The Moon in Hiding

[Mark Robson]

Being, of course, the second part of Teresa's 'Green Lion' trilogy.

Teresa, I enjoyed this book immensely. I think I've now overcome my prejudice of the names and really got into the story. I enjoyed this book a lot more than the first in the series. I don't think that's any reflection on the writing or story, more on the fact that I made the time to read this one a lot faster.

I have one question which I don't think will spoil the final book - why did you dwell on the visit of the two princes to their home castle so much? Was it just to show Garanwyn a society where Christian and pagan values were accepted side by side? I didn't quite catch the significance of all the people and places he visited - particularly the visit to the great hall of the fairy king. Did I miss something? I could see that in general it gave him a point of reference to be able to accept the way of the swamp folk, but aside from this I was a bit lost as to the relevance of all the details of the visit.

[Teresa Edgerton]

All those things you said, plus it's extremely relevant to events and revelations that come in later in the longer series (both the books that I actually wrote and those that may or may not see the light of day sometime). The history and traditions of Gwyngelli are quite important to the second trilogy, even though that one takes place in Mochdreff.

And of course those details are there for general background and local color, too.

[Mark Robson]

Ah yes, the background - something I really must work more on in my own writing! It certainly gave me a sense of what the place was like, so I look forward to reading the final book now. It's just bumped its way miraculously to the top of my reading pile despite lots of others backlogged, so I hope to feed back on that as well shortly.

It was funny to be reading this after a recent trip to Dylan Thomas country. I went to a school reunion a few weeks ago that happened to take place in the great man's home town of Laugharne. Over half of my school year attended, which was great fun. One person I had been hoping to see again was one of the girls whom I had a crush on whilst I was in school. Her name was Eleri. The strange thing is, she was in person very much the way you describe Teleri (a spookily close name) in the story: quiet, unassuming, blended into the background a lot, dark hair, pale complexion, but devastatingly pretty! I would have been intrigued to see how she had matured. It would have been quite amusing to confess to the crush - I'm sure she didn't know I existed when we were in school together.