“[The author] told fans today that the long-awaited sixth volume in his Game of Thrones fantasy series, The Winds of Winter, would not be published this year – but softened the blow by revealing that his ‘imaginary history’ of the Targaryen family in Westeros would be released on 20 November. Fire and Blood is set 300 years before the events of A Song of Ice and Fire and … will chronicle ‘the Targaryen civil war that nearly ended their dynasty forever’.”