Dear ——-

I understand your company has been appointed as a licensed agent for Netflix

I was particularly drawn by your interest in ——

I believe my novel The Prisoner of Foix offers locations and situations which would be suitable for presentation on the screen and I offer it for your consideration.

Ximene Trencavel, heiress to the lands of Occitan in Europe, has been brought up in the Cathar faith, a religion which sees nothing sinful in the giving or receiving sexual pleasure; which it regards as simply a sample of what reunion with the good God would be like. She has been educated in every aspect of the arts of making love. 

John Stanley, has been brought up in a fundamentalist Christian family and at the age of seventeen has never so much as laid a hand on a woman. He has however been recruited into the army of the Black Prince, the heir to the English throne, and promoted to become one of the Prince’s personal bodyguards.

Ximene’s uncle has offered her hand in marriage to the Black Prince. King Jean of the Franks is determined to prevent this marriage and hires the brutal Bertrand du Guesclin to murder Ximene.

Ximene decides she needs John’s help in her bid to escape from her dominating and manipulative uncle. She sets out to seduce John to win his support, but runs into a problem. John has no idea how to respond to her advances.  Ximene arranges for John to partake in a Cathar ‘Transition’ where young people receive practical experience in sexual matters.

Together, Ximene and John survive a series of attacks by du Guesclin, each one more threatening than the last until finally John suffers a life threatening injury.  As she kneels by John Stanley at the edge of a battlefield, Ximene realises how much John means to her.  She discovers for the first time in her life, a love totally separated from passion, desire, or the potential for political advantage. It is this discovery which makes her proud, intensely proud to be Ximene Trencavel. She determines that she must save John’s life.

The story settings include: A siege in Brittany involving the use of flaming projectiles from a trebuchet, the spectacular Chateau Foix and its underground cavern, the courts of England and Bordeaux , a shipwreck at the entrance to the Bay of Arcachon, a Cathar ritual on a hill above the Chateau Clermont-Dessou. The characters appear in elaborate 14th century costume or in various stages of undress.

The novel is complete at 280,000 words and has sequels of similar size. In the period up to January 2019 one can read the entire novel on ximene.net

I have been inspired to write The Prisoner of Foix because I was in the south of France at a time when the movement for the independence of Occitan was gathering strength.  In 2016 this movement reached the stage where a newly created region of France was named Occitanie.

The novel would appeal to all those who view The Outlander or Poldark or who read historical novels such as 1356 (Bernard Cornwell), The Sword of Albion(Mark Chadbourne) or the works of Phillipa Gregory  or Alison Wier

I have worked for twenty years as a consultant in engineering management. Longmans have published a series of books to support the lecture tours which I conducted on their behalf throughout Australasia and South East Asia.

Regards; 

Brian Lilley