Review of The Retreat to Avalon
“Avalon, so the story goes, is a mythic place where King Arthur fades from view after his last battle. But in his ground-breaking novel The Retreat to Avalon, Sean Poage tells us otherwise. Avalon, he says, is a real location on the map, and a real Arthur did go there. We can even fix the date.
Firmly based on historical and archaeological research, the story depicts a post-Roman Britain still preserving a tenuous unity under a charismatic leader: Arthur, the High King. As an ally of one of the later Roman emperors, he leads an army of Britons overseas. The author re-imagines the warfare of the time with authentic detail. Apart from the war, he skillfully reconstructs the ordinary life of the people of Britain, with much information about their food, their clothing, their buildings, their religion. He also gives credible glimpses of a place in Britain destined to inspire, long after, the romance of Camelot.
Told through a group of vivid characters, The Retreat to Avalon brilliantly opens up a world which historical research has only recently begun to discover.”
- Jun 27, 2018