Run with the Hare, Hunt with the Hound by Paul M. Duffy Book Tour, Guest Post & Giveaway! {Ends 12/17/22}

Medieval Ireland through a Humanist lense

 What’s the title of your book? Fiction? Nonfiction? Poetry? Who is the publisher and what’s the publication date?

Run with the Hare, Hunt with the Hound is a work of fiction, published by the Cennan imprint of Cynren Books. The official publication date was 11th October 2022

 How would you classify the novel
The book is a historical fiction on the ‘literary’ side of that genre’s broad spectrum.

Simply put, it’s the story of the twelfth-century Norman invasion of Gaelic Ireland as experienced by Alberic, the son of a Norman slave in Gaelic society. Alberic experiences the chaos and opportunity presented by the breaking of an ancient order and the resultant. As he navigates a land of war, his own conflicted and shifting loyalties are complicated by his love for a Gaelic woman – Ness, and his oath to a Norman knight – de Lacy.

 What’s the best compliment the book has received to date?

Elizabeth Chadwick, one of the pre-eminent authors of Medieval Fiction said that the book is a ‘shining example of what historical fiction should be’ adding that it is ‘definitely one of my books of the year’. That was pretty nice!

 What was the spark that made you write this book?
This book arises from an unexpected meeting with another Irishman – Hugh de Lacy almost 20 years ago in a library on a backstreet in Toulouse. For my part, I was researching the medieval fortifications of that city during the crusade against the Cathars, while he was leading a charge against the walls! My research into how he ended up in the pages of a medieval Occitan poem, his exile from Ireland and his years as a crusader lord unearthed a story I’ve been writing about ever since. Having published these fascinating events in academic books, journals, and conferences, I was drawn to explore the possibility of telling the story in a different, more compelling way – giving rise to the novel, which has, I suppose, ended up as a kind of ‘origin story’.

 What do you hope to communicate to the reader?

The medieval period is so often portrayed as a blood-soaked tableau of violent quests for glory and honor amid proto-nationalistic fervor. I want the reader to glimpse a period alive and humorous and full of conflicted, complicated people who lived, loved, and survived in whatever way was available to them.