Henry Treece was a British poet

Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...

 and writer, who worked also as a teacher, and editor. He is perhaps best remembered now as a historical novel

Historical novel

According to Encyclopædia Britannica, a historical novel is-Development:An early example of historical prose fiction is Luó Guànzhōng's 14th century Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which covers one of the most important periods of Chinese history and left a lasting impact on Chinese culture.The...

ist, particularly as a children's historical novelist, although he also wrote some adult historical novels.

Life and work

Treece was born in Wednesbury

Wednesbury

Wednesbury is a market town in England's Black Country, part of the Sandwell metropolitan borough in West Midlands, near the source of the River Tame. Similarly to the word Wednesday, it is pronounced .-Pre-Medieval and Medieval times:...

, Staffordshire

Staffordshire

Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. Part of the National Forest lies within its borders...

, and graduated from the University of Birmingham

University of Birmingham

The University of Birmingham is a British Redbrick university located in the city of Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Birmingham Medical School and Mason Science College . Birmingham was the first Redbrick university to gain a charter and thus...

 in 1933. He went into teaching, first at Tynemouth School

The King's School, Tynemouth

The King's School is a co-educational, independent day school in Tynemouth, Tyne and Wear, England with over 800 pupils aged between 4 and 18. The current headmaster is Mr Edward Wesson . The school is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference...

. In 1939 he married Mary Woodman and settled in Lincolnshire

Lincolnshire

Lincolnshire is a county in the east of England. It borders Norfolk to the south east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south west, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to the west, South Yorkshire to the north west, and the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north. It also borders...

 as a teacher at Barton-upon-Humber

Barton-upon-Humber

Barton-upon-Humber or Barton is a small town and civil parish in North Lincolnshire, England located on the south bank of the Humber Estuary, and at the end of the Humber Bridge. It lies east of Leeds, southwest of Hull and north northeast of the county town of Lincoln...

 Grammar School. Their son, Richard Treece, became a musician with Help Yourself

Help Yourself (band)

Help Yourself, known to their fans as "The Helps", were an English rock band of the early 1970s whose style developed from “American-flavoured country-rock… …to acid-drenched psych.”.-History:...

 and other rock bands.

His five volumes of poetry were: 38 Poems (London: Fortune Press, [1940]), then by Faber & Faber; Invitation and Warning 1942; The Black Seasons 1945; The Haunted Garden 1947; and The Exiles 1952. He appeared in the 1949 The New British Poets: an anthology edited by Kenneth Rexroth

Kenneth Rexroth

Kenneth Rexroth was an American poet, translator and critical essayist. He is regarded as a central figure in the San Francisco Renaissance, and paved the groundwork for the movement...

; but from 1952 with The Dark Island he devoted himself to fiction. Representative of his children's books are the trilogy Viking's Dawn

Viking's Dawn

The Viking Trilogy is a trilogy of juvenile historical novels by Henry Treece.They are Viking's Dawn, The Road to Miklagard and Viking's Sunset. Treece wrote several juvenile historical novels, some set during the viking era, but this trilogy is regarded as among his best.The three novels describe...

, The Road to Miklagard and Viking's Sunset. He also wrote the children's book War Dog. His play Carnival King (Faber & Faber) was produced at Nottingham Playhouse

Nottingham Playhouse

The Nottingham Playhouse is a theatre in Nottingham, England. It was first established as a repertory theatre in the 1950s when it operated from a former cinema. Directors during this period included Val May and Frank Dunlop.-The building:...

 in 1953. He also worked as a radio broadcaster. His historical novels set in Mycenaean Greece

Mycenaean Greece

Mycenaean Greece was a cultural period of Bronze Age Greece taking its name from the archaeological site of Mycenae in northeastern Argolis, in the Peloponnese of southern Greece. Athens, Pylos, Thebes, and Tiryns are also important Mycenaean sites...

 are reminiscent of Mary Renault

Mary Renault

Mary Renault born Eileen Mary Challans, was an English writer best known for her historical novels set in Ancient Greece...

.

In World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 he served as an intelligence officer in the RAF

Royal Air Force

The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...

 and helped John Pudney

John Pudney

John Sleigh Pudney was a British journalist and writer. He was known for short stories, poetry, non-fiction and children's fiction .-Education:...

 edit Air Force Poetry.

Other poetry anthologies he was involved with include The New Apocalypse (1939) with J. F. Hendry

J. F. Hendry

James Findlay Hendry was a Scottish poet known also as an editor and writer. He was born in Glasgow, and read Modern Languages at the University of Glasgow. During World War II he served in the Royal Artillery and the Intelligence Corps. After the war he worked as a translator for international...

 giving its name to a movement

New Apocalyptics

The New Apocalyptics were a poetry grouping in the UK in the 1940s, taking their name from the anthology The New Apocalypse , which was edited by J. F. Hendry and Henry Treece...

; two further anthologies with Hendry followed. He wrote a critical study of Dylan Thomas

Dylan Thomas

Dylan Marlais Thomas was a Welsh poet and writer, Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 11 January 2008. who wrote exclusively in English. In addition to poetry, he wrote short stories and scripts for film and radio, which he often performed himself...

, called Dylan Thomas - Dog among the fairies published by Lindsay Drummond, London in 1949. He and Thomas became estranged over Thomas's refusal to sign up as a New Apocalyptic.

He also wrote Conquerors in 1932, as a way to reflect on the horrors of war.

He edited issues of Transformation, and A New Romantic Anthology (1949) with Stefan Schimanski, issues of Kingdom Come: The Magazine of War-Time Oxford with Schimanski and Alan Rook

Alan Rook

Alan Rook was a Cairo poet and edited the 1936 issue of New Oxford Poetry. After World War II he became a wine trader.-External links:*...

, as well as War-Time Harvest. How I See Apocalypse (London, Lindsay Drummond, 1946) was a retrospective statement.

Works

• Conquerors (Poem)
• 38 Poems (1940)
• The White Horseman: prose and verse of the new apocalypse (1941) (edited with J. F. Hendry
  J. F. Hendry
  James Findlay Hendry was a Scottish poet known also as an editor and writer. He was born in Glasgow, and read Modern Languages at the University of Glasgow. During World War II he served in the Royal Artillery and the Intelligence Corps. After the war he worked as a translator for international...
  
  )
• Invitation and Warning (1942) (verse)
• Transformation. (Transformation two [etc.].) (1943) (Prose ... Poetry ... Plays) (edited with Stefan K. Schimanski)
• Wartime Harvest:an anthology of prose and verse (1943) (edited with Stefan K. Schimanski)
• Air Force Poetry (1944) (edited with John Pudney
  John Pudney
  John Sleigh Pudney was a British journalist and writer. He was known for short stories, poetry, non-fiction and children's fiction .-Education:...
  
  )
• Herbert Read: an introduction to his work by various hands (1944) (edited)
• A Map of Hearts (1944) (tales) (edited with Stefan K. Schimanski)
• The Black Seasons (1945) (poems)
• The Crown and the Sickle: an anthology (1945) (with J. F. Hendry
  J. F. Hendry
  James Findlay Hendry was a Scottish poet known also as an editor and writer. He was born in Glasgow, and read Modern Languages at the University of Glasgow. During World War II he served in the Royal Artillery and the Intelligence Corps. After the war he worked as a translator for international...
  
  )
• How I See Apocalypse (1946)
• I Cannot go Hunting Tomorrow. 1946) (short stories)
• The Haunted Garden (1947 (poems)
• Leaves in the Storm (1947) (book of diaries) (edited with Stefan K. Schimanski and with a running commentary)
• Transformation Library. (1947) (general editor with Stefan K. Schimanski)
• Selected Poems (1948) (edited by Algernon Charles, with an introduction by Henry Treece)
• Dylan Thomas. ‘Dog among the fairies. (1949)
• A New Romantic Anthology (1949) (edited with Stefan K. Schimanski)
• The Exiles (1952) (poems)
• The Rebels (1953) (novel)
• Desperate Journey (1954) (A tale)
• The Eagles Have Flown (1954) (novel)
• Legions of the Eagle (1954) (novel)
• Ask for King Billy (1955) (novel)
• Carnival King: A play in three acts (1955) (play)
• Hounds of the King (1955) (with two radio plays by the author, 1965 edition)
• Viking's Dawn
  Viking's Dawn
  The Viking Trilogy is a trilogy of juvenile historical novels by Henry Treece.They are Viking's Dawn, The Road to Miklagard and Viking's Sunset. Treece wrote several juvenile historical novels, some set during the viking era, but this trilogy is regarded as among his best.The three novels describe...
  
  (1955) (1st in The Viking Saga)
• Hunter Hunted (1957) (novel)
• Men of the Hills (1957) (novel)
• The Road to Miklagard (1957) (2nd in The Viking Saga)
• The Children's Crusade
  Children's Crusade
  The Children's Crusade is the name given to a variety of fictional and factual events which happened in 1212 that combine some or all of these elements: visions by a French or German boy; an intention to peacefully convert Muslims in the Holy Land to Christianity; bands of children marching to...
  
  (1958) (novel)
• Don't Expect Any Mercy! (1958) (novel)
• The Return of Robinson Crusoe (1958) (novel)
• Ride into Danger (1959) (novel)
• The Bombard (1959) (novel)
• Castles and Kings (1959)
• The True Books about Castles (1959)
• Wickham and the Armada (1959) (novel)
• A Fighting Man (1960)
• Red Settlement (1960)
• Viking's Sunset (1960) (3rd in The Viking Saga)
• The Golden One (1961)
• The Jet Bead (1961) (novel)
• The Crusades (1962)
• Man with a Sword (1962) (novel about Hereward the Wake
  Hereward the Wake
  Hereward the Wake , known in his own times as Hereward the Outlaw or Hereward the Exile, was an 11th-century leader of local resistance to the Norman conquest of England....
  
  ) (decorations by William Stobbs)
• War Dog (1962) (novel)
• Collected poems (1963)
• Fighting Men: how men have fought through the ages (1963) (with Ronald Ewart Oakeshott)
• Horned Helmet (1963) (novel)
• Know about the Crusades (1963)
• The Burning of Njal (1964) (novel) (retold by Henry Treece)
• The Last of the Vikings (1964) (novel)
• The Bronze Sword (1965) (novel)
• Splintered Sword (1965) (novel)
• Killer in Dark Glasses (1965) (novel)
• Swords from the North (1966) (novel)
• Bang You're Dead! (1966) (novel)
• The Queen's Brooch (1966) (novel)
• The Dream Time (1967) (novel)
• Vinland the Good
  Vinland the Good
  Vinland the Good is the title of at least two books.* It is a film script by British author Nevil Shute telling the historical story of the discovery of America by Leif Ericsson in 1003. The book was originally published in 1946 in England by Heinemann and in America by Morrow, and re-published in...
  
  (1967) (novel) (decorations by William Stobbs, map by Richard Treece)
• The Windswept City (1967) (novel)
• The Crusades: two hundred years of war, sacred journeys and the quest for loot (1978)

Adult historical fiction

Celtic Tetralogy (ordered by chronological setting)

• 1) The Golden Strangers (1956); titled The Invaders in the U.S.), about the arrival of the Celts in Britain
• 2) The Dark Island (1952); titled The Savage Warriors in the U.S.), about the defeat of Caratacus by the Romans after their invasion of Britain
• 3) Red Queen, White Queen (1958); titled The Pagan Queen in the U.S.), about Boudica and the rebellion she led against Rome, as told by a young Roman Imperial agent
• 4) The Great Captains (1956), a realistic story of King Arthur and the struggle of Celtic Britain to survive after the departure of the Romans

Trilogy set in Mycenaean Greece, based on legendary characters

• Jason (1961)
• Electra (also spelt Elektra for some editions)- US title The Amber Princess (1963)
• Oedipus --US title The Eagle King (1964)

• The Green Man (1966) A reworking of "Amleth's Vengeance" from the "Gesta Danorum" of Saxo Grammaticus (the basis for Shakespeare's tragedy, Hamlet). Set in 6th century Jutland, Duke Arthur's Britain and Scotland. Contains fantasy elements.