A CROSS Roads author has edited a second anthology of stories inspired by Yorkshire’s only king Richard III.

Carol Fellingham Webb writes children’s history books focusing on the life and times of the notorious monarch.

She last year put together an anthology of short stories and poems about the king, entitled Grant Me The Carving Of My Name.

Now she has edited a follow-up – Right Trusty And Well Beloved – which like its predecessor will raise money for Scoliosis Association UK. King Richard is believed to have suffered from the serious spinal disorder.

Carol, who writes under the pen name Alex Marchant, said the latest anthology was an ideal stocking-filler for Christmas at £5.99 (£2.99 for the ebook version) as well as being for a good cause.

She said: “I will be selling copies of both anthologies and my own children’s books at the North Halifax Grammar School Christmas fair on Saturday December 7 from 11am and am keen to offer other school and library author events.”

Right Trusty And Well Beloved asks readers to decide who was the real Richard III.

The book’s jacket states: “Is it the boy, exiled in fear to the continent aged seven? The loyal warrior, brother to Edward IV? The young man struck by tragedy? The just and rightful king? Or Thomas More’s and Shakespeare’s infamous villain?

“You can meet them all within these pages … or can you?”

Right Trusty And Well Beloved has a foreword by Philippa Langley MBE, whose research led to the discovery of Richard III’s grave under a car park in Leicester.

The book will be launched in York on December 14. Visit exploreyork.org.uk for further information.

Under the name Alex Marchant, Carol has written two novels for children set around King Richard’s time – The King’s Man and The Order of the White Boar.

She this year gave several talks and readings across the country to help raise the books’ profile, and visited medieval events in costume appropriate to the Wars of the Roses setting up the novels.

She visited the Tewkesbury Medieval Festival, the UK Indie Lit Fest in Bradford, and the Bosworth Battle re-enactment in Leicester.

During the previous year’s Bosworth Battle a gunnery demonstration provided atmospheric sound effects for her reading of a battle scene from The King’s Man.

She gave an author talk and reading in February at the Co-op Academy Grange in Bradford then returned later this year as the children launched their own ‘first story anthology’ entitled Break the Silence, Free Your Voice.

Carol’s books and the anthologies are available from Amazon.