The Guardians of Fire Series

The Guardians of Fire Series was a trilogy of books written by South African-born British writer and politician Sir Benjamin Carlton, published between 1947 and 1952. While the books were initially moderate successes, they achieved cult status in the early eighties and eventually bestseller status when acclaimed British director Sir Arthur Hollingsworth produced a series of films based on the trilogy from 1996 to 2001. The film series was revived in 2011 for a further series of films directed by Tom Worth, the franchise is ongoing and expanding.

Books, Author and Background
Born in South Africa to British parents on September 9th 1915, Benjamin Carlton lived in the country until he was six years old, moving to Britain in 1921. After returning from France in 1945, Benjamin Carlton, an avid writer, wrote a memoir about his experiences in the war. His publisher and friend Frederick Messing told him that the novel sounded more like adventure fiction and urged him to alter the book to be published as a story. Carlton went away and created characters and worlds based around his experiences in the war, but created an entirely different scenario. The publishers loved it and Carlton proceeded to pen a further two novels, to equal moderate success.

Carlton retired from writing full time in order to pursue a career in politics and he represented his hometown as a Member of Parliament for 37 years between 1955 and 1992. He was knighted in 1985 for services to politics and literature.

Sir Benjamin was well known to be a close personal friend to acclaimed British film producer Lord Byron Hollingsworth, father of Sir Arthur Hollingsworth. Lord Byron famously produced the 1993 biopic "Ben" about Carlton's life, Colin Wildrow, who portrayed Benjamin Carlton in the film, won a BAFTA and an Oscar for his performance.

Sir Benjamin passed away on the set of the first Guardians of Fire film, directed by Sir Arthur Hollingsworth, on December 20th 1995 aged 80. Lord Byron passed away 5 days later on Christmas Day 1995 aged 92.

Upon the film's release on December 24th 1996, the three books dominated the bestseller list in both the UK and North America. The publishers revealed that book sales had gone up 400% since the film's release and the first book in the series, Guardians of Fire: King of Flames, was the highest selling book of the year and was on track to be the highest selling book of the decade.

The books were published over the course of 5 years and were published in chronological order. While it's believed that Sir Benjamin wrote 6 further manuscripts, they remain lost. The three published works were: A search for the manuscripts began in 2013 at Sir Benjamin's untouched townhouse in West London following the death of his wife Margot in 2012 at the age of 97, no complete works have yet been found.
 * The Guardians of Fire Volume 1: King of Flames
 * The Guardians of Fire Volume 2: Burning of the Witch
 * The Guardians of Fire Volume 3: Heat of a Warm Heart

Film background
Production of the film had began in January 1993, when Sir Arthur Hollingsworth showed a particular interest in the book and proceeded to write a first draft script with Sir Benjamin's permission. The script was well received by Sir Ben and Universal Pictures bought the script, production began in France that summer, however filming was delayed due to scheduling issues and was eventually cancelled. Sir Arthur managed to secure a new cast and crew and filming moved to Ireland in March 1995 and concluded in January 1996. The second film began production in September 1996 and concluded February 1997 and was released that October. The third and final book in the trilogy was set to be adapted into two films due to it's high page count. The films were set to be filmed back-to-back and production started in the summer of 1998 and concluded in Spring 1999. The first part of the final film was released on January 1st and is considered the first film to premiere in the 3rd millennium and the 21st century. The fourth and final film in the orginal series was released