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WHAT THE PRESS HAS SAY ABOUT THE PETER TREMAYNE AND THE SISTER FIDELMA MYSTERIES
An article entitled "Celtic sleuth: The "'Sister Fidelma' mysteries of Peter Tremayne" appears in the October 2004 (No. 247) issue of Book and Magazine Collector. This extensive article, loaded with pictures, is available for review by clicking the graphic at right (PDF - requires Adobe Acrobat Reader). Of particular interest to Fidelma fans is their current Sister Fidelma UK & US Bibliography/Price Guide located at the end of the article. Jonathtan Scott, eeditor of Book and Magazine Collector, added this note: "For your interest: our last article on Peter (issue 108 - about 10 years ago), which concentrated on his other works of fiction, ended with news that he was about to start a new series of Celtic mystery stories featuring Sister Fidelma. This was her very first appearance in print as it preceded publication of her debut short story!" For subscription to this always valuable magazine, Contact: Janice Mayne on 0870 732 7070 or janice.mayne@metropolis.co.uk or write to her at: Book and Magazine Collector, Unit 101, 140 Wales Farm Road, London W3 6UG, UK. SEVENTH-CENTURY WHODUNNITS An Indian publisher recently contacted Peter Tremayne's agent with a view to translating his Sister Fidelma novels into Marathi, a language spoken by some twenty million people in western India. Sister Fidelma is a fictional, seventh-century Irish detective and a trained advocate of Brehon law. As far as we know, the female sleuths of ancient Ireland are not a cult interest in western India, but that may be about to change. The international appeal of Tremayne's unusual detective series appears to know no bounds. To date, the Sister Fidelma novels have appeared in most European languages, as well as Japanese, and the series is also popular in the US, where one dedicated fan has set up a website (www.sisterfidelma.com), a thrice-yearly magazine called The Brehon and a Sister Fidelma Society with members in twelve countries. Peter Tremayne is the fiction writing pseudonym of Peter Berresford Ellis, a Celtic scholar born in Coventry in 1943 of Irish and Breton parents. Under his own name, he has written over thirty non-fiction books on subjects as diverse as Welsh nationalism, the Irish working class, Celtic mythology and history, and Captain W. E. Johns, creator of the Biggles series for children. His fiction spans several genres, including horror, fantasy and contemporary thrillers, as well as the Sister Fidelma series. Ten years after the first Sister Fidelma novel was published - there are now twelve, and two collections of short stories - Tremayne remains pleasantly baffled by the series' phenomenal success. "It started with a short story, which I wrote just to illustrate how the Brehon laws worked and the position of women in ancient Irish society," he explains. "I had given a lecture on the subject at St Michael's University in Toronto and afterwards some students suggested that it would provide an interesting setting for a novel. Some years later a friend who was compiling an anthology of Irish detective stories asked me to contribute, and that's when Sister Fidelma was born. He liked it and talked to other people about it and as a result, in October 1993, four different Sister Fidelma stories appeared in four different anthologies. Headline got wind of this and offered me a three-book deal to write full-length novels featuring Sister Fidelma. I'm a compulsive writer; when I'm not writing I get broody for my typewriter, and I've been writing the Sister Fidelma books exclusively for the last ten years." In their depiction of Celtic society, the books are indeed a revelation. Anyone with a passing interest in Irish history will know that ancient Ireland was a great centre of learning, attracting students from around the world and sending teachers and missionaries throughout Europe and beyond. What is less well known is that the country was also a model of gender equality, more evolved in some respects than contemporary western society. Women could and did aspire to all offices and professions, leading the way in politics and law and taking command on the battlefield as well. They were protected by law against sexual harassment, discrimination and rape. They had the right to divorce on equal terms from their husbands and had equal inheritance rights. Tremayne also sheds light on the growing rift between the Celtic Church and Rome, which had begun to reform itself in the fourth century. A great bone of contention was the question of celibacy, which Rome was beginning to embrace. Tremayne says that some of his readers were surprised to find Sister Fidelma, a member of the religious community established by St Brigid in Kildare, marrying her companion, Brother Eadulf, in The Haunted Abbot (Headline 2002), and giving birth to a child. This was her right under both Celtic and Roman law at that time, though Rome had condemned clerical marriages as early as AD 325 and would subsequently ban them altogether. Though the Sister Fidelma series is rich in history, Tremayne insists that they are, above all, detective stories. "Generally speaking, somebody, or some bodies, have been found dead, and you want the reader to care about that and to want to find out how it happened. If the reader doesn't engage with that aspect of the novel, then you're doing something wrong. Ancient Ireland and the Brehon system are just an interesting backdrop." Tremayne's heroine has been favourably compared to Ellis Peters' Brother Cadfael, a medieval monk with a penchant for solving crimes. He rejects the comparison on the grounds that Sister Fidelma was cracking crime 800 years before Ellis Peters' creation, and in a completely different cultural and legal context. But he says he does, indirectly, owe his pseudonym to Cadfael. A former journalist, Tremayne was asked to review the first Cadfael novel in 1977 for The Catholic Herald. “I felt I couldn't write the review under my own name in case readers might think Ellis Peters was merely a reversal of Peter Berresford Ellis. So I decided to use a pseudonym for the first time, taking the name of one of my favourite places in Cornwall, and it proved to be a useful invention.”
OFFICIAL HOME OF THE SOCIETY WHEN IN CASHEL! The
Holly Bough, December 2001 in The Irish Examiner That period of Irish History between the arrival of Christianity in 432AD and the Norman invasion in the 12th century has rightly been called “The Golden Age.” It is not a myth but very much a fact. There were many influences leading to this the Celts brought to Ireland a unique system of organisation and a comprehensive legal system embodied in the Brehon laws. The Celts also excelled in music, dancing and poetry and their culture married very well with Christianity. The greatest flowering of the new order was in the monastic system. The monasteries and convents in every part of the Island supplied a unique social and economic service. They provided hospitals, food and lodgings for travellers, workshops for the production of illuminated manuscripts and sacred vessels and they were the educators - some of the largest Monasteries such as Clonmacnoise and Durrow were the universities at that time and were attended by students from all over Europe. The Brehon laws devised and updated every three years, laid the rugs that allow a society to function where everyone was confident of justice and protection. The laws were humane. How many people are aware that the Brehon laws totally prohibited the death penalty no matter what the offence or that compensation and rehabilitation was the objective and not the cruel punishment of offenders? Under this enlightened legal system, women occupied a unique place in society. They had full equality with men and could aspire to be judges, leaders of the clan, doctors and even priests, permitted to celebrate the sacrifice of the Mass. Rome spent much effort in persuading Irish bishops to promote a men-priests-only rule. Women had the right of divorce on equal terms from their husbands and could demand portion of their property as part of a divorce settlement. That sounds very modern indeed. Seen from today's perspective the Brehon laws seemed to maintain an almost ideal environment for women. In this unique society the divine right of kings was unknown. The eldest son did not automatically become chief after his father's death. Instead the most suitable family member or a close relative was selected and the kings and chieftains were, of course, more the servants of the people than their masters. If the ruler failed in his duties to the people, he could be impeached and removed from office. In this age when entertainment is more in demand than formal lectures, the great challenge was how to make people throughout the world aware of this unique civilisation. Fortunately, Peter Berresford Ellis, the son of a Corkman who was a reporter with the Cork Examiner during the War of Independence, has brought the whole period to life by writing a series of books under the pen name “Peter Tremayne” on the adventures of a nun - Sr. Fidelma in the seventh century. It all resulted from the suggestion made by a student at a lecture he gave on Celtic civilisation at a Canadian university. “Why not write stories about Ireland's golden age. Would that not be the best way of telling the world about the wonders of Celtic Ireland?" That is why we now have a series of 11 books on the life of Sr. Fidelma in the seventh century as she solves a series of mysteries that take her to various parts of Ireland, England, Wiles and even Rome. Born in Cashel and brother of Colgú, king of Munster, she is a dálaig, which means that she is a qualified lawyer In both the criminal code of the senchus mór and the civil code of the Leabhar Acaill. She Is also a defender and investigator who has to solve a variety of intriguing mysteries - rather like Sherlock Holmes but she has to tackle even greater problems working always within the framework of the Brehon laws and regulations. She has an assistant, an Irish trained Saxon monk - Brother Eadulf who helps her in treading the right path amidst a myriad of false trails and ever-present dangers. Incredibly, her adventures have been translated Into Spanish, French, German, Italian, Greek and Dutch. Why is this? Why should foreigners be interested in Celtic Ireland? Well possibly it is not just because they are very good stories but more importantly they transport the reader back in time to a more gentle and humane era, where everybody had rights that were closely guarded by the Brehon Laws. The background detail illustrates life as it was in ancient Ireland – it is wonderfully evocative and stirring. And it leads the reader to wonder what Ireland and maybe the world would be like today if this civilisatlon had flourished instead of being ruthlessly suppressed. The success of these books all over the world and the certainty of films and a TV series in the future is clear proof once again that Irish culture in all its aspects - music, dance, language, and history is a growth industry throughout the entire world. The challenge for us in the future is to promote this further for the benefit of Ireland's Image and our tourist industry. At the same time we can enrich mankind by showing the world a culture where people and happiness were more important than accumulating wealth and power. “Mise Éire, sine mé an chailleach Béarra Mór mo ghlóir - mé do rug Cú Chulainn cróga” Ireland's Own - 4 January 2002 If there is worldwide interest in Irish music, language, dancing and games it is not just because these embrace a unique culture of great worth, but because Ireland has a special place in the affections of many. There is also a growing curiosity in a particular area of Irish history. That is the many hundreds of years covering native rule before this was tragically ended by British invasion and oppression. Early Irish history was unique for many reasons, but most especially for the great body of law built up by the Brehons, over a long period of time. The Irish had their own way of regulating their affairs. The divine authority of kings, the automatic succession of the crown from father to son were unknown - the people themselves elected the new Leader. Chieftains and Kings were more servants of the people than their masters. The Brehon laws compiled by families who traditionally were involved in legal affairs were indeed extraordinary. How many people are aware that Brehon Law prohibited totally the death penalty? Or that compensation and rehabilitation were the objectives rather than the cruel punishment of offenders. Under these laws, women occupied a unique place. They received more rights and protection than any western code of Law until recent times. They could be Physicians, Judges, Poets and Political Leaders. They had the right of divorce and of property settlement with their husbands. No wonder that with women regarded as the equals of men, the early Celtic Church had no problem in allowing women priests to celebrate the sacrifice of the Mass, and Rome spent much time in forcing Irish Bishops to comply with the men priests rule. But, how to explain to ordinary people at the present time how wonderful the system was? Well certainly the world should be most grateful to Peter Tremayne, the pen name of Peter Berresford Ellis, who has already written many books on Irish History such as the 'History of the Irish Working Classes' and Celtic Dawn'. He has written a series of books based on the adventures of an Irish Nun in the seventh century - Sr. Fidelma, whose brother was Colgu, King of Cashel. She was a Dalaigh, something in the order of an investigator, an advocate and an upholder of justice for everybody She had studied in a Bardic School, the massive body of law written and codified on the instructions of the High King Laoghaire in AD 438. Possibly he was one and the same Laoghaire who met Naomh Padraig after his arrival in lreland in 432 AD. Angela Lansbury of 'Murder She Wrote', will come to mind immediately when reading these books, but of course, the good nun, in solving murder mysteries, operated in a completely different environment - where everything had to be done in strict accordance with the Brehon Laws. She had an assistant and friend, Brother Eadulf, an Irish trained Saxon monk, on her many adventures that took her all over Ireland and even as far as England So far there is a series of 10 different books and the remarkable thing is that they have been translated into Spanish, French, German, Italian, Greek and Dutch. Tens of thousands of copies have been sold in Germany and again, it is a puzzling question as to why Germans and people in Greece could be so absorbed with the adventures of an Irish Nun in Ireland so long ago. Possibly this is because they transport the reader to a gentler, more humane world where people were respected and the rights of all protected. The cultural splendour of an age of golden enlightenment in Ireland, when Europe existed in the dark ages and when students flocked from all over Europe to be educated in Irish Monasteries is brought to life in the adventures of Sr. Fidelma. It raises the question as to what modern life might have been like if this civilisation had not been ruthlessly suppressed and destroyed. Cashel, the headquarters of Fidelma, should benefit in its tourist industry, because it is the principle setting for all these books and it must be remembered that this Town was a most important centre of Religious and Celtic civilisation in Ireland. I do expect that in the future, we will see films, possibly a television series on Sr. Fidelma. Certainly all this proves that the greatest asset we have in Ireland is all aspects of Irish Culture and long may that culture develop and offer to the people of the entire world hope and consolation and the proof that human beings can indeed be concerned with things other than the accumulation of wealth. Irish Voice (New York) - 21 November 2001 It doesn't sound like a pitch that would work very well with many publishers. Around 666 A.D., a female lawyer (and nun) joins a sea pilgrimage to the Shrine of St. James in modern-day Spain. But the ship is tossed on the turbulent seas, and one pilgrim, Fidelma - sister of a king, and technically an "advocate" of the 7th-Century Celtic Brehon courts - gets tangled up in a deadly mystery. Sure, blood, gore and, these days, even female heroines are a good sell. But in the 7th-Century? Well, believe it or not, crimefighter Sister Fidelma - the creation of author Peter Tremayne - is a global phenomenon. "The publishers are knocking down the door for the next one," Tremayne told the Irish Voice recently. The author is more surprised than anyone else at his success. This month, Tremayne's tenth Sister-Fidelma book, Act of Mercy: A Celtic Mystery is released in the U.S. The book has already been a U.K. bestseller, and as with previous Sister Fidelma books such as The Monk Who Vanished, expect translations from German to Greek to follow.
"This started ... when I was giving a lecture in Toronto trying to explain the finer points of the Brehon law system," Tremayne says from his home in England, referring to the ancient legal system of Celtic lands. "A student later said that instead of giving a long factual spiel about how (the system) operated, why not write some stories. And I did." The Brehon system, among other things, was open to women at the time. Sister Fidelma informs people about the law, investigates crimes, hears cases and passes judgment. She is also nun, though the Celtic Church of the 600s was very different from the Rome-centered Church which would later emerge. All of these issues, Tremayne says, apparently fascinate readers - especially when wrapped around a page-turning mystery. Aside from hot sales around the world, there are several web sites and fan clubs devoted to Sister Fidelma, including sisterfidelma.com. Tremayne also believes his popularity is part of the ongoing boom in Irish culture. "I've got a following because this is something new, I think it all started with this new Irish renaissance, the Riverdance phenomena. Getting to know your roots and things like that." Tremayne - his mystery writing pseudonym - has got strong Irish roots of himself. He was born Peter Berresford Ellis in Coventry, Warwickshire, England, in 1943. His father was a Cork-born journalist who began his career at the Cork Examiner. The Ellis family, Tremayne says, can be traced in that area from 1288. His mother was from a Sussex family of Saxon origin who’ve spent fourteen generations in the same area. With Irish, Scottish, Welch and Breton uncles and aunts, Tremayne was seemingly destined to become a world-renowned Celtic expert. He earned degrees in Celtic Studies, but later embarked on a career in journalism. He began his career as a junior reporter in England, and later became deputy editor of an Irish weekly. He went to Northern Ireland in 1964, which he says had a profound effect on him. His first book, Wales: A Nation Again, was published in 1968, the first of several histories under his born name. But his worldwide fame will always be with his pen name, the origins of which are not exactly literary. "Years ago I went down to live in Cornwall to study the Cornish language ... and Tremayne happened to he a little place (with) three houses, four Methodist chapels, four bars and the best Italian restaurant... It was such a nice place, I said, ‘I'll commemorate it,’" Tremayne recalls, with his trademark, jovial laugh. The Irish Times - 27 October 2001 We’ve had
Celtic mythology; we've had Celtic music; we've had, God help us, Celtic spirituality.
You might imagine that certain areas of human endeavour would be beyond the
reach of the current craze for all things Celtic - the crime novel, for
Instance. But you'd be wrong. Sister Fidelma, a nun who, charges happily around
seventh-century Ireland solving murder mysteries, is given her 11th outing in
Peter Tremayne's latest book, However outlandish this may sound, her creator insists that he didn't make it up. "Everything that happens In the Sister Fidelma books is absolutely accurate, historically," says Peter Tremayme, aka the Celtic scholar Peter Berresford Ellis. "Under the Brehon laws, women could aspire to be the equals of men in all the professions. They could be doctors, lawyers, teachers, clan leaders, judges." There was even a female bishop, Brigid of Kildare, who died in AD 650. "Women could also get divorced as easily as men. There were nine reasons for divorce, one of which was if your partner snored. And of course there was no hang-up about celibacy. It was only after the eighth century that all that began to erode, as the Colts moved more into the Roman Idea of legal concepts; but even in the Roman church celibacy wasn't enforced until the time of Leo IX In the 11th century. Then it was enforced very brutally. Loads of the wives of priests committed suicide because the pod Christian pope ordered them to be rounded up and sold into slavery. Great stuff wasn't it?" Great source material, more like - and Peter Tremayne isn't the only one to have mined it. Inevitably, Sister Fidelma has been compared to Ellis Peters's Brother Cadfael, the mystery-solving monk. "Critics have called her Cadfael's successor, which is nice - but only in the literary sense, because Fidelma is actually eight centuries earlier." Even in the literary sense, however, a race between the two spiritual sleuths is out of the question. "Ellis Peters died a few years ago. She was in her 60s when she got hold of the Cadfael character. It's very sad, really. The success came too late for her to enjoy it." But Tremayne, who effortlessly brings forth information on the nitty-gritty of life in Celtic Ireland, is noticeably reticent when it comes to giving away any secrets about his own hero's literary future. "She has what we call sexual tension Eadulf," he says, as if that explained everything. “And there have been, um, developments. I do, though, get quite a number of letters from priests and nuns who would - I suspect – rather like to hark back to those days…” In his “real” incarnation as Celtic Studies scholar, Peter Berresford Ellis is the author of a fistful of non-fiction nooks including The Celtic Revolution, The Celtic Empire, A Dictionary of Irish Mythology, Wales: A Nation Again, Caesar's Invasion of Britain and The Problem of Language Revival. He is also the author of the definitive story of the Cornish language and literature: "Definitive because it's the only history," he says ruefully. His mission has always been to inform the wider public about his chosen fields of interest – so even his Fidelma novels contain explanatory prefaces. But, he says, there’s a huge amount of information out there which has – due to the lack of research funding – yet to be processed. “During the Tudor conquest, a lot of the old Chiefs fled, and they took their bards with them. So all over Europe – in Vienna for example – there are huge numbers of documents that haven’t even been catalogued, let alone translated. The same thing happened during the early missionary period, when missionaries were setting up places like Regensburg. What we know of Irish mythology is founded on about one-tenth of known manuscript sources – nobody has ever bothered with the rest. I don’t want to launch an attack on academia; it’s just that academics tend to bang on about the known stuff, when what’s needed is to get into Europe, find those manuscripts, and even just catalogue them, to start with.” Still, it may come as something of a surprise to readers accustomed to the Roman view of history (Celts=smelly savages) to discover that the seventh-century Irish were not only assiduous about personal hygiene, but also keen aromatherapists, bathing each evening in tubs that contained sweet-smelling herbs, then toweling off with linen cloths. Or that the reason why we contemporary Celts often pronounce the world “film” as “fillum” is due to a transference of Irish pronunciation rules into English. Small wonder that Sister Fidelma has her own website, set up by a devotee in Arkansas, which features historical notes, pronunciation guides and such-like (www.sisterfidelma.com). Celtic chic may have spawned everything from Riverdance to born-again Druid separatists, in Derbyshire, but the more we learn about the realities of Celtic Society, says Peter Tremayne, the more we’ll learn about ourselves. Smoke in the Wind by Peter Tremayne is published by Headline at £I7.99 In UK. |
All
this from a scholar who not long ago was going to dedicate his life to a legal
system over 1,000 years old.
Smoke In the Wind. Miss Marple in a
wimple? Not quite. Fidelma is straight out of the sleuth noir mould:
dark, handsome, a qualified lawyer, an expert horsewoman and - rumour has it -
not entirely averse to the idea of sharing a sleeping bag with her sidekick,
Brother Eadulf.