Britain in the Dark Ages by Professor William Walter Bullitt

Thanks to The Independent 

Title: Britain in the Dark Ages (2 volumes)

Author: Professor William Walter Bullitt

Publisher: Not known but 1924

Source book: Our Man in Camelot by Anthony Price (David Audley #6)

Britain in the Dark Ages is cunningly hidden right at the start of Our Man in Camelot in the middle of a list of genuine books like Arthur’s Britain by Leslie Alcock, Arthur of Britain by EK Chambers, and Anglo-Saxon Britain by Frank Stenton (although I think it was actually called Anglo-Saxon England). 

Unless you are a nasty suspicious person like me who looks up books within books to see if they’re real or not, you would probably take the list of books at face value: I actually have a copy of Arthur’s Britain packed away in storage somewhere. But it’s a nice little trail of breadcrumbs for anyone who is reading the book for a second time. Or, like me, a third or fourth time. 

Because more than halfway through the book we encounter Billy Bullit, otherwise Group Captain William Bullitt DSO, DFC, RAF Retired; grandson of the Professor Bullitt who wrote Britain in the Dark Ages. Billy was brought up by his grandfather, in a house called Camelot, and has recently been researching King Arthur, and Badon which is the lost site of King Arthur’s final battle, where he triumphed over the invading Saxons.

Billy Bullitt has been conned by the KGB into believing an American Air Force General has knowingly destroyed all trace of the battle of Badon just to build an extra bit of runway. He is all set to create a nasty political scandal in the Sunday papers and in a TV documentary. That dates the source book rather, don’t you think? These days it would be leaked (or trumpeted) on X (Twitter) and TikTok and discussed at length in a podcast. As well as the documentary and finally the papers.

Bullitt and the KGB are thwarted by David Audley and uncover CIA operative (and dentist), Captain Mosby Sheldon.

There is also a mention in Our Man in Camelot of the book that David Audley is writing about William Marshall, the best knight in Christendom; the best knight that ever lived. In For the Good of the State we find that the book was dedicated to Colonel Butler. It  sounds really interesting. A pity David Audley isn’t real, and hasn’t written this book.

Also in For the Good of the State we discover that David Audley can even write books by accident. He has written a series of articles in the Literary Review about Kipling’s books for children. Presumably The Just So Stories, Puck of Pook’s Hill and Stalky and Co. The articles are to be turned into a book.

Thanks to Rabbie’s Tours