Mike Weatherley

Since graduating with a degree in chemistry, Mike Weatherley worked for twenty-five years in the drugs industry, helping to manufacture—among other things—Viagra. His hobbies include classical music, gardening and tennis. He always had a flair for creative writing, in the form of poetry and song-lyrics printed in biology magazines at university, and later in palaeontology magazines on the subject of fossils (another hobby).

More recently, he has spent the last decade and a half debating aspects of the historicity of Arthur on various scholarly Internet forums, as well as at seminars. In between consulting experts in the archaeology, linguistics, and folklore of fifth century Britain, he has provided entertainment to his peers in the form of novel lyrics on an Arthurian theme set to well known tunes (which everyone involved can sing along to). Genres parodied include Cole Porter or Rodgers & Hammerstein musicals, Gilbert & Sullivan operas, poetry, national anthems and Christmas carols (when seasonal).

After a detailed study of Arthur’s historical career, by joining-the-dots of evidence (or piecing together the jigsaw puzzle), Mike is confident he’s got his man (or maybe that should be ‘men’). Suffice to say, scholars acknowledge that the historically attested figure with one of the best claims to being Arthur (by any other name) is a late-fifth century Romano-British soldier named Ambrosius Aurelianus. Yet until now, nobody has attempted a novel with this man as the main protagonist. In Pendragon, The Arthur Chronicles: 1', however, Mike not only offers one possible identification of the famous historical Arthur of the fifth century, but also reveals his connection to a far earlier second century figure who has just as much of a claim to that name: Lucius Artorius Castus.