![\"Writing](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/efe.com\/\/srv\/htdocs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/rss-efecf19d7a0ad8c675cd3e6d310e7fdbdd162e5708cw.webp?fit=1920%2C1280&ssl=1\")
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Alida Juliani<\/p>
Stonehenge, UK, Sep 21 (EFE).- Writing ‘Circle of Days,’ a novel about the construction of Stonehenge, required British author Ken Follett to use his imagination more than he had done for previous novels, since there is no precise historical data on the subject.<\/p>
\u201cThis is much more mysterious than a church or a bridge, and because relatively little is known about it, I had to imagine more,\u201d Follett said during an interview with EFE at the southern England site.<\/p>
Stonehenge, which was built between the late Neolithic period and the beginning of the Bronze Age and declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1986, was the location chosen by the acclaimed author to unveil his new novel to the international press.<\/p>
The book will be released in English on Tuesday, and in Spanish in October.<\/p>
The writer visited Stonehenge for the first time with his parents when he was a child, but he has little memory of that visit.<\/p>
Instead, his inspiration for the novel came from a book titled \u201cHow to Build Stonehenge.\u201d<\/p>
\u201cI saw it and I thought, ‘That sounds like a Ken Follett story; building Stonehenge,\u2019 So I looked into it, and the more I learned about this place, the more intrigued I became,\u201d he explained.<\/p>
Follett, looking at the monument’s gigantic stones hit by the late English summer wind, recalled the process that began with reading several books for research.<\/p>
\u201cI also came here a lot, not just to look at the monument but to look at the countryside around,\u201d added the author of the bestseller ‘The Pillars of the Earth,’ referring to Salisbury Plain.<\/p>
\u201cClearly, the people who built this must\u2019ve lived here, I think that they were herders, I think they had cattle because this soil is not good for farming,\u201d he explained.<\/p>
On his journey across the plain, the writer, who has sold nearly 200 million books translated into 40 languages, followed in his work what he believes was the route the stones took to reach their current location from Westwood, a forest 30 miles away (about 48 kilometers).<\/p>
\u201cI followed that route myself so that I knew every part of that route. And then of course, when I\u2019ve done a lot of research and I\u2019ve written a first draft of the book, I asked some experts to read it and point out any mistakes I might have made,\u201d he said of the process of writing the book, which took him two and a half years.<\/p>
Similarities with \u2018The Pillars of the Earth\u2019<\/b><\/p>
Follett acknowledges that in \u2018Circle of Days\u2019 readers may find some similarities with \u2018The Pillars of the Earth\u2019 because it is about building something.<\/p>
\u201cA construction process is good because it gives a book a shape, and it moves the story forward all the time. It’s a mission, people are trying to achieve something,\u201d he explains.<\/p>
Another parallel with his previous novels is the prominence of a female character who stands out from her peers.<\/p>
\u201cI enjoy writing female characters best. I’ve always been more interested in women than men,\u201d he says. <\/p>
\u201cSometimes people say that my historical books are a bit modern because there’s generally a woman who doesn’t want to play the role that society has laid down for her,\u201d he adds.<\/p>
\u201cActually, this happens in all periods of history, in all societies. There are always people, men and women, who say, \u2018I’m not going to be what you want me to be. You want me to be this, I have other ideas.\u2019 And, of course, those rebellious people are very interesting to write about,\u201d he adds.<\/p>
‘I’m about stories’<\/b><\/p>
Follett denies that he conveys hidden messages in his books.<\/p>
\u201cEverybody knows that my politics are left-wing. I support the British Labour Party. But if I put messages about the Labour Party in my books, people wouldn’t buy my books. They don’t want me to tell them how to vote. They want me to tell them a good story,\u201d he explained.<\/p>
He understands that the key to his books’ success is emotion.<\/p>
\u201cWhen something sad happens, the reader has a little tear, and when someone is treated unfairly in the story, the reader wants to say, \u2018That’s wrong, that shouldn’t happen,\u2019\u201d he argued.<\/p>
As a reader himself – \u201cI read all the time,\u201d he says – he believes it’s better when there’s an emotional reaction to the story.<\/p>
\u201cIt\u2019s best when I have an emotional reaction to the story, that\u2019s what makes a best seller, the readers have an emotional reaction, sometimes even a physical reaction.\u201d EFE<\/p>
ajs\/mcd <\/p>