Giles Kristian (born 1975) is an English singer and novelist, known for his action adventure novels in the historical fiction genre. He is best known for his ''Raven'' series, about a young man's coming of age amongst a band of Viking warriors. His first novel, the bestselling ''Raven: Blood Eye,'' was published to great acclaim (including an accolade from

Bernard Cornwell Bernard Cornwell (born 23 February 1944) is an English author of historical novels and a history of the Waterloo Campaign. He is best known for his long-running series of novels about Napoleonic Wars rifleman Richard Sharpe. He has also writ ...

). Two further novels complete the ''Raven'' Saga; ''Sons of Thunder'' and ''Odin's Wolves'', and to date the books have been published in eight languages. He has written two books set during the English Civil War ''The Bleeding Land'' and ''Brothers Fury'' published by Transworld Publishers. In 2015, he co-wrote ''Golden Lion'' with

Wilbur Smith Wilbur Addison Smith (9 January 1933 – 13 November 2021) was a Northern Rhodesian-born British-South African novelist specializing in historical fiction about international involvement in Southern Africa across four centuries. He gained a f ...

, part of Smith's bestselling Courtney series. This book was a no.1 bestseller across three continents. Kristian's second Viking series, The Rise of Sigurd trilogy, comprises ''God of Vengeance'' (a ''Times'' Book of the Year) ''Winter’s Fire'' and ''Wings of the Storm''. Kristian worked as a narrative designer on the Multiplayer online survival roleplaying game ''Valnir Rok'', developed by encurio GmbH. Kristian's novel, ''Lancelot'', published in 2018 tells the story of one of the great figures of British myth and legend. It reached No. 6 in ''

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...

'' bestseller list and No. 3 in ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'' bestseller list. Its sequel ''Camelot'', was published in May 2020. Kristian is also the co-founder of UK based production company World Serpent Productions, for which he writes and produces; his 2016 short film, ''The Last Viking'', (written and produced by Kristian and directed by Philip Stevens) was selected for the 2017 Aesthetica film festival, and the 2017 Midlands Movies Awards. Kristian is an executive producer for World Serpent Productions debut feature film ''Lapwing'', due for release in winter 2020.

Background

Giles Kristian was born in 1975, in

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire to the north, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire to the south-east, Warw ...

, England, to a Norwegian mother and an English father. During the 1990s, he was selected from 8000 hopefuls to become lead singer of the pop group Upside Down, achieving three top twenty hit records on the UK Singles Chart with the boy band, performing at such venues as the

Royal Albert Hall The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington, London, England. It has a seating capacity of 5,272. Since the hall's opening by Queen Victoria in 1871, the world's leading artists from many performance genres ...

, N.E.C. and

Wembley Arena Wembley Arena () (originally the Empire Pool, currently known as OVO Energy, OVO Arena Wembley for sponsorship reasons) is an indoor arena next to Wembley Stadium in Wembley, Greater London, England. The 12,500-seat facility is Greater Lond ...

. As a singer-songwriter, he signed to the record label The M-Company and toured for two years in Europe, releasing the record ''I Just Wanna Know'' in 2001. He has worked as a model, appearing in press campaigns and TV commercials. He has been an advertising copywriter and lived for nearly three years in New York, where he wrote copy for the movie marketing company, Empire Design.

Works

''Raven'' saga

* 2010 ''Raven: Blood Eye'' * 2011 ''Raven: Sons of Thunder'' * 2012 ''Raven: Odin's Wolves''

''Rise of Sigurd'' saga

* 2014 ''Rise of Sigurd: God of Vengeance'' * 2016 ''Rise of Sigurd: Winter's Fire'' * 2016 ''Rise of Sigurd: Wings of the Storm''

''Civil War'' series

* 2012 ''The Bleeding Land'' * 2013 ''Brother's Fury''

''The Arthurian Tales'' series

* 2018 ''Lancelot'' * 2020 ''Camelot'' * 2024 ''Arthur''

Other works

* 2015 ''Golden Lion'' with

* 2022 ''Where Blood Runs Cold''

References

External links

Gileskristian.com/

Giles Kristian's page
at the Historical Writers' Association
The story behind God of Vengeance - Time and Tide - Online Essay by Giles Kristian
at Upcoming4.me {{DEFAULTSORT:Kristian, Giles 1975 births Living people English people of Norwegian descent Musicians from Leicestershire English pop singers English historical novelists 20th-century English male singers 21st-century English male singers