Chapter 5

TEN YEARS LATER

Our beautiful daughter Mia was conceived the first weekend I was released. I told Terry when she found out she was pregnant for the first time that I would give up my work in the lab and devote my life solely to looking after her and our family, they would be my life’s work. I became Terry’s personal assistant. It was a logical move, I was good with fine details, with logging results, scheduling meetings and lectures, keeping her diary up to the mark, yet shielding her from the excessive demands of those around her who might otherwise seek to exploit her.

I helped her with her research, checking details, consulting other experts on her behalf while tracking down and obtaining permissions to include photographs of artefacts and confirmations of opinions on supporting areas of expertise. I researched images for inclusion in her latest books. I proof read them, correlated references and footnotes, suggested alternative wording and order of setting out the information to the extent that Terry insisted these researches were now collaborations and the next book was therefore co-authored.

That first effort, “Shining Light on The Dark”, a popular history of the medieval period, was a best seller acclaimed both academically and by popular demand. The framework of that book had already been penned by Terry, then during her pregnancy confinement and Mia’s first year, we filled it out with references and illustrations and included contributed supporting arguments from the leading experts in the field. The hardback was published in October and reprinted three times before Christmas to satisfy demand. The paperback scheduled for the following year was rushed through before mid-December and was immediately stripped from the shelves.

The Open University signed us up as a team on the strength of the popularity of that work and we filmed a six-part series racing through the enormous breadth of the subject matter of the book. By then Mia was 2 years old and appeared in a good proportion of the shots as her beautiful mother mesmerised audiences with her looks, voice, charm and easy comfortable way of explaining the complexity of the language and life of our ancestors.

Together we won the Nobel Prize for Literature that year, which opened further possibilities and opportunities which were discussed from time to time over the next couple of years.

A second TV series followed, still covering “Shining” as we came to call it, by which time Terry was carrying our second child Daniel. Our second coffee table book, “Field and Feudal”, was not recognised by Nobel, the literature prize that year was shared by a French poet and Swedish playwright. But that second book was critically and publicly acclaimed once again and led to Hollywood scrambling for the documentary rights. In the end we settled for a small British-based company with backing by National Lottery funding. We waved any upfront signing fee or appearance money for a good share of the profits. The documentary included playacted scenes of certain events, starring short cameos by many top-line British and European actors, who also gave their services free or for small shares of the cut. When it was released, about nine months ago, cinemas were inundated, leading to a resurgence in book sales and repeats of the “Shining” series on the box. Translations of all books and videos were now popping up all over the place.