culture
Literature
British author Ken Pollet: "We must finally understand that we are no longer the great power in the world"
Ken Pollet likes to go back to the sublime moments of the British nation, but is well aware of the contemporary reality of his country.
In an interview with Walla!
Culture he reveals the extraordinary inspiration for his new book "Tonight and the Morning", how he created his favorite book, and what he thinks of the snobbery of the Nobel Committee when it comes to spy books
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Ken emits
Vikings
Oren Nahari
Friday, 26 March 2021, 00:25 Updated: 16:19
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Disappointed with several million copies sold.
Ken Pollet (Photo: GettyImages, Hannelore Foerster / Getty Images)
"In the faint light of dawn, Edgar noticed something strange moving on the water. His vision was excellent, and he knew how to spot ships even from a distance. He knew how to distinguish between a ship's body and a high wave or low cloud, but now he had a hard time saying exactly what he saw. To hear even the faintest sound coming from the sea, but heard only the sound of the waves that awaited the shore before it.
"A few moments later, he seemed to notice a monster's head, and a shiver went through Edgar's body.
Against the faint glow of the sky, he seemed to see erect ears, huge jaws and even a long neck.
After a moment, he realized he saw something far worse than a monster: it was a Viking ship, adorned with a dragon's head at the end of its long convex bow.
A second ship appeared suddenly, then also a third, and a fourth.
Their sails rose taut in the rising breeze that blew from the southwest, and the light ships moved fast on the waves ...
Edgar hesitated just a moment longer.
He now counted ten ships.
And that means they carry at least five hundred Vikings on them ...
Hell was on its way to Komba. "
(From" Tonight and the
Morning
", Ken Polt, Modan Publishing, translation: Inge Michaeli)
.
" I was standing in the Museum of Viking Ships in Oslo, where, among other things. "Real, original Viking ships found in their entirety - ships built in the ninth century AD, I tried to think, feel what they felt, what monsters felt the inhabitants of coastal areas in Europe when they saw in the morning these ships gliding quickly over the waves, bringing them total destruction and destruction," says the author. , Ken Pollet, in a special interview with Walla! Culture.
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A plot during an occupation is a cliché.
Ken Pollet (Photo: GettyImages, Beatriz Velasco / Getty Images)
Ken Pollet, the writer.
In fact, maybe two or even three writers: Ken Polt, author of The Spy and Thriller Books, Ken Polt, author of historical novels on medieval England to the First Elizabeth period, and Ken Polt, author of voluminous novels about the twentieth century - the Century Trilogy - describing the 20th century through their story Of five families.
There are a few things in common for everyone, except the author: All of these best-selling books are successful all over the world, have been translated into Hebrew (all by Modan Publishing) and are very successful in Israel as well.
His new book, "Tonight and the Morning" is a prequel - the prequel, in polished Hebrew - of the Kingsbridge trilogy, and its plot takes place around the year 1000 AD in England.
Ostensibly one would expect the plot to move forward a few years - to the year 1066, for example?
The year that every Englishman knows, and in fact every history buff?
This is the year of the Battle of Hastings, the last successful invasion of England by William the Conqueror - or William the Bastard, two exact nicknames given to him - from Normandy.
"I did not choose to locate the events during the occupation because it is a cliché," Polt tells us.
"After the Norman conquest everything changes. I deliberately chose a moment before the turn of the millennium, a place where there is not as much fear of the end of the world as there was elsewhere, because it was the end of the Christian world."
There are three communities in the book, and of course the relationship between the three protagonists will be the core of the plot: the Normans - not yet invaders but are across the canal, Vikings and Anglo-Saxons.
There were trade relations, there were acquaintances between these groups, certainly between merchants and nobles.
This world was more global than we thought.
One of the main characters in the book - Lady Ranhild, known as Rana, the daughter of Count Juber of Scherbor, who crosses the canal from Normandy to England, is based on a real character: her mother from Normandy who married King Athalard and then his brother Canot.
She was Queen of England, Denmark and Norway - as were her owners - and her son Edward "the Confessor" became King of England.
All this even before the invasion of the conquering William that united, technically, Normandy and England under the same ruler.
But one moment - how much do we actually know about England at the time?
Actually about most of Europe then?
These are the Middle Ages, also called the Dark Ages or the Dark Ages.
Not only in the sense that these were bad days - and they were - from the fall of the Western Roman Empire to the beginning of the Renaissance period, but also that there is little information about the period.
If there is already information it is mainly about the kings and their work, and not for example about a shipbuilder in an English village.
The Christian Church is actually the only factor that preserves memory after the Roman disintegration - what historical sources did Polt rely on?
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Baya rug, documentation of William the Conqueror and his fleet crossing the canal, around the year 1070 (Photo: GettyImages, Fine Art Images / Heritage Images / Getty Images)
"I relied mainly on two sources," says Polt, who is interested in discovering that both are not written sources: "The Museum of Viking Ships in Oslo, where there are two original ships rescued, the Dracars, that is, the magnificent narrow ships in the bow of a dragon board statue. History: The Mabaya tapestry, created in 1077 and attributed to Queen Matilda, the wife of William the Conqueror, but was probably commissioned by William's brother in Kent, England. The carpet is 70 meters long and half a meter wide, depicting various scenes of English conquest by the Normans. You see many scenes from everyday life: how animals were led, what the saddles and ankles looked like, how the nobles and commoners dressed, and even the Normans and English can be easily distinguished by the haircut - the ridiculous Norman haircut with shaved back and long hair in front "- although Polt agrees with me in the present era We are not in a position to mock past hair styling styles.
Perhaps this is his proud Welsh origin, but Polt does not identify with the English in the story but rather with their conquerors.
That is, some of their conquerors: Although the Normans are originally Vikings, who settled in France only a hundred years or so before the plot, Pollet distinguishes well between the Normans and their wilder brethren from the north: "I am very pro-Norman. I hate the Vikings. They were destroyers, bandits and murderers. Unknown fact is that at the turn of the millennium and beyond, a tenth of England's inhabitants were slaves - 10% of the population, some of them voluntary slaves.The Normans, on the other hand, brought effective government - the feudal government that created binding relations between the various nobles and the people - and of course promoted The country in every field, including the construction of dozens of forts and cathedrals, 65 in number. "
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The latter is currently in a glorious career.
Cover of the book "Tonight and the Morning" by Ken Polt (Photo: Modan Publishing)
"Tonight and the Morning" is just the latest in a glorious literary career, in which Pollett has written dozens of books that have sold more than one hundred and sixty million copies worldwide.
Born in 1949, his family moved to London when he was ten.
He began his professional career as a journalist, moving to publishing and writing books for his own enjoyment - which they did not succeed.
But the great success, or rather the first great success, came even before he was thirty: in 1978 his book "The Needle Point" was published, a spy book whose plot takes place during World War II, on the eve of Operation Overlord - Allied invasion of Normandy (yes, Normandy Starring in him).
A senior Nazi spy, his nickname, who works in Britain, is trying to transfer the planned invasion site to Germany - something that will frustrate her.
The book was a huge success, working on a film starring Donald Sutherland, and began Ken Polt's career as a full-time writer - a thriller and espionage writer.
"A large part of the spray, and the first to be very successful - 'The Needle', 'the code name Rebecca' - their plot takes place against the background of World War II. I wanted to write books with a big event in the background. I wanted the spies and double agents and ordinary people in the spray to be responsible for change. "The second meets the definition - a great event in which there is no doubt who were the good and who are the bad, who is undoubtedly the mission, which must defeat the fascists and Nazis.
By the way, Polt is a stark contrast to John La Cara and Len Dayton, great authors of the spy books in history, whose book plots take place during the Cold War (and in La Cara's case even after it), when the world is much grayer, and the question of who is good and bad is much more complex than in time. The struggle against Nazism.
As for the recurring question - why the best spy writers in the world since they started writing spy books in the nineteenth century are the British, from Kipling through Mohams, Green, La Cara, Dayton, Forsyth, Harris, Polt, Lowell and these days Heron, Polt's answer is simple: "I have no idea".
Does he have a reference group, someone to send and receive ideas from, to pass criticism on?
After all, writing books is a solitary profession?
The answer is no.
"I occasionally meet at events with Robert Harris (a successful writer whose books are also regularly translated into Hebrew. Coincidentally, he also began writing thrillers and continued writing books on a historical background, AN), my best friend in the field is Lee Child (author of the C series). K. Richer, AN) - and everyone succeeds, everyone is fine, no complaints ".
Maybe one complaint after all?
That the field of espionage - as well as suspense, science fiction, fantasy - has not yet come to the notice of the dignitaries of academia in Stockholm, who refuse to award the Nobel Prize in Literature to wonderful writers writing genres?
"I have no personal frustration. I write, I succeed, I love what I write," Polt replies - and then, to the best of British understatement, he answers me with a deadly and wonderful critique of the Swedish academy's standards: "The academy is looking for its own standards - I For example, every book wants a good story, they do not. "
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He also starred in "The Needle Point."
Donald Sutherland behind the scenes of the mini-series "Pillars of the World", based on Ken Polt's book (Photo: AP, AP Photo / Bela Szandelszky)
After years in which his thrillers have sold millions of copies each, and he is well-established and valued in his field, Ken Pollett has taken an obvious step: writing a book about building a cathedral in the imaginary town of Kingsbridge in England, in the 12th century, in times called anarchy - a complete collapse of power The sinking of the "white ship" in the Menashe Canal.
Hundreds of people drowned in the incident, including the only legitimate heir of King Henry I, his half-brother and half-sister - something that ignited an overall war of succession in England.
I guess your publishers were not enthusiastic about this strange idea, I tell him. "The publisher strongly recommended against it," he replies - again the same understatement. But he still wrote the book, "Pillars of the World." He later wrote two sequels "An Endless World," whose plot takes place some two hundred years after the first book, during the Black Death, and "The Pillar of Fire," in which Kingsbridge dates back to Queen Elizabeth I and the threats to her reign.
"I deliberately wrote a book that is not too heavy, not high, which is popular.
And I thought I was successful at writing a good, popular novel.
And I was initially disappointed that it sells like thrillers - a few million copies (well, everyone and his disappointments, AN). But gradually, slowly, the name of the book started to get more and more public, and to this day it has sold 27 million copies, and is my biggest bestseller ", Says Polt.
This was not his last trilogy, nor his last historical trilogy: Twenty years after the publication of "Pillars of the World", already in the twenty-first century, the book "Fall of Giants" was published, followed by "Sunset of the World" and "End of Eternity".
The format sells many other numbers - the experiences of several families whose lives intertwine against the backdrop of dramatic and real events - in this case the dramatic events of the twentieth century: English, Welsh, Russian, American and German families, from before World War II to the inauguration of President Obama - The good ending of the trilogy, which is ultimately optimistic.
"The Trilogy of the Century does end with optimism," says Polt.
"I'm less optimistic than I used to be, but it should be remembered that history is not progressing smoothly - its progress is a step forward and a step aside, two steps forward and one step back. Ultimately the struggles - the struggles of trade unions and fair conditions, minority struggles and women for equality, struggle The African-Americans, the struggle of the LGBT community - they are all long and patient struggles.
And there are successes. "
Less optimistic.
Ken Pollet (Photo: GettyImages, Beatriz Velasco / Getty Images)
Ken Polt, now 72, continues to write, and the fact that he is a rich man does not change his old political belief - the Labor Party, where he was and still is a mainstream man, identified with Tony Blair.
And about the events that affect his country today?
At the top is the Brexit?
"We believe in British excellence, so it's easy for us to delude ourselves that we have James Bond, that our intelligence service is the best," says Polt.
"But Bond is a fictional character, and as for the intelligence service, the empire, that is no longer the reality. As for the Brexit - I opposed it. In fact, when we finally realize that we are no longer the strongest power in the world, and have not been for many years, then we can return to normal life." .
But of course here there is a certain contradiction between Ken Pollet the sober observer of his country, and Ken Polt the popular writer in the whole world, who recreates the glory days of his country.
Whether in the construction of resilient cathedrals, in books describing, among other things, the rise of the trade unions dear to his heart, in the plots of a Welsh family during the twentieth century, and of course in the spies plotted in World War II and after, when Britain had a historic role to play.
As always, literature is more interesting and better than reality - certainly when it comes to the book "Evening and Morning", which describes those days, when the Vikings raided the shores of Europe, and Anglo Saxons and Normans began to build, hesitantly, a new society, a new culture on a fairly small island. The whole.
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