Gerald Weaver’s third novel, The Girl and the Sword, is a sweeping saga that will correct how we think about the role of women in history, and will leave the reader feeling the spiritual power of love, the love of two intelligent, compassionate adults that, as in a Jane Austen novel, is built upon mutual respect and esteem.
Gerald Weaver has been interviewed on WNET-TV 13 in the United States, on BBC World and BBC Outlook in the United Kingdom. He has also been interviewed by the New York Times, the Guardian, the Washington Post, the Sunday Times of London, the Times, the New Statesman, Huffington Post, The Big Issue, and numerous other publications and outlets on both sides of the Atlantic. He has been a contributor to the Times, the Sunday Times, the Guardian, the Big Issue and many other publications.
Gerald is ‘transatlantic,’ a citizen of the United States and of Italy who is published in London. He received his bachelor's degree from Yale University and Juris Doctor degree from Catholic University. He has been a Capitol Hill chief of staff, a campaign manager, a lobbyist, a single father, a teacher of English and Latin, and is still a collector and seller of Chinese antiquities. He lives in the suburbs of Washington, DC, and travels regularly between the United Kingdom, Europe, and the US. At Yale, he studied literature under Harold Bloom and fiction writing under Gordon Lish. You may read more about Gerald on his Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Weaver
Editorial Reviews of The Girl and the Sword
“An excellent and intriguing novel that explores the nature of love and faith against the background of power struggles between Henry III and the future Parliamentary leader Simon de Montfort. There are excellent character studies in this commendable novel drawn with in depth psychology. It’s atmospheric, well plotted and informative involving a significant Historical personality who was instrumental during a period of political change.”
- Carol Mc Grath, author of Stone Rose and Mistress Cromwell
The Girl and the Sword:
Their mutual respect and admiration for each other’s good character grew into a love that changed England and then the world.
Pauline de Pamiers has a perspective that is centuries ahead of her Medieval setting. She is one of the few remaining members of the persecuted Christian Cathar sect that sees women as equal to men. The Church set out to destroy her faith, in the only Crusade on European soil and against other Christians. Facing possible torture and death, she cleverly looks for assistance from a least likely source, one of the knights sent against her people.
The young Simon de Montfort recognizes something unique in this impertinent girl who bravely speaks what is in her remarkable mind and who sees herself as his equal, even though he is a man and a noble. Will Simon act in opposition to his church, his family, and his kingdom, in order to save this singular young woman? Can he protect her from the relentless church inquisitor who is on her trail?
The stakes are raised as he takes his stand, and she then guides him on his next steps. With her devoted direction, he rises from untitled French knight to become the Earl of Leicester, and then the most important lord in England, respected by the people, the top clergy, and selected by the other barons to stand up for their rights against a harsh and volatile King Henry III. Despite Simon de Montfort’s loyalty and exceptional service to the crown, Henry sends an army against him, which Simon defeats.
Everything then is in play, the rights of individual English people, the future of the kingdom, the way the world would forever look at government, the decades-long deep and spiritual love that Simon and Pauline have shared but never fully expressed, and their very lives.
Editorial reviews of earlier novels:
‘As intellectuals go, Gerald Weaver is definitely one of the fun, and possibly blasphemous, ones… a rollicking good read… his prose is sharp, cute, sometimes lyrical and often surprisingly funny’ - The Big Issue on Gospel Prism, Gerald Weaver’s first novel.
‘A thought-provoking speculative tale about a couple who create a media sensation with their campaign for the White House’ - The Bookbag on The First First Gentleman, Gerald Weaver’s second novel.
Listen to a 21 May 2015 BBC World Service “Newsday” interview of Gerald Weaver, discussing Gospel Prism and its relation to love, loss and literature, here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02rx8bb
Read a feature article (23 May 2015) on Gospel Prism and Gerald Weaver that appeared in The Times of London here: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/arts/books/article4448661.ece
Listen to the BBC World Service “Outlook” interview here, from 15 April 2015, that discusses the Gospel Prism author’s fall from grace and redemption, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fM1W4XVOwA
View an article, 22 February 2015, on Gospel Prism that appeared in The London Sunday Times here: http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/world_news/MarieColvin/article1522261.ece
View the initial press for The First First Gentleman, and the story behind it, here: http://www.justluxe.com/community/an-unconventional-life-gerald-weavers-path-from-politics-to-_a_1963839.php
