It’s November, so it seen a fitting time to revisit my alternative history trilogy, Guy Fawkes: Demon Hunter.
Guy Fawkes has to be one of England’s most notorious figures. His part in the plot to destroy the Houses of Parliament and everyone inside (including King James I) has seen him burned in effigy for over 400 years. We light up the sky in memory of what came so close to happening.
The History
The time in which Guy Fawkes lived was a seriously troubled one. England had been yo-yoing between Christian denominations ever since Henry VIII’s divorce from the Catholic Church. Those that held onto Catholicism found themselves paying a harsh cost. For those that sought to spread the word the cost was harsher still. In a time of prejudice, when people were punished for their beliefs, you are always going to get rebels. People will always stand up for what they believe in.
As such, the period was ripe for a retelling, taking what Guy Fawkes was standing against, and making it a more intense evil. And again, coming back to the time, it’s an evil that many believed was genuinely present. This is back in the time of witch trials. This is when scholars wrote huge grimoires detailing the different demons that resided in Hell and gave descriptions of their appearance and listed their legions.
The story was not supposed to be a trilogy, not when I started writing it. I thought it could be a standalone. But the further I delved into the life of Guy Fawkes, the more scope for stories there seemed to be.
I knew Guy Fawkes had spent time fighting for the Spanish prior to the Gunpower Plot. I discovered that he’d likely married young, and potentially there was a child, but none of that is in firm records as his ceremony would have been a Catholic one, performed in secret. His father, an ecclesiastical lawyer, died when Guy Fawkes was only young. This pretty much gave me the shape for a trilogy:
The Books
Book 1: A Clangour of Bells. After the framing device which runs through all three novels, we’re thrown into Guy Fawkes’ birth in York. Born while church bells ring he’s gifted with the ability to commune with the dead. He discovers the presence of demons at a nearby farm and is soon led into extra-curricular activities in his school, training to fight demons. His passion for this only grows when his father is killed and he suspects senior figures in the church are responsible. This is a coming-of-age novel, a blood-soaked, demon infested tale of a corrupt world and a valiant band fighting against it.
Book 2: A Dream of Demons. This is a book about the consequences of our actions. As much as Guy Fawkes tries to resist his fate, he keeps being pulled back to cause. As in real history, he leaves the comfort of York. The scope of the novel then grows. He’s no longer a child, and he begins to realise how deep within the country this corruption is bedded in. Guy Fawkes encounters royalty, but in trying to do the right thing discovers evil has also been seeded within him. Things certainly take a turn for the darker in A Dream of Demons.
Book 3: A Diabolical Plot. This can be split into parts. Bookending it, is the framing narrative as the past and present threaten to clash. In Guy Fawkes time we have a distinct split between his time in Spain and his plan to rid England of its demonic influence from afar, before his return home and his involvement in the Gunpowder Plot. The friendships that have developed over the trilogy are tested as we struggle through to the inevitable end. There’s a new King on the throne and all hope Catholics had of leniency are in tatters. Only drastic action can possibly change things, and even when times are at their most bleak, there is always an element of hope.
Each novel has its own threads. Each concludes a part of the narrative, but together, they tell this bigger story of a life spent in rebellion.
While writing it, I had great time studying the history (the facts and the daemonic beliefs). It was a new process in many ways. Historical markers had to be hit within the story, but then, when you go so far back there are plenty of gaps in which to invent all manner of events.
I’d love for more people to discover the series. People are always surprised when they read it. They tend to tell me it’s much darker they were expecting – but when you look at what was going on at that time, there’s no way it couldn’t be.
You too can embrace the darkness starting here.