Welcome!
Thanks for taking a moment to learn more about me and the things I write about. What’s with the photo above? It shows the hilltop town of Todi in Umbria, Italy, on which the setting for my stories is based – transported to the magical mediaeval kingdom of Ingland and renamed Hamlet on the Hill. To find out more about the various Adventures of George, scroll down for a taste of Volume 1, George and the Golden Letterseed, and Volume 2, George and the Poison Arrow. The final part of the trilogy, George and the Magician’s Maze is currently in the making. And if it’s me you’d like to learn more about, scroll further. Any questions, just mail me at info@paulboothroyd.com. Enjoy the site, then enjoy the books!
My books
George and the Golden Letterseed
First published November 2021 in hardback (paperback edition October 2023) eBook available on Kindle
In the first volume of the Adventures of George, available here in paperback, in no time at all you’ll get to know a very hungry dragon by the name of Oroflamm, a 209-year-old wizard called Lermin, a very special tree in the town of Hamlet that keeps the Inglish language healthy, and a tousle-haired boy called George, always in the company of his trusty terrier, Yorrick. In George and the Golden Letterseed, our hero and his friends, Mo and Leihla, have to catch a thief, save a sick dragon and restore lost letters to the Inglish language…
George and the Poison Arrow
First published August 2024 in paperback and as an eBook
Available here, George and the Poison Arrow, our young hero’s latest adventure in mediaeval Ingland, takes us back to Hamlet on the Hill which is under attack by a marauding band of Fyekings. When Lermin the wizard is struck down by a poison arrow, a race against time begins. George, Leihla and Mo set out to identify the antidote and obtain the rare ingredients, assisted as ever by George’s terrier, Yorrick. Needless to say, there’s also a starring role for Oroflamm the dragon, accompanied this time by his partner, Orotella, while George’s band of friends acquires a new member in the shape of Marianne from Germany, who has been enslaved by the Fyekings. Partly set in the maze of tunnels beneath Hamlet, our story reaches its climax on the distant island of Orcknie with a deadly archery test, a sharing out of treasure and a ride on the back of a dragon.
To find out more, click on a book cover below.
English-German vocabulary list
Step into George’s enchanting world and bolster your English skills along the way!
Designed specifically for readers of George and the Golden Letterseed who are learning English in Germany, this vocabulary list will guide you through the narrative’s twists and turns. Whether you’re studying at home or attending classes, it will save you having to look up words online or in dictionaries, making for a more enjoyable and rewarding read. Access the list below or download it as a PDF. Entries are context-related with clear indication (“hier”) of when the meaning given is not the only possibility for the term in question but is specific to its particular place in the text.
About me is really all about languages… I grew up in England, speaking first with a broad Lancashire accent. I only became aware of this when my family and I moved to the south coast, where my classmates at junior school would mercilessly mock my northern vowels. “What have you got there?” they would ask whenever I picked up a book – hoping to hear me pronounce it “boowk” as opposed to their southern “buk”. Their laughter drove me to adapt fast and soon my Hampshire accent was as strong as theirs. Later I was to add plummier tones of Oxford English to my repertoire, but by that time, a term in Southern Germany had triggered a lifelong fascination with the German language and its dialects, while a year in France – at the heart of Burgundy – attuned my ear to French. The foundation stones for a life with languages had been well and truly laid…
Recent Posts
Life with a golden retriever
For the past 13 years, give or take a day or two, we have shared our daily existence with our golden retriever – Amy by name and ultra-gentle by nature. Nothing like George’s terrier, Yorrick, in George and the Golden Letterseed, except that her nose is just as sensitive as his. I’m convinced she would have found Hieronymus just as quickly, although whether or not she’d have retrieved the Letterseed sapling must be open to doubt. In Amy’s world, if it’s not edible, it may well be worthless. Whatever – as the saying goes, life without a dog at your side is possible but meaningless 🙂
So what do I read when I’m not writing?
Somewhere around the house there is always one volume of the epic Aubrey/Maturin series by the late, great, phenomenally erudite Patrick O’Brian (photo credit: Wikipedia) adorned with a bookmark. There are 21 volumes and as a portrayal of human relationships, set in the British navy of the Napoleonic era it is, as Stephen Maturin might say, sans pareille. I am on my fifth read of the series. Recent catching up with modern classics has led me into John le Carré’s world of George Smiley – no relation to my George 🙂 – and recent works I’ve enjoyed include Haruki Murakami’s Killing Commendatore (did anyone ever read his Norwegian Wood and NOT enjoy it? ), Benjamin Myers‘ The Offing, where the dialogues with Dulcie are a sheer delight, and Kazuo Ishiguro’s ultra-imaginative Klara and the Sun.
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