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| The Crown of Glazorath
| | Stephen C. Lovatt
| The novel is set in a fictional land, the Kingdom of Glazorath, based on Medieval England. It has a gay priest, Pharsea, as one of its central characters and a strong-willed (but very feminine) wizardess, Bronwyn, as another. It features two romantic threads. The first is between Pharsea and an old friend who has become Abbott of Pharsea's home monastery. The second is between Bronwyn and a dashing young knight.
I write as a Platonist Catholic and the text is influenced and supported by this outlook. Many of the books’ characters (both heroes and villains) have mixed motives and uncertain loyalties. These are carefully explored. The text deals with issues such as the relationship between love and friendship; the connectedness of magic, sex and religion; temptation and what makes a person do evil; what constitutes political legitimacy; and the conflict between law and justice.
In the first book of this series, a group of outlawed courtiers set out to oppose the political aspirations of a Duke Regent intent on usurping the Throne. They travel throughout the Kingdom, recovering the lost Coronation Regalia, gathering political and military support and starting to discover something of what lies behind the Regent's unlooked for treason.
In this, the second book of the series, our heroes organise a Church Synod and attempt to liberate the imprisoned Crown Prince Gareth.
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