An Ashville College teacher will be one of three writers celebrated at ‘An Evening with Yorkshire Authors’ at a Harrogate bookshop on 19 October 2022.
Mr Mark Knowles, Head of Classics at the independent school, will be at Waterstones to discuss ‘Jason’, the second novel based on Ancient Greek legends in his Blades of Bronze trilogy. He will then take part in an audience Q&A and sign copies of his book.
He has combined his passion for the Classics and story writing skills to complete the first two books in the series, in any spare time he had available outside of school. The first was ‘Argo’, published in 2021. ‘Jason’, which has been published by Bloomsbury, will be followed by the final instalment, ‘Hades’, in 2023.
All three books, described as “an action-filled reimagining of the famous Greek myth, Jason and the Golden Fleece”, follow Jason and his crew as they overcome numerous challenges and fulfil a seemingly impossible mission.
Mr Knowles, who has taught at Ashville since 2015, said: “Myths have such an important role to play in different cultures. There is a tendency to look at them as stories of gods or divine beings, but many are rooted in real incidents, that are then elaborated on, immortalized, and sometimes retold through folklore.
“It has been a pleasure to see more pupils sign up to Classical Civilisation GCSE and A Level. The scope of studying Classical Civilisation, in terms of future careers, is vast; it provides a rich vein of material for the literary, film, TV and video gaming industries.
“Classics graduates can be found in a wide range of careers, from teaching and journalism, to law and politics. The subject is not simply about digesting and analysing classical texts.
“It’s an opportunity to hold a mirror up to our society, for the individual to question and to even change the course of a myth for future generations. This concept is what I set out to explore in ‘Jason’, which I will talk more about at the Waterstones event, and I hope will be of interest to the readers.”
Mr Knowles will be joined by crime writer Liz Mistry and debut novelist Axl Malton. The event starts at 6.30pm on Wednesday 19 October 2022. For tickets, call 01423 531953.
Categories: Ashville College School News
