Michael Carden
ALLi Author Member
Location: United Kingdom
Genres: Travel Writing, Historical Fiction, Humour, Narrative Nonfiction, Adventure
My name is Mike Carden and I live and work in Dorset on the south coast of England. I started my writing career at around the start of the millennium. Until then, apart from essays at university, I had only written brief marketing pieces for my business. I was – and still am – a director of a small business involved in marketing and sales in the textiles industry. Since then I have independently published 6 books, the first three being quirkily funny accounts of my cycling tours across Britain, starting with ‘The Full English: Pedalling through England, Mid-Life Crisis and Truly Rampant Man-Flu’. Two more followed along those lines. I then went back to a project I had started 20 years before, a trilogy of historical novels based on the life of Alfred the Great under the title 'Alfred of Wessex'. That time I was beaten to it by Bernard Cornwell with The Last Kingdom, but this time I have just gone for it anyway, and it seems to be working. People do seem to appreciate the way they are written.
Michael Carden's books
Genres: Historical Fiction
Formats: E-Book, Paperback
Age Groups: 18+
With every other Anglo-Saxon Kingdom defeated by the Danes, once again Wessex is invaded and this time it could be final. Are there Saxons prepared to accept the conquering army? Will more vikings pounce on a seemingly defeated Wessex? Can Alfred's resistance to the Danes succeed? The action moves across Wessex, with Alfred on the run until the last battle that will decided the fate of the Kingdom. Alfred of Wessex is historical fiction but is firmly based around real events in Anglo-Saxon Wessex during the 9th century viking wars of Alfred the Great.
Genres: Historical Fiction
Formats: E-Book, Paperback
Age Groups: 18+
'Alfred of Wessex, Book Two: Vengeance' continues the story of the King of Anglo-Saxon Wessex who would later be known as ‘Alfred the Great’. Wessex has survived one invasion by the Danes but the next one could be decisive. And yet Wessex remains divided by rivalries and intrigue. The action moves across Wessex from Wiltshire to Wareham in Dorset, then to Exeter in Devon and on to Bath in Somerset, bringing alive Anglo-Saxon times. Alfred of Wessex is historical fiction but is firmly based around real events in Anglo-Saxon Wessex during the 9th century viking wars.
Genres: Historical Fiction
Formats: E-Book, Paperback
Age Groups: 18+
'Alfred of Wessex, Book One: Inheritance' is the story of the youngest brother of the Kings of Anglo-Saxon Wessex, who centuries later would be known as ‘Alfred the Great’. Alfred of Wessex is historical fiction but is firmly based around real events in Anglo-Saxon Wessex during the 9th century viking wars. The Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms of Wessex, Mercia, Northumbria and East Anglia face a gathering storm of Danes threatening destruction and occupation. Amongst all this, the Kingdom of Wessex is split by rivalries. Powerful voices back King Alfred’s nephews as future Kings and not a young Alfred. And then the Danes invade.
Genres: Humour, Travel Writing
Formats: E-Book, Paperback
'A Lake District Grand Tour: Pedalling through Lakeland: The Challenge, The History, The Wildlife, The Scones'. In ‘A Lake District Grand Tour’, Mike's third book, he visits all the lakes of Lakeland, pokes into its most distant corners, and cycles over every mountain pass (well, he attempts to). Cumbria Life magazine writes that the book is "relaxed and chatty with a ready wit,” and The Cumbria Magazine speaks of "a sense of humour in abundance." As Mike rides, he tells the story of Lakeland. He sees where poets wrote and climbers climbed, he tells of ‘oond trailin’ and fell-racing, and he hunts for golden eagles and elusive ring ouzels. With his twenty-year-old son alongside him on the ride (actually more often ahead of him, disappearing up a hill) and sharing his sense of humour, Mike’s is a story of Challenge, History, Wildlife and Scones, though not entirely in that order....
Genres: Humour, Travel Writing
Formats: E-Book, Paperback
'A Bit Scott-ish: Pedalling through Scotland in search of Adventure, Nature and Lemon Drizzle Cake'. In 'A Bit Scott-ish', his follow-up to 'The Full English', Mike Carden rediscovers Scotland with the same wry sense of humour as his first book. 'A Bit Scott-ish' is the tale of a journey through Scotland, chance encounters with locals and fellow travellers, delving into Scotland's tumultuous history, surviving storm and wind, and discovering just how hopeless it is possible to be at Nature. And at finding the way. And at quite a few other things as well. The author pedals via the Orkney Islands, the flow country of Sutherland, the Cairngorm mountains, rolling Perthshire, historic Stirling, the rocky coast of Fife, the romantic city of Edinburgh and the Borders, bringing his own descriptive style to a beautiful land.
Genres: Humour, Travel Writing
Formats: E-Book, Paperback
'The Full English: Pedalling through England, Mid-Life Crisis and Truly Rampant Man-Flu'. Pedalling from one end of England to the other, the author struggles heroically with Mid-Life Crisis, Man-Flu and with Scott, a bike with a serious attitude problem. From the Dorset coast to Northumbria via Glastonbury, Ludlow, the Peak District and the Yorkshire Dales, he indulges a passion for the history of England through its castles, abbeys and ancient towns, while encountering England's people - the friendly, the funny and the deliciously eccentric. This is cycle touring the length of England with a dash of humour!