Special Guest Post by Alexandra Walsh, Author of Daughter of the Stones: An enchanting timeslip novel

Available from Amazon UK and Amazon US

When Caitlin King’s father collapses on the eve of the summer solstice, she’s drawn back into the tangled web of her already fragile family – and strange visions begin to haunt her. Visions of another life, another time and a woman who looks uncannily like herself. In Iron Age Britain, Cordelia is the third daughter of chief Lear Bladudsunu and a gifted shaman. But she is left grief-stricken when betrayal, ambition and patriarchal power threaten everything she holds dear.

The Real Cordelia

The inspiration for Daughter of the Stones first took root many years ago when I read William Shakespeare’s King Lear. I was struck by the strength of its female characters, even though by the end they fall into familiar tragic roles: women pitted against each other by a man’s manipulation and the inevitable death of the innocent.

However, the initial spark stayed with me. I wanted to explore the roles of Lear’s three daughters in a contemporary setting — and so began the earliest version of my story. In fact, the present-day strand featuring Caitlin, Larry, Gillian, Rachel and the rest of the cast began life as a film script. Despite numerous rewrites and some interest from producers, it never quite felt right. I set it aside but the idea never truly left me.

The problem, I eventually realised, was that the story needed an historical timeline to give the women’s journeys greater depth. This sent me on a quest to find the origins of the King Lear tale.

Tracing Lear’s Roots

Shakespeare’s King Lear exists in two versions from his lifetime: the Quarto (1608) and the Folio (1623). Each has lines missing from the other and scholars generally agree the differences complement each other. But, it soon became clear Shakespeare himself had drawn on a much older story.

In 1577, Holinshed’s Chronicle was published — a vast compendium of British history and legend. A second edition appeared in 1587 and it’s widely believed this inspired not only King Lear, but also Macbeth, Cymbeline, and Shakespeare’s history plays. But even Holinshed’s version of Lear was based on an earlier source: Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia Regum Britanniae (The History of the Kings of Britain), written in 1135.

Before Geoffrey’s book, British history usually began with the Roman invasion in 55 BCE. Geoffrey changed that, weaving a sweeping account starting with Brutus, a Trojan prince who supposedly brought the first people to Albion — Britain’s original name — and filling it with legends, including one of the earliest King Arthur stories.

Geoffrey claimed he translated his history from ‘a certain very ancient book’ in the British language, given to him by a friend. No one else ever saw this mysterious manuscript and most scholars now believe Geoffrey invented it. If so, he was an extraordinary storyteller — his tales, including Lear’s, have echoed down the centuries.

Building Cordelia’s World

Using clues from Geoffrey’s text, I placed the Lear story around 863 BCE, in Britain’s Iron Age (1300–900 BCE). No written records survive from this period but archaeological finds — from cooking pots to weapons, seeds to stone circles — have painted a vivid picture of daily life, beliefs and rituals.

Living in Pembrokeshire, I’m lucky to be near Castell Henllys, a reconstructed Iron Age village built on the exact footprints of ancient roundhouses. Walking its hillfort, sampling Iron Age recipes and watching re-enactments brought the period alive for me — down to the woad-painted faces and crackle of burning straw effigies.

From these experiences, I imagined Cordelia’s world: a community rooted in ritual, ruled by both kings and priestesses. In Geoffrey’s original, Lear is ‘Leir’ and his daughters are Goneril, Regan, and Cordelia. The main characters in my historical timeline keep those names, while other names are drawn from neighbouring tales to keep the setting authentic.

The Tale Before Shakespeare

In Geoffrey’s account, Lear decides to divide his kingdom among his daughters once they publicly declare their love for him. Cordelia refuses to flatter him, and is disinherited. Her first suitor rejects her, but Aganippus, King of Gallia (France), marries her without a dowry.
Goneril and Regan, married to the Dukes of Albany and Cornwall, grow resentful when Lear moves his large retinue into their homes. Their husbands seize Lear’s lands, forcing him to flee to Gallia. Cordelia and Aganippus raise an army, defeat the usurpers and restore Lear to his throne.

Here Holinshed’s Chronicle ends, but Geoffrey continues: Lear reigns for three more years before dying, leaving Cordelia as Britain’s first queen. She rules for five years until her nephews rebel. Overthrown and imprisoned, she takes her own life.

It’s tempting to think Shakespeare may have known this version, borrowing its tragic end for his own play.

Giving Cordelia Her Power

In my novel, Cordelia is also a shaman — a choice not found in Geoffrey’s work but essential for the connection between her and Caitlin in the present day. Shamanic traditions, Druidic rites and the idea of communicating with ancestors in the ‘Everywhen’ are ancient practices. I was inspired by Professor Alice Roberts’s discussion of henbane, a hallucinogenic plant native to Britain that may have been used in rituals. This became the means for Cordelia and Caitlin to cross the centuries and speak.

The temple women in my book are my invention but they draw on the many goddess figurines and female deities found in archaeological digs. I wanted Cordelia to have a powerbase that was exclusively female, reflecting both survival and leadership. As a princess and high priestess, she would have been a central figure in her community — a bridge between the earthly and the spiritual.

A Tribute to Britain’s First Queen

Whether Cordelia was a real Iron Age queen or entirely Geoffrey of Monmouth’s creation, her story has endured for nearly a thousand years. My aim was to give her and her sisters voices that go beyond the confines of the traditional tragedy, placing them within a more authentic female experience of their time.

Whenever I write, I seek to reclaim the lost voices of women in history — and Cordelia, Britain’s first queen, is no exception. In Daughter of the Stones, her legacy is one of courage, loyalty and the enduring bond between women across centuries. This is my tribute to her.

Alexandra Walsh

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About the Author

Alexandra Walsh is a bestselling author of the dual timeline women’s fiction. Her books range from the 15th and 16th centuries to the Victorian era and are inspired by the hidden voices of women that have been lost over the centuries. The Marquess House Saga offers an alternative view of the Tudor and early Stuart eras, while The Wind Chime and The Music Makers explore different aspects of Victorian society. Formerly, a journalist for over 25 years, writing for many national newspapers and magazines; Alexandra also worked in the TV and film industries as an associate producer, director, script writer and mentor for the MA Screen Writing course at the prestigious London Film School. She is a member of The Society of Authors and The Historical Writers Association. For updates and more information visit her website: www.alexandrawalsh.com and follow her on Facebook, Twitter @purplemermaid25 and Bluesky @purplemermaid25.bsky.social