-beheaded-Gawain to quit his job in the city and move into Camelot.

We then spend this year exploring the familial love of Gawain and Arthur before Gawain takes his journey of self discovery across north wales in search of the allusive Green chapel.