tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-41222969336211468752024-03-18T16:17:54.806+00:00The Writing DeskThe Writing Desk: Writing, support and useful links for writerstonyricheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18169101546380473710noreply@blogger.comBlogger2000125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122296933621146875.post-13628243388605496312024-03-18T16:16:00.005+00:002024-03-18T16:16:56.193+00:00Book Review: The Tudor Socialite: A Social Calendar of Tudor Life, by Jan-Marie Knights <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiONizrDHxHL_n51wNUHSCsXa4yGRQIt79uD2LiySkcTUV8SK8kPb9RQ59TvXFw00UULKlJHzaoPuPp92Aj-WOpac-o4B0Po81e0Rw9bQlICgXSQ8HOAD06Vpf1OwHaDrqYU7_K6x5bkYRJtRRIG3XeRPvaZXvWJX-JbbbxiCQ4CqNY3ZsKjl6nOWE4k_I/s522/The%20Tudor%20Socialite.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="522" data-original-width="341" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiONizrDHxHL_n51wNUHSCsXa4yGRQIt79uD2LiySkcTUV8SK8kPb9RQ59TvXFw00UULKlJHzaoPuPp92Aj-WOpac-o4B0Po81e0Rw9bQlICgXSQ8HOAD06Vpf1OwHaDrqYU7_K6x5bkYRJtRRIG3XeRPvaZXvWJX-JbbbxiCQ4CqNY3ZsKjl6nOWE4k_I/w261-h400/The%20Tudor%20Socialite.jpeg" width="261" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Available from <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tudor-Socialite-Social-Calendar-Life/dp/1398119563" target="_blank">Amazon UK</a> and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Tudor-Socialite-Social-Calendar-Life-ebook/dp/B09LMHD1TN" target="_blank">Amazon US</a></span></b> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Jan-Marie Knights follows her previous book, <i><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Plantagenet-Socialite-Jan-Marie-Knights/dp/1398108928" target="_blank">The Plantagenet Socialite</a></i> with this new venture into the world of the Tudors. This probably explains the title and subtitle of 'A social calendar of Tudor life'. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">In fact the book is less a social calendar and more of a diary of many of the key events of the Tudor dynasty, from the Fiked of tge Cloth of Gold to the Span ish Armada.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Some events are limited to a brief paragraph, while others have a page or two, and the book is full of fascinating 'soundbites' of the Tudor world.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">None have referenced sources, and although there is a long bibliography, many of the books listed are Victorian. Our understanding of the important social context around the key events of the Tudors has come a long way since tben, and I would have liked some acknowledgement of this, perghaps with examples.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The main value of this book is therefore as a series or 'prompts' organised by date, which budding historians could use as a starting point for further research. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b><i><br /></i></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b><i>Tony Riches</i></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"># # #</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>About the Author</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT-NlRFGYwvbkR26MavjODaPMmULdDWqmLaiOu3KUstFXbCOWa0HqbwuOQqyay_TPUEsjx-SAXaaX9N6XG6LiJJtPpcIvi02t75THx4svmsUPSlo_wZ7Uyl1k7Btai3JuaAFwqLSChvAFH6qpvJVHDUAdGhGG5XgStdGtxkRAGEzlZT_NKY6jXPFzUZ-w/s1174/Jan-Marie%20Knights.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1174" data-original-width="914" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT-NlRFGYwvbkR26MavjODaPMmULdDWqmLaiOu3KUstFXbCOWa0HqbwuOQqyay_TPUEsjx-SAXaaX9N6XG6LiJJtPpcIvi02t75THx4svmsUPSlo_wZ7Uyl1k7Btai3JuaAFwqLSChvAFH6qpvJVHDUAdGhGG5XgStdGtxkRAGEzlZT_NKY6jXPFzUZ-w/w156-h200/Jan-Marie%20Knights.png" width="156" /></a></div>Jan-Marie Knights is an ex- editor and journalist who has worked on many newspapers and magazines and is a keen researcher of local and Tudor history. She lives in the area known as the ‘Dukeries’ with her Tonkinese cat called Ashi.</div>tonyricheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18169101546380473710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122296933621146875.post-67159459096538900922024-03-15T15:20:00.002+00:002024-03-15T15:20:44.854+00:00The Marsh House, by Zoë Somerville<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioW0uiB6w20pBLHSkhln0MqdEzzzf87waO1b3ThsCqxUwDtKIeFaVhJmHMt8SbIMzo7gCa-iiCLCcoLtLtDUCQjLuF2AIbWF3DcJ7B6bt1F48lPiez3HNSu8EgUqR0xMz68atS42ft5dkXB50NCHZP_zEZqyOkzFcJhPHSO5hosFu_yl-MelAdEEb_v3k/s522/The%20Marsh%20House.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="522" data-original-width="341" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioW0uiB6w20pBLHSkhln0MqdEzzzf87waO1b3ThsCqxUwDtKIeFaVhJmHMt8SbIMzo7gCa-iiCLCcoLtLtDUCQjLuF2AIbWF3DcJ7B6bt1F48lPiez3HNSu8EgUqR0xMz68atS42ft5dkXB50NCHZP_zEZqyOkzFcJhPHSO5hosFu_yl-MelAdEEb_v3k/w261-h400/The%20Marsh%20House.jpeg" width="261" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Available from <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Marsh-House-Zoe-Somerville-ebook/dp/B08QXCR5HF" target="_blank">Amazon UK</a> and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Marsh-House-Zoe-Somerville-ebook/dp/B08QXCR5HF" target="_blank">Amazon US</a></span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i>The haunting second novel from the author of The Night of the Flood. Two women, separated by decades, are drawn together by one, mysterious house on the North Norfolk coast.</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i>'</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><b>December, 1962</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><b><br /></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Desperate for a happy Christmas after a disastrous year, Malorie rents a remote house on the Norfolk coast for herself and her daughter Franny. Yet when a furious blizzard traps the pair indoors, the strained silence between them feels louder than ever.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Escaping to the attic, Malorie finds the discarded diaries of Rosemary, who lived at the Marsh House through the Thirties. As she reads, she finds herself inexorably drawn into Rosemary's lonely existence – until past and present begin to blur entirely...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><b><br /></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><b>Praise for The Marsh House:</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">'<i>Zoë Somerville is a born storyteller and this page-turner delivers plenty of creepy thrills.' The Times</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><i><br /></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><i>'A satisfyingly dark, gothic tale where the past is never far behind you.' Rhiannon Ward, author of The Quickening</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><i><br /></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><i>'Beautifully written, atmospheric as hell, and elegantly constructed, the story of The Marsh House will draw you into its grip and never let go till the final word.' Jane Johnson, author of The Sea Gate</i></div></div><i><br />'Deliciously eerie and unsettling, The Marsh House had me bewitched from page one. I loved its layers of history and secrets. A haunting gem of a book.' Susan Allott, author of The Silence<br /></i><p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><i># # #</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>About the Author</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijCBWjtLroWYz8CMKLtBS-T6rhu3KhJIVs73m_GkIpk9Idvz0oFETnPvCURp41PWudw4tmu3Shyphenhyphen6h6Vx-W77CbOUetWC2nTUphv0pqvkRylFPK9r_ylsEwjn0cc2qMy0peZHMGMtlVJ1dXRb1Cx5vZ11hHcT1yu1T4NPehQsu-L_pTTFcYx5nyA9_1fqQ/s720/Zoe%CC%88%20Somerville.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="498" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijCBWjtLroWYz8CMKLtBS-T6rhu3KhJIVs73m_GkIpk9Idvz0oFETnPvCURp41PWudw4tmu3Shyphenhyphen6h6Vx-W77CbOUetWC2nTUphv0pqvkRylFPK9r_ylsEwjn0cc2qMy0peZHMGMtlVJ1dXRb1Cx5vZ11hHcT1yu1T4NPehQsu-L_pTTFcYx5nyA9_1fqQ/s320/Zoe%CC%88%20Somerville.png" width="221" /></a></div>Zoë Somerville is originally from Norfolk, but has settled with her husband and children in the West Country. She works as an English teacher. Her debut novel, <i>The Night of the Flood</i> was published in September 2020. Her second novel, <i>The Marsh House</i>, was published in March 2022. She is currently writing her third novel. Find out more from Zoe's website <a href="https://zoesomerville.com/">https://zoesomerville.com/</a> and find her on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/zoesomervillewriter" target="_blank">Facebook</a> and Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/zessomerville" target="_blank">@zessomerville</a></div>tonyricheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18169101546380473710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122296933621146875.post-88110261321334281862024-03-13T08:49:00.000+00:002024-03-13T08:49:43.695+00:00Blog Tour: A Matter of Time: Henry VIII, The Dying of the Light (The Henrician Chronicle Book 3) by Judith Arnopp<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn8FTvO9U8R4kg3VgU4sbACJ1YWfe6sqY_cHRsIapUwhCdbfpX1C6vlDE7Wv3iNeQtL0-o8xP4cCb-j1dgdfnA9oUkhQwFNKWtBdMPLe4QfThO6XKPjiXysltrx7Uay9WVlfQQw2RK0FUOjAjtkD77Y6vgz-ViZPrKl3_jnPhGMlz8nAFS8D_RJ4TQbyc/s522/A%20Matter%20of%20Time.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="522" data-original-width="331" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn8FTvO9U8R4kg3VgU4sbACJ1YWfe6sqY_cHRsIapUwhCdbfpX1C6vlDE7Wv3iNeQtL0-o8xP4cCb-j1dgdfnA9oUkhQwFNKWtBdMPLe4QfThO6XKPjiXysltrx7Uay9WVlfQQw2RK0FUOjAjtkD77Y6vgz-ViZPrKl3_jnPhGMlz8nAFS8D_RJ4TQbyc/w254-h400/A%20Matter%20of%20Time.jpg" width="254" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Available from <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Matter-Time-Henry-Henrician-Chronicle-ebook/dp/B0CSG8G8YR" target="_blank">Amazon UK</a> and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Matter-Time-Henry-Henrician-Chronicle-ebook/dp/B0CSG8G8YR" target="_blank">Amazon US</a></span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i>With youth now far behind him, King Henry VIII has only produced one infant son and two bastard daughters. More sons are essential to secure the Tudor line and with his third wife, Jane Seymour dead, Henry hunts for a suitable replacement.</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Excerpt: August 1541 Henry at Lincoln taking recompense for the recent uprising</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div><br /></div><div>The people are waiting to receive us. The gentry, the mayor, and citizens of Lincoln, and the clergy of the cathedral. </div><div> Traitors all, who should rightly be hanged for their crimes. I take my stand and look coldly above their heads.</div><div> One by one, the various groups come forward. The clergy is first; their chosen leader makes a hesitant speech, a speech full of regret, full of apology. A speech that begs my forgiveness. </div><div>I would like to draw my sword and strike off his head, but I have already spied the coffer that he means to bestow upon me by way of recompense. He hands me a rolled copy of his apology and I accept it and, without reading, I hand it to Norfolk. Everyone kneels; only the queen and I are left standing. I look across the bowed heads of the company to the sky where crows are circling, and the pennants of the city hang limp in the bright blue sky.</div><div> “Jesus save Your Grace!” they cry, while I look on dispassionately. A te deum begins, the voices of the choir soaring to the heavens. Katherine turns to look at me, and my eyes soften, as they always do when I look upon her. I was wrong to be displeased with her earlier. What does it matter if she is a little impetuous, a little lacking in discipline? She is young; it is all part of her charm. Too soon, she will grow up, and her passion for life will be dampened, her limbs will stiffen with ague, she will be old before she knows it. She should enjoy life while she is still young enough to dance.</div><div><br /></div></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /><b><i>Judith Arnopp<br /></i></b><br />Judith’s trilogy The Henrician Chronicle, comprising of <i>A Matter of Conscience: Henry VIII, the Aragon Years. A Matter of Faith: Henry VIII, the days of the Phoenix, </i>and <i>A Matter of Time: the Dying of the Light, </i>is available now on Amazon Kindle and paperback.<br /><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://mybook.to/amok">mybook.to/amok</a> <a href="http://mybook.to/amofaith">mybook.to/amofaith</a>. <a href="http://mybook.to/amot">mybook.to/amot</a></div></blockquote><p style="text-align: center;"><b># # #</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>About the Author</b> </p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI8s8F6R71syPOdCMFeScWw_uWBgzdbQ-4N2GtriRorrW3v7VQxQ0sPm1-WlYg4MriIRK1ZdcyXEI0v27qOwTTC9hLUp0y9Le_-HAKbsTrBLsCRc-q33S-emNtD_0RTb6l99RsHTp0bF0M1jBrNV8NyJGRhfkl37bRZzZQkYh58tacXFsoJeFBWGUP_io/s1000/author%20pic%20judith%20pembroke.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="750" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI8s8F6R71syPOdCMFeScWw_uWBgzdbQ-4N2GtriRorrW3v7VQxQ0sPm1-WlYg4MriIRK1ZdcyXEI0v27qOwTTC9hLUp0y9Le_-HAKbsTrBLsCRc-q33S-emNtD_0RTb6l99RsHTp0bF0M1jBrNV8NyJGRhfkl37bRZzZQkYh58tacXFsoJeFBWGUP_io/s320/author%20pic%20judith%20pembroke.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>Judith Arnopp is a lifelong history enthusiast and avid reader with a BA in English/Creative writing and an MA in Medieval Studies. She lives on the coast of West Wales where she writes both fiction and non-fiction. She is best known for her novels set in the Medieval and Tudor period, focussing on the perspective of historical women but recently she has completed a trilogy from the perspective of Henry VIII himself. Judith is also a founder member of a re-enactment group called The Fyne Companye of Cambria which is when she began to experiment with sewing historical garments. She now makes clothes and accessories both for the group and others. She is not a professionally trained sewer but through trial, error and determination has learned how to make authentic looking, if not strictly historically accurate clothing. Her non-fiction book, How to Dress like a Tudor was published by Pen and Sword in 2023. Find out more at Judith's website <a href="http://www.judithmarnopp.com/">www.judithmarnopp.com/</a> and find her on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/juditharnopp">Facebook</a>, <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/jarnopp.bsky.social" target="_blank">Bluesky</a>, <a href="https://www.threads.net/@tudor_juditharnopp" target="_blank">Threads</a> and Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/JudithArnopp">@JudithArnopp</a><p></p>tonyricheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18169101546380473710noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122296933621146875.post-30357584085812428872024-03-12T11:15:00.001+00:002024-03-12T11:15:38.656+00:00Special Guest Post by Irina Shapiro, Author of the Redmond and Haze Mystery Series<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0yBbO0MjQERK9bD56fWLjDsjM0zx3d1Qda9LNcavlNiCWZ5KBfK9e5ZE4_6NlCPBGlxsPNkJwk6OMUfMHGR1LrRHuqdv8IuJJNXVnNSjJIv7mAIlh13hNTtG4X0-7HBBE83X8fLXiBRmhjtaIhEb7KENXFKFR2EL-zjrsF4xddCpbGxvi21PkUQIGUXY/s522/Murder%20in%20the%20Crypt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="522" data-original-width="344" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0yBbO0MjQERK9bD56fWLjDsjM0zx3d1Qda9LNcavlNiCWZ5KBfK9e5ZE4_6NlCPBGlxsPNkJwk6OMUfMHGR1LrRHuqdv8IuJJNXVnNSjJIv7mAIlh13hNTtG4X0-7HBBE83X8fLXiBRmhjtaIhEb7KENXFKFR2EL-zjrsF4xddCpbGxvi21PkUQIGUXY/w264-h400/Murder%20in%20the%20Crypt.jpg" width="264" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Available from <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Murder-Crypt-Redmond-Mystery-Mysteries-ebook/dp/B081M6G4GT" target="_blank">Amazon UK</a> and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Murder-Crypt-Redmond-Mystery-Mysteries-ebook/dp/B081M6G4GT" target="_blank">Amazon US</a></span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><i>When the body of a young man is found stuffed into the tomb of a medieval knight, Parish Constable Daniel Haze is tasked with investigating his first solo murder case. Suspicion instantly falls on the only stranger to arrive in the village of Birch Hill just before the crime took place, but the American captain proves to be an unexpected asset. A former soldier and a skilled surgeon, Jason Redmond is not only willing to assist Haze with the investigation but will risk</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><i>his own safety to apprehend the killer.</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div></div><div>When I was invited to discuss my latest release, I initially thought I’d talk about <i>The Lost Colony,</i> which is a bit of a departure for me. I loved writing this twisty psychological thriller, but I’m better known for historical murder mysteries, and the series readers are most familiar with is the Redmond and Haze mysteries. <i>Murder of a Hangman</i>, A Redmond and Haze Mystery Book 13 was just released in January, and the next instalment, <i>Murder of Innocents</i>, is coming in October.</div><div><br /></div><div>Although I started my career writing time travel and Gothic romance, I eventually gravitated toward writing murder mysteries. Some might think I have a fascination with murder, but the truth is that the murder itself is secondary. What I really enjoy is creating an intricate puzzle where the pieces do not easily fit together and the big picture is not complete until the final clue is in place. And given my love of all things historical, naturally all my series are set in the past, in this instance the foggy, gaslit streets of Victorian England.</div><div><br /></div><div>My protagonists, Jason Redmond and Daniel Haze, are as different as two men can be, with each man bringing a unique brand of reasoning and justice to the investigations. At the start of the series, Daniel Haze is a parish constable. He’s steadfast and conscientious, and not at all the sort of person to question social constraints imposed by a closed-minded and rigid society. </div><div><br /></div><div>Jason Redmond is an American doctor who served as a Union Army captain during the American Civil War and spent a year in Andersonville Confederate Prison. Having been raised in a country that celebrates equality and democracy, Jason has mixed feelings about claiming the title and an estate that are his due, but as the only surviving descendant of a noble family, he can hardly refuse to honor his legacy. </div><div><br /></div><div>Jason is intelligent, courageous, and all too aware of life’s injustices and the age-old prejudices that govern polite society. He is not afraid to speak his mind or question the status quo, nor is he disdainful of the common people who turn to him for help, his philanthropy turning his peers against him.</div><div>Although there is an ever-changing cast of supporting characters, Victorian England is a character in itself, the time period setting the stage for not only some truly puzzling crimes but also friction between the two men.</div><div><br /></div><div>I have been fascinated with Victorian England since I was a child and read my first Sherlock Holmes story. There are those who romanticize the era and imagine a life that was charming and quaint, but the nineteenth century had a dark side, its misery and danger personified in readers’ minds by characters like Oliver Twist and Jack the Ripper. </div><div><br /></div><div>Victorian England was riddled with crime, plagued by poverty, and governed by people who didn’t care to waste resources on protecting its most vulnerable citizens. London was truly a study in contrasts, with some living in glittering opulence and others struggling to survive, often preferring to live on the streets than accept the hospitality of London’s many orphanages and workhouses, since those establishments were a ticket to an early grave.</div><div><br /></div><div>It was during this time that a fledgling police force was just coming into its own, the newly minted detectives relying on their own wits, experience, and underworld informers to apprehend criminals who were as clever as they were numerous. Victorian policemen had virtually no training, carried no firearms, and were too few to police a metropolis the size of London. Crime scene photography was just coming into use, and fingerprinting suspects was still years away. It was a time when all a policeman had to rely on was his courage and powers of deduction, and he wasn’t expected to adhere to established procedure. In other words, the absolute perfect time to set a mystery series since anything went.</div><div><br /></div><div>As attached as I am to the time period and setting, one ever-present challenge of writing Victorian mysteries is maintaining historical accuracy. I am forever looking up customs, inventions, and period-appropriate phrases, but the one area of research that always takes me down the proverbial rabbit hole is nineteenth-century medicine, which was way scarier than I ever imagined and remembered for filthy instruments, brutal amputations without anesthetic, a complete disregard for patients, and a stubborn refusal to learn or evolve that led to countless deaths that could have been avoided even by the simple act of handwashing.</div><div><br /></div><div>Some of the hardest scenes to write focus on street children and prostitutes, who were achingly young and horribly mistreated and made up a surprisingly large percentage of the population. Thousands of children were orphaned and lived on the streets, and countless women fell into prostitution and were shunned by a society that chose to brand them as lascivious and immoral rather than acknowledge that these women were struggling to survive and try to help them.</div><div><br /></div><div>In the course of their investigations, my protagonists encounter individuals from all walks of life and find themselves not only in the grand drawing rooms of the nobility but in some of London’s worst slums and crime-infested rookeries. The unlikely duo goes on to solve multiple murders, each man relying on his beliefs and life experiences to unravel the most baffling of mysteries. As the series evolves, Jason and Daniel experience upheaval in their personal lives and learn much from each other, especially in situations where their partnership is sorely tested. </div><div><br /></div><div>Although I’m still working on new instalments of Redmond and Haze, I have recently started a new Victorian mystery series, the Tate and Bell Mysteries. This new duo is a pairing of a Crimean War nurse and a rather jaded detective who secretly dreams of leaving it all behind and going to America, where he just might join the Pinkerton Detective Agency. </div><div><br /></div><div>Gemma Tate and Sebastian Bell are very different from Daniel Haze and Jason Redmond, their views and methods unique to their experiences and standing in society. The first book in the series, <i>The Highgate Cemetery Murder</i>, was released on February 29, 2024, with book two, <i>The Murder at Traitor’s Gate</i>, coming in June 2024. I hope you will check them out.</div><div><br /></div><div><b><i>Irina Shapiro</i></b></div><div><b><i><br /></i></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"># # #</div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>About the Author</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEHqCcfudRkWI01enIpPdFZ1JpkcR-Xh1nWxoizT5_Hn0bby93FpvyLKNmHV-IikFXDJvBWnWBMhnoMrC33zimRTW_8BzlAF71ZgnAJL5fekUjynROlBKNOw-nh-PVPcINvF-kwJJ-OOBqK77XQFz8NdSC3ojn3uiCnZZEpBc1qkvmzP6W6sdf_cqEbWE/s400/Irina%20Shapiro.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="300" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEHqCcfudRkWI01enIpPdFZ1JpkcR-Xh1nWxoizT5_Hn0bby93FpvyLKNmHV-IikFXDJvBWnWBMhnoMrC33zimRTW_8BzlAF71ZgnAJL5fekUjynROlBKNOw-nh-PVPcINvF-kwJJ-OOBqK77XQFz8NdSC3ojn3uiCnZZEpBc1qkvmzP6W6sdf_cqEbWE/s320/Irina%20Shapiro.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>Although initially known for her time-travel series, Irina Shapiro was always intrigued by the foggy, gaslit streets, shadowy hansom cabs, and brutal underworld synonymous with Victorian England. These images are the backdrop to her series of gripping mysteries that feature Lord Jason Redmond and Inspector Daniel Haze, a crime-solving duo as complex as the cases they investigate. Through their eyes, readers experience both the opulence of upper-crust society and the gritty reality of those less fortunate, as Redmond and Haze solve mysteries that delve deep into the historical context of the time. Irina is currently working on a new historical mystery series, the <i>Bell and Tate Mysteries,</i> which will introduce Scotland Yard Inspector Sebastian Bell and nurse Gemma Tate, whose personal histories and unique talents make them the perfect, if at times reluctant, partners as they investigate grisly murders in Victorian London. Find out more at Irina's website </div><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://irinashapiroauthor.com/" target="_blank">https://irinashapiroauthor.com/</a> and find her on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/IrinaShapiro2" target="_blank">Facebook</a> and Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/IrinaShapiro2" target="_blank">@IrinaShapiro2</a></div>tonyricheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18169101546380473710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122296933621146875.post-6879273865274238632024-03-09T16:50:00.003+00:002024-03-09T16:50:57.682+00:00New Paperback: Anne Boleyn & Elizabeth I: The Mother and Daughter Who Changed History, by Tracy Borman<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtNkKMOUD5Ii6Wp2U60T2qkeW1tRVFcPZm992V5d2JXbuSRc42gGWNApDMsB4Ht93vP9Or8BNp68IHz4vtPkwHKc4ElyLWDYfgLutL-xudGli_mVgZ4AAHFYt6tLwldUBccGQG50gOdm4W6rwkeKOjzJGp8bsjkQGAMZEfsA2wqetLUE_6JuCstGaJ_3w/s522/Anne%20Boleyn%20&%20Elizabeth%20I.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="522" data-original-width="340" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtNkKMOUD5Ii6Wp2U60T2qkeW1tRVFcPZm992V5d2JXbuSRc42gGWNApDMsB4Ht93vP9Or8BNp68IHz4vtPkwHKc4ElyLWDYfgLutL-xudGli_mVgZ4AAHFYt6tLwldUBccGQG50gOdm4W6rwkeKOjzJGp8bsjkQGAMZEfsA2wqetLUE_6JuCstGaJ_3w/w260-h400/Anne%20Boleyn%20&%20Elizabeth%20I.jpg" width="260" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Available from <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Anne-Boleyn-Elizabeth-Daughter-Changed/dp/1399705113" target="_blank">Amazon UK</a> </span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">and pre-order <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Anne-Boleyn-Elizabeth-Daughter-Forever/dp/0802163319" target="_blank">Amazon US</a></span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Anne Boleyn may be best known for losing her head, but as Tudor expert Tracy Borman reveals in a book that recasts British history, her greatest legacy lies in the path-breaking reign</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>of her daughter, Elizabeth</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>Much of the fascination with Britain’s legendary Tudors centers around the dramas surrounding Henry VIII and his six wives and Elizabeth I’s rumored liaisons. Yet the most fascinating relationship in that historic era may well be that between the mother and daughter who, individually and collectively, changed the course of British history.<br /><br />The future Queen Elizabeth was not yet three when her mother, Anne Boleyn, was beheaded on May 19, 1536, on Henry’s order, incensed that she had not given him a son and tired of her contentious nature. Elizabeth had been raised away from court, rarely even seeing Anne; and after her death, Henry tried in every way to erase Anne’s presence and memory. At that moment in history, few could have predicted that mother and daughter would each leave enduring, and interlocked, legacies. <div><br /></div><div>Yet as Tracy Borman reveals in this first-ever joint portrait, both women broke the mold for British queens and for women in general at the time. Anne was instrumental in reforming and reshaping forever Britain’s religious traditions, and her years of wielding power over a male-dominated court provided an inspiring role model for Elizabeth’s glittering, groundbreaking 45-year reign. Indeed, Borman shows how much Elizabeth—most visibly by refusing to ever marry, but in many other more subtle ways that defined her court—was influenced by her mother’s legacy.<br /><br />In its originality, <i>Anne Boleyn & Elizabeth I </i>sheds new light on two of history’s most famous women—the private desires, hopes, and fears that lay behind their dazzling public personas, and the surprising influence each had on the other during and after their lifetimes. In the process, Tracy Borman reframes our understanding of the Tudor era.</div><div><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: center;"># # #</div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>About the Author</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij-DwgilooGk0OYQgjls0vRfbOqScDAxmRrkrXEPFN9AUt25oW_bd0dj1WJxYaN9zVzitND_byNaiOQXjeB2D7_nI5v6NQPDUrWxq-KDd73cn7qMH_uBl3-zVbCrKCMRJNQdW-Aqs2z6QtH586JEXztO0pLjs0DYRocVTNVisylJTDP7pE1TD4GT69Rjs/s1026/Tracy%20Borman.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1026" data-original-width="812" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij-DwgilooGk0OYQgjls0vRfbOqScDAxmRrkrXEPFN9AUt25oW_bd0dj1WJxYaN9zVzitND_byNaiOQXjeB2D7_nI5v6NQPDUrWxq-KDd73cn7qMH_uBl3-zVbCrKCMRJNQdW-Aqs2z6QtH586JEXztO0pLjs0DYRocVTNVisylJTDP7pE1TD4GT69Rjs/w158-h200/Tracy%20Borman.png" width="158" /></a></div>Tracy Borman is an author, Tudor historian, broadcaster and joint Chief Curator at Historic Royal Palaces.</div><div>She is a regular broadcaster and lectures on her books across the country and internationally. Tracy is also Chief Executive of the Heritage Education Trust, a charity that encourages children to visit and learn from historic properties. Find out more from Tracy's website </div><div><a href="https://www.tracyborman.co.uk/">https://www.tracyborman.co.uk/</a> and follow her on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/TracyBorman" target="_blank">@TracyBorman</a></div></div></div>tonyricheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18169101546380473710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122296933621146875.post-82416920103367584902024-03-03T07:15:00.000+00:002024-03-03T07:15:06.983+00:00Historical Fiction Spotlight: The Book of Days, by Francesca Kay<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3J5hMOmlWDyFTfPDITa6Cj9rsVRIMZCAwEvtWX6jU__rydyzgIk5T7Mr9fs0uokokKVGnil0K4CkLZlcoGZbX7LskcR0pzyw1cx3xxlpvR_SybyBXp9YZUwIVsCtVBEgmP1KvCbczxgnPkdCoXj8Y8-wrdjDVOZyoFu1eHzOEpqumgWzpvn0hMFwQ5WI/s522/The%20Book%20of%20Days.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="522" data-original-width="324" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3J5hMOmlWDyFTfPDITa6Cj9rsVRIMZCAwEvtWX6jU__rydyzgIk5T7Mr9fs0uokokKVGnil0K4CkLZlcoGZbX7LskcR0pzyw1cx3xxlpvR_SybyBXp9YZUwIVsCtVBEgmP1KvCbczxgnPkdCoXj8Y8-wrdjDVOZyoFu1eHzOEpqumgWzpvn0hMFwQ5WI/w249-h400/The%20Book%20of%20Days.jpg" width="249" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Available from <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Book-Days-Francesca-Kay-ebook/dp/B0CFD2JWKL" target="_blank">Amazon UK</a> and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Book-Days-Francesca-Kay-ebook/dp/B0CFD2JWKL" target="_blank">Amazon US</a></span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b>‘At least that post-Reformation sovereignty of the word still yields novels as richly imagined and skilfully crafted as this’ </b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b>The Spectator</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Things change; we have to recognise that; the world will not stay still. What we must hope is that the new is better and stronger than the old.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Anno Domini 1546. In a manor house in England a young woman feels the walls are closing round her, while her dying husband is obsessed by his vision of a chapel where prayers will be said for his immortal soul.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">As the days go by and the chapel takes shape, the outside world starts to intrude. And as the old ways are replaced by the new, the people of the village sense a dangerous freedom.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">The Book of Days is a beautifully written novel of lives lived in troubled times and the solace to be found in nature and the turning seasons.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">"<i>This adds flesh to History – the impact of the Protestant reformation under Edward VI and his regents Somerset and Northumberland and Cramer sounds dry but this makes it real. Real people, real feel for the importance of the space inhabited, and for the calendar and nature." Amazon review</i></div></div></blockquote><p style="text-align: center;"><b># # #</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>About the Author</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBIpWL1W79xT7Qm8Quz09DD8_jsguumWVggxsUmy7p4ziZOVvU6Sz5pskRr8cdWnvsENBt7Iywi5JqlVjuDg65FXwTNNWS6ivn8kac_0GtMorFmgfkhYWuVHW8z6HvIO3j6HMcI9_suw390pz8cfvy4_o4i7OiEOTP-4ZsqR44t5INkaChWvD9X6gFgjA/s724/Francesca%20Kay.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="724" data-original-width="602" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBIpWL1W79xT7Qm8Quz09DD8_jsguumWVggxsUmy7p4ziZOVvU6Sz5pskRr8cdWnvsENBt7Iywi5JqlVjuDg65FXwTNNWS6ivn8kac_0GtMorFmgfkhYWuVHW8z6HvIO3j6HMcI9_suw390pz8cfvy4_o4i7OiEOTP-4ZsqR44t5INkaChWvD9X6gFgjA/w166-h200/Francesca%20Kay.png" width="166" /></a></div>Francesca Kay grew up in Southeast Asia and India, and has subsequently lived in Jamaica, the United States, Germany and now lives in Oxford. Her first novel, An Equal Stillness, won the 2009 Orange Award for New Writers, and her second novel, The Translation of the Bones, was longlisted for the 2012 Women’s Prize for Fiction. Her third novel, The Long Room, was published in 2016; The Book of Days is her fourth.<p></p>tonyricheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18169101546380473710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122296933621146875.post-55191744507615886322024-02-29T07:42:00.002+00:002024-03-10T11:12:34.553+00:00Book Spotlight: Secret Voices: A Year of Women's Diaries, by Sarah Gristwood <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcI_VJAfgPj-mSAuSlvah2u7eDJq2PbrgOJ-GgUEc__RcJo9XDCNWY-Q0VtCXLYCOlGqgQTrHrpMRIW8AdC7baIHubc6Y3cMZTpY1-JWzLYdhTiRWHkz387wkwqv0vhClqjM5G_EN83ql1IRg0kA-OFYd9yFKM1atEOdn_yxwx_dg5o982q-Zk3X8fRJM/s522/Secret%20Voices.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="522" data-original-width="340" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcI_VJAfgPj-mSAuSlvah2u7eDJq2PbrgOJ-GgUEc__RcJo9XDCNWY-Q0VtCXLYCOlGqgQTrHrpMRIW8AdC7baIHubc6Y3cMZTpY1-JWzLYdhTiRWHkz387wkwqv0vhClqjM5G_EN83ql1IRg0kA-OFYd9yFKM1atEOdn_yxwx_dg5o982q-Zk3X8fRJM/w260-h400/Secret%20Voices.jpg" width="260" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Available from <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Secret-Voices-Year-Womens-Diaries/dp/1849948151" target="_blank">Amazon UK</a> and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Voices-Year-Womens-Diaries/dp/1849948151" target="_blank">Amazon US</a></span></b></div><div><br /></div><div><div>A captivating collection of daily extracts from women's diaries, looking back over four centuries to discover how women's experience – of men and children, sex and shopping, work and the natural world – has changed down the years. And, of course, how it hasn't.</div><div><br /></div><div>In this expansive anthology – from 1 January through to 31 December – you’ll find Lady Anne Clifford in the seventeenth century and Loran Hurnscot in the twentieth both stoically recording the demands of an unreasonable husband; Joan Wyndham and Anne Frank, at much the same time, but in wildly different settings, describing their first experiences with sex; and Anne Lister (TV’s Gentleman Jack) in eighteenth-century Yorkshire exploring her love affairs with women alongside Alice Walker in twentieth-century California.</div><div><br /></div><div>Organised around the calendar year, with several selections for each day, this book is a fascinating record of how women were thinking, feeling and reacting to historical events. From Virginia Woolf relishing her new haircut and Oprah Winfrey meditating on her career to Emilie Davis chronicling the death of Abraham Lincoln and teenage Ma Yan yearning for education in poverty-stricken China, Secret Voices contains a rich mix of well-known diarists and less familiar ones, and often the voices echoing down the centuries sound eerily familiar today.</div></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>"United across centuries, these women's voices open doors to lost worlds and make them seem familiar. A modern classic." —Alison Weir</i></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"># # #</div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>About the Author</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglwRWOxwNco8Ta9-TuXC6qZSRrwIUCLZ0anRWyiSV77M8_e2RQQA5VGoanahOxUaTQ29RZOLfZzA7Omg1sXa1jUNas_DnFoCLbPpZy9fT7zwbVgEblb8yQIxdWbwqoeb5ico_LXXEGUgjz7y_B-EJo-FgfmI49rcng6oTOMIwNef0R83Y5KK86T1OzVrw/s283/Sarah%20Gristwood.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="283" data-original-width="241" height="283" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglwRWOxwNco8Ta9-TuXC6qZSRrwIUCLZ0anRWyiSV77M8_e2RQQA5VGoanahOxUaTQ29RZOLfZzA7Omg1sXa1jUNas_DnFoCLbPpZy9fT7zwbVgEblb8yQIxdWbwqoeb5ico_LXXEGUgjz7y_B-EJo-FgfmI49rcng6oTOMIwNef0R83Y5KK86T1OzVrw/s1600/Sarah%20Gristwood.jpg" width="241" /></a></div>Sarah Gristwood is a best-selling Tudor biographer, former film journalist, and commentator on royal affairs. After leaving Oxford, Sarah began work as a journalist, writing at first about the theatre as well as general features on everything from gun control to Giorgio Armani. But increasingly she found herself specialising in film interviews – Johnny Depp and Robert De Niro; Martin Scorsese and Paul McCartney. She has appeared in most of the UK’s leading newspapers – The Times, the Guardian, The Telegraph (Daily and Sunday) – and magazines from Cosmopolitan to Country Living and Sight and Sound to The New Statesman. Turning to history she wrote two bestselling Tudor biographies, <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Arbella-Englands-Queen-Sarah-Gristwood/dp/0618341331/" target="_blank"><i>Arbella: England’s Lost Queen</i></a> and <i><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Elizabeth-Leicester-Sarah-Gristwood/dp/0553817868/" target="_blank">Elizabeth and Leicester</a>.</i> Sarah was one of the team providing Radio 4’s live coverage of the royal wedding; and has since spoken on the Queen’s Jubilee, the royal baby, and other royal stories for Sky News, Woman’s Hour, Radio 5 Live, and CBC. Shortlisted for both the Marsh Biography Award and the Ben Pimlott Prize for Political Writing, she is a Fellow of the RSA, and an Honororary Patron of Historic Royal Palaces. She and her husband, the film critic Derek Malcolm, live in London and Kent. Find out more at Sarah's website </div><div><a href="http://sarahgristwood.com/" target="_blank">sarahgristwood.com</a> and find her on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/sarahgristwood" target="_blank">@sarahgristwood</a></div></div>tonyricheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18169101546380473710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122296933621146875.post-22463115106976139052024-02-29T07:33:00.000+00:002024-02-29T07:33:00.656+00:00Book Launch Spotlight: Young Elizabeth: Princess. Prisoner. Queen, by Nicola Tallis<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrCOEK0W27seOfBvcZ6opbnA9S_pHJe1XtP5tFIGj9GjzV-NHmfb0qp4zIHeOikBew5uhYo5Rfjdbwn1UvngTBNjt0wKABO8ajjDJuas_NxvTtYBFKvhBtzvj86IGy6zQjUH2hySolAXdIK1x8Db_L-VK0XQ1lpy9q52Ez9eTWTvZKBJY-K20M3Ymzh3o/s522/Young%20Elizabeth.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="522" data-original-width="333" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrCOEK0W27seOfBvcZ6opbnA9S_pHJe1XtP5tFIGj9GjzV-NHmfb0qp4zIHeOikBew5uhYo5Rfjdbwn1UvngTBNjt0wKABO8ajjDJuas_NxvTtYBFKvhBtzvj86IGy6zQjUH2hySolAXdIK1x8Db_L-VK0XQ1lpy9q52Ez9eTWTvZKBJY-K20M3Ymzh3o/w255-h400/Young%20Elizabeth.jpg" width="255" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Available from <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Young-Elizabeth-Princess-Prisoner-Queen/dp/178929519X" target="_blank">Amazon UK</a> and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Young-Elizabeth-Princess-Prisoner-Queen-ebook/dp/B0CHY637VG" target="_blank">Amazon US</a></span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div>Elizabeth I is one of England's most famous monarchs, whose story as the ‘Virgin Queen’ is well known. But queenship was by no means a certain path for Henry VIII’s younger daughter, who spent the majority of her early years as a girl with an uncertain future.<br /><br />Before she was three years old Elizabeth had been both a princess and then a bastard following the brutal execution of her mother, Anne Boleyn. After losing several stepmothers and then her father, the teenage Elizabeth was confronted with the predatory attentions of Sir Thomas Seymour. The result was devastating, causing a heartbreaking rift with her beloved stepmother Katherine Parr.<br /><br />Elizabeth was placed in further jeopardy when she was implicated in the Wyatt Rebellion of 1554 – a plot to topple her half-sister, Mary, from her throne. Imprisoned in the Tower of London where her mother had lost her life, under intense pressure and interrogation Elizabeth adamantly protested her innocence. Though she was eventually liberated, she spent the remainder of Mary’s reign under a dark cloud. On 17 November 1558, however, the uncertainty of Elizabeth’s future came to an end when she succeeded to the throne at the age of twenty-five.<br /><br />When Elizabeth became queen, she had already endured more tumult than many monarchs experienced in a lifetime. This colourful and immensely detailed biography charts Elizabeth’s turbulent and unstable upbringing, exploring the dangers and tragedies that plagued her early life. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Nicola Tallis draws on primary sources written by Elizabeth herself and her contemporaries, providing an extensive and thorough study of an exceptionally resilient youngster whose early life would shape the queen she later became. The heart racing story of Elizabeth’s youth as she steered her way through perilous waters towards England’s throne is one of the most sensational of its time.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div style="text-align: center;"># # #</div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>About the Author</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX8BYf6QS0wXGTpbcSQ4_D1S65BMMY_Oh4jOGjMxz1Nn_a_-2lBMZLPQduuYHDqWRcuquQPQ6IgM_bK3HsVJFllzQY6ggkY_iVZZjkT_HaIJ8ioW3edl-hu4qD6-q5pl3rKDtL3FT4z21GchMA6GYi26d-HyLzQL1Cg8uYXVKkIMI9dplSTJlS5bj07eE/s858/Screenshot%202024-02-09%20at%2002.20.53%20pm.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="858" data-original-width="854" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX8BYf6QS0wXGTpbcSQ4_D1S65BMMY_Oh4jOGjMxz1Nn_a_-2lBMZLPQduuYHDqWRcuquQPQ6IgM_bK3HsVJFllzQY6ggkY_iVZZjkT_HaIJ8ioW3edl-hu4qD6-q5pl3rKDtL3FT4z21GchMA6GYi26d-HyLzQL1Cg8uYXVKkIMI9dplSTJlS5bj07eE/s320/Screenshot%202024-02-09%20at%2002.20.53%20pm.png" width="319" /></a></div>British Historian Nicola Tallis graduated from Bath Spa University with a first class BA Hons. degree in History in 2011, and from Royal Holloway College, University of London in 2013 with an MA in Public History and her PhD from the University of Winchester. Nicola also worked as a historical researcher, most notably for Sir Ranulph Fiennes whilst he was working on his 2014 book, Agincourt: My Family, the Battle and the Fight for France. Find out more at Nicola's website <a href="http://nicolatallis.com/">http://nicolatallis.com/</a> and Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/NicolaTallis" target="_blank">@NicolaTallis</a></div></div><p></p>tonyricheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18169101546380473710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122296933621146875.post-4022005128479227662024-02-28T06:49:00.000+00:002024-02-28T06:49:52.184+00:00Book Launch Guest Post by by Amy McElroy, Author of Women's Lives in the Tudor Era<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuRPphXDa6Pj3Emk_cSoP_c27PnwwGd6VI5lIsiNj3VARvrs9BBRpupquUzM1mB2Myzxfxm2jp8kOT5TZuxavx58ENsgTdz0xEIY7UEvCo2t1djcRTad5nqdy9HCrrbkFcGk5Suygl0MS3mS2AgQu3ScFc3-bolXhBlRJyBpCRRenOnnYurAK05xmOtEg/s1000/20230805_195041.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="677" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuRPphXDa6Pj3Emk_cSoP_c27PnwwGd6VI5lIsiNj3VARvrs9BBRpupquUzM1mB2Myzxfxm2jp8kOT5TZuxavx58ENsgTdz0xEIY7UEvCo2t1djcRTad5nqdy9HCrrbkFcGk5Suygl0MS3mS2AgQu3ScFc3-bolXhBlRJyBpCRRenOnnYurAK05xmOtEg/w271-h400/20230805_195041.jpg" width="271" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Available from <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Womens-Lives-Tudor-Era-McElroy/dp/1399042009" target="_blank">Amazon UK</a></span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Womens-Lives-Tudor-Era-McElroy/dp/1399042009" target="_blank">Amazon US</a></span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><b><br /></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><i>Women in the Tudor age are often overshadowed by their male counterparts. Even those of royalty were deemed inferior to males. Whilst women may have been classed as the inferior gender, women played a vital role in Tudor society.</i></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I'm pleased to welcome author Amy McElroy back to <i>The Writing Desk</i> to talk about her new book, Women’s Lives in the Tudor Era:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><b>Tell us about your latest book<br /></b><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">When writing <i>Educating the Tudors,</i> I became even more interested in the role women played in Tudor society. I found it fascinating how women were relied on for many aspects of life by the men in their lives but were still largely treated as inferior subjects. I wanted to delve into the ways women spent their days, the different milestones in their lives and how they contributed to society. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">The end result is <i>Women’s Lives in the Tudor Era</i>. I have tried to follow the life stages from birth through to death, focusing on stages which changed their lives. These stages include adolescence, marriage, motherhood and widowhood amongst others and each meant a change to a woman’s status as well as the expectations placed on her. I did not want to focus solely on the well-known Tudor women, though they are of course included, but wanted to compare the experiences of classes to provide a view of everyday life.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> <br />Women’s Lives in the Tudor Era will be out in February 2024 but is already available for pre-order and I am so grateful for the team at Pen & Sword for the beautiful cover, I love it.<br /> <br /><b>What is your preferred writing routine? <br /></b><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">I still work full-time so my writing routine usually consists of evenings and weekends. I usually try to do all my research first so I can start writing once that is done, but I usually end up down a rabbit hole or two even after I think I have finished researching! If I don’t have much time, I may do something different such as updating my bibliography, searching for images, or adding to my index to save me a job at the end.<br /><br /><b>What advice do you have for new writers? <br /></b><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Choose a subject you are genuinely interested in so it does not really feel like ‘work’. I would also say find your own rhythm, it is very easy to hear authors writing thousands of words a day and panicking but we are all individual. All progress is progress, so even if you choose to write 100 words a day, that’s ok too. All that matters is that you enjoy it.<br /><br /><b>What have you found to be the best way to raise awareness of your books?<br /></b><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">I have found social media to be great, especially Twitter, which I can thank you for introducing me to! There is such a wonderful history and book community on there and now developing on threads, it is brilliant! I also had the wonderful opportunity to appear on an episode of the <a href="https://talkingtudors.podbean.com/e/episode-193-educating-the-tudors-with-amy-mcelroy/" target="_blank"><i>Talking Tudors Podcast </i></a>with the lovely Natalie Grueninger, that was completely unexpected and an amazing experience as I am a regular listener myself and quite often buy books from listening to episodes. <br /><br /><b>Tell us something unexpected you discovered during your research<br /></b><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">I would not necessarily say it was unexpected but it still surprises me that married women were not allowed to write a Last Will and Testament without the permission of their husband. A large portion of society didn’t need a will as they didn’t have much to leave but seems bizarre that a woman could not dispose of her own property how she wished to without consent. Also, I find it interesting that many women who did leave a will sought to ensure their female relatives were provided for, rather than leaving their goods to their male heir. Women often bequeathed their female relative’s money, clothing and even livestock.<br /><br /><b>What are you planning to write next? <br /></b><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">I am currently researching and writing for my third book, <i>Mary Tudor, Queen of France</i>. The younger sister of Henry VIII is absolutely fascinating and I only hope I can do her justice. Following that I will be moving on to a book about Desiderius Erasmus but that is a while off yet, though I do find myself researching him whenever I have a little free time.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><b><i>Amy McElroy</i></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div style="text-align: center;"># # #</div><br /><b>About the Author</b><br /><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi93QCKx5CMwAOBbh1GraNwoBtT8M8d1qZEObbalsx4lWAX-IYDc8oHrpYqljN0J9XRwCdS2T9HSFDCxe3KMk03B3LfWilrp-yGw9LhtyCXAHE7WXHw_vaUOQ7oFrSZtSpEMDKyduFWhauYQx2FirOlVSQ9xlJDhsi1iW_2nFZWdGNxlISP7KroBZek2u0/s2689/Amy%20McElroy.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2689" data-original-width="1732" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi93QCKx5CMwAOBbh1GraNwoBtT8M8d1qZEObbalsx4lWAX-IYDc8oHrpYqljN0J9XRwCdS2T9HSFDCxe3KMk03B3LfWilrp-yGw9LhtyCXAHE7WXHw_vaUOQ7oFrSZtSpEMDKyduFWhauYQx2FirOlVSQ9xlJDhsi1iW_2nFZWdGNxlISP7KroBZek2u0/s320/Amy%20McElroy.jpg" width="206" /></a></div>Amy McElroy was born in Liverpool and lived there until she moved to the Midlands for university where she studied Criminal Justice followed by Post-Grad Law. Amy is currently a civil servant, working full-time alongside her writing. She also has a blog where she reviews historical fiction and non-fiction. Amy’s first book, <i>Educating the Tudors</i>, was published in January 2023 and focuses on the education of all classes, the subjects they learned and who taught them. Her second book, <i>Women’s Lives in the Tudor Era</i> is out February 2024 and she is currently writing her third book, <i>Mary Tudor, Queen of France</i>. Amy also has a fourth, <i>Desiderius Erasmus</i>, in the pipeline, with a few more ideas up her sleeves for the future.<br />Amy enjoys seeing her family back in Liverpool, especially her little furry assistant in the form of cavapoo Cooper, and visiting her dad in Spain, especially in the summer. You can find out more about Amy at her blog - <a href="https://amymcelroy.blog/">https://amymcelroy.blog/</a> and follow her on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100066486736731" target="_blank">Facebook</a> and Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/AmyMc_Books" target="_blank">@AmyMc_Books</a><br /></div><p></p>tonyricheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18169101546380473710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122296933621146875.post-77612072192069595942024-02-27T15:59:00.000+00:002024-02-27T15:59:03.475+00:00Kateryn Parr: Henry VIII's Sixth Queen, by Laura Adkins <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhcCmRXkhunhgGAisoHb2YqRxAdblVyFAbuTtDcXBlpstUbF-B_vg3lCuBhqQdxdCqV3pQHH_m2bfqxfsY2PPzDCYal5lscGLN4zc2RjmsePul61juneYa3XJzKRKxM7eCLhGAf2LyMO3Vxruz4X4gguDlkEphFpX0lK1qmYgfldZd5uA6nM8gb75y_Ho/s522/Kateryn%20Parr.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="522" data-original-width="350" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhcCmRXkhunhgGAisoHb2YqRxAdblVyFAbuTtDcXBlpstUbF-B_vg3lCuBhqQdxdCqV3pQHH_m2bfqxfsY2PPzDCYal5lscGLN4zc2RjmsePul61juneYa3XJzKRKxM7eCLhGAf2LyMO3Vxruz4X4gguDlkEphFpX0lK1qmYgfldZd5uA6nM8gb75y_Ho/w269-h400/Kateryn%20Parr.jpg" width="269" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">New on <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Kateryn-Parr-Henry-VIIIs-Sixth/dp/139908285X" target="_blank">Amazon UK</a> </span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">and pre-order from <a href="https://www.amazon.com/stores/Laura-Adkins/author/B0CL7RZSV9" target="_blank">Amazon US</a></span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Katheryn Parr is mainly remembered today as being the sixth wife of King Henry VIII, the one who ‘survived’. Katheryn was not only a wife but a queen, mother, reformer, and author.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Katheryn would face a number of events in her lifetime including being held to ransom during the Pilgrimage of Grace, being placed as regent while Henry was in France, a role which only one of his five previous wives held, her namesake Katherine of Aragon, and overcame a plot which would have led to her arrest and execution. While Queen she was able to unite the Tudor family and establish some form of happiness for Henry VIII’s three children.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Raised by her mother Maud Parr, under a humanist education, Katheryn was intelligent enough to understand her role in life and was not afraid to do her research. Although raised a Catholic, Katheryn became a reformer and went on to write a number of religious texts, being the first female in England to ever have a book published under her own name. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">She was loyal not only to her family but her servants and the women of her court. She loved her stepchildren and provided them with a mother's love and a role model which her stepdaughters could learn from. Her views on what was expected of her placed her into an open conflict with her brother-in-law Edward Seymour and his wife Anne.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">This book explores the various roles she had in her lifetime and the passion and duty she put into them, even if it meant putting others first. It will explore her love for Thomas Seymour and how it blindsided her and led to a sad end of her life, and the book will finally look at her legacy - the influence she had on Princess Elizabeth, the future Queen Elizabeth I.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"># # #</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>About the Author</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq9ObjgWuEH0I1pM7jTJp-xX-ljWLdgskCJP-6lfRJdneaZIBofyE7WgBxZp5Gi8S_zGBfCazXk7af5KlQr7w8ZPr8paHzjS09Vxwg4GueqCHbu9hecFZeA1g7P7oEoEkyFHTNfZnVxcEHJI_cZLmsGawnA7CRe-3lWwQiqusce00iZ6M8-hiu_fh8sPo/s400/Laura_Adkins.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="336" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq9ObjgWuEH0I1pM7jTJp-xX-ljWLdgskCJP-6lfRJdneaZIBofyE7WgBxZp5Gi8S_zGBfCazXk7af5KlQr7w8ZPr8paHzjS09Vxwg4GueqCHbu9hecFZeA1g7P7oEoEkyFHTNfZnVxcEHJI_cZLmsGawnA7CRe-3lWwQiqusce00iZ6M8-hiu_fh8sPo/w168-h200/Laura_Adkins.jpg" width="168" /></a></div>Laura Adkins has had a passion for history, especially medieval and Tudor eras, since being inspired by her history teacher in secondary school . She writes her blog the <a href="https://fortheloveofhistoryhome.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Local History Blogger</a> which focuses on her home county of Essex, England. In her past jobs, she has been fortunate to work in historic locations such as the Tower of London and Banqueting House, Whitehall where she gave public talks on its history and talks on the Tudors and Stuarts. Her other passion in life is her daughter who now joins Laura on her history trips and outings. When she is not exploring Laura enjoys reading and adding to her growing collection of books. Katheryn Parr: Henry VIII's Sixth Queen is her first book You can follow Laura on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/TLHBlogger" target="_blank">@TLHBlogger</a></div></div><br />tonyricheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18169101546380473710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122296933621146875.post-43559847382410639932024-02-27T07:46:00.002+00:002024-02-27T07:46:28.530+00:00Book Launch Guest Post by Alison Morton, Author of EXSILIUM: A Roma Nova Foundation Story (Roma Nova Thriller Series Book 11)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTLSCQN28TNYQi49qsbSB4ZBNK1GFAC8pZ39qofYMqB0tkWAp8yvdp0focCRSAjVgLiMoyMInN5oZ4M1LOupzDBcAQsgl1gNNa007Iw-hIxMBUofPmRHarN4WlrJdxSM66S56tdswJMcVSsltcclUAHVfi0MktvLzkfgJo422RAbc6ZbM4E6OLAp7zMko/s800/Exsilium_eBcov%208x5.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="518" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTLSCQN28TNYQi49qsbSB4ZBNK1GFAC8pZ39qofYMqB0tkWAp8yvdp0focCRSAjVgLiMoyMInN5oZ4M1LOupzDBcAQsgl1gNNa007Iw-hIxMBUofPmRHarN4WlrJdxSM66S56tdswJMcVSsltcclUAHVfi0MktvLzkfgJo422RAbc6ZbM4E6OLAp7zMko/w259-h400/Exsilium_eBcov%208x5.jpg" width="259" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Available from <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/EXSILIUM-Roma-Foundation-Story-Thriller-ebook/dp/B0CS9Q1BLF" target="_blank">Amazon UK</a> and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/EXSILIUM-Roma-Foundation-Story-Thriller-ebook/dp/B0CS9Q1BLF" target="_blank">Amazon US</a></span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-weight: bold;">Exile – A living death to a Roman</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><i><br /></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><i>AD 395. In a Christian Roman Empire, worshipping the traditional gods is a death sentence. Three Romans, Maelia, Lucius and Galla, faithful to their beliefs in Rome’s thousand-year religion and values, must choose. Do they stay, hoping for the best, or leave Rome forever – a rupture from everything they know – to search for a safer life?</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><i><br /></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div style="text-align: left;">Writing a sequel to a successful book is like a double-edged sword, possibly a Roman gladius which has the ability to slash as well as jab. You hope your message hits the target as well as entertaining the reader, but sometimes it can slash aimlessly in every direction.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><span style="text-align: left;">Enough of this swordplay talk! </span></div></div><p>EXSILIUM is the sequel to JULIA PRIMA where we followed the fortunes of Julia, the daughter of a prince ruling as a client of Rome in Noricum, north of Italy in the late 4th century. She was caught in a political and religious trap. Then she met Lucius, a disgraced Roman tribune, and took the biggest gamble of her life. JULIA PRIMA received various accolades including the Historical Novel Society’s of being selected as Editors’ Choice. </p><p>But I hadn’t finished the story I promised my readers – the beginnings of Roma Nova at the dusk of the once mighty Roman Empire. There was too much to recount in one book. I needed to write a sequel to the prequel, hence EXSILIUM. But they can be tricky things…</p><p>A sequel must be its own story and not merely answering a cliff-hanger in the earlier book. (As a reader, I really dislike cliff-hangers!) For new readers, a little background should be filtered in about the characters’ previous actions and where they stand now, but without repeating so much that readers of the previous book will be bored or dislike such repetition. </p><p>A good way is to take the point of view of a previously secondary character and show how they saw some of the events of the previous book. In EXSILIUM, Maelia Mitela and Lucius Apulius let us know about Julia and her impact on their lives. In this way, we can also catch up on events in intervening years, in this case from AD 370 to AD 383. </p><p>Another way is to grow the characters who were in the previous book. Sometimes you can do this literally, with children or adolescents in the first book now appearing as adults in the sequel. </p><p>Although a sequel must be complete in itself, it should move the overall story arc forward, but not at the expense of requiring the reader to read the first book. However, I always hope the reader will be motivated to explore the others in the Roma Nova series!</p><p>Happy reading! </p><p><b><i>Alison Morton</i></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b># # #</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>About the Author</b></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy2gF-4xxIO2xZkkuniM12cb3q-gapJbIuEGG2PhYQ7PyVFTWJPqtS91PYJkdXQV5Fxqsg7N0DZwKxvovHhuhjRcH35XmuVgRo96V2sayi4AMg1h64IAAtJxTP4xytE2gcD06PIVlLdWojk8CXSYRNT88ureSERBFf0hYT00DbXcgM5dDw8Dy1yU6skp0/s591/Alison%20Morton%20author.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="591" data-original-width="500" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy2gF-4xxIO2xZkkuniM12cb3q-gapJbIuEGG2PhYQ7PyVFTWJPqtS91PYJkdXQV5Fxqsg7N0DZwKxvovHhuhjRcH35XmuVgRo96V2sayi4AMg1h64IAAtJxTP4xytE2gcD06PIVlLdWojk8CXSYRNT88ureSERBFf0hYT00DbXcgM5dDw8Dy1yU6skp0/s320/Alison%20Morton%20author.jpg" width="271" /></a></div>Alison Morton writes award-winning thrillers featuring tough but compassionate heroines. Her ten-book Roma Nova series is set in an imaginary European country where a remnant of the Roman Empire has survived into the 21st century and is ruled by women who face conspiracy, revolution and heartache but use a sharp line in dialogue. The latest, EXSILIUM, plunges us back to the late 4th century, to the very foundation of Roma Nova. She blends her fascination for Ancient Rome with six years’ military service and a life of reading crime, historical and thriller fiction. On the way, she collected a BA in modern languages and an MA in history. Alison now lives in Poitou in France, the home of Mélisende, the heroine of her two contemporary thrillers, Double Identity and Double Pursuit. Find out more at Alison's website <a href="https://alison-morton.com">https://alison-morton.com</a> and find her on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/AlisonMortonAuthor " target="_blank">Facebook</a> and Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/alison_morton" target="_blank">@alison_morton</a>.tonyricheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18169101546380473710noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122296933621146875.post-47827417906256136612024-02-26T09:52:00.002+00:002024-02-26T12:23:25.655+00:00Book review: MI9: A History of the Secret Service for Escape and Evasion in World War Two, by Helen Fry<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUcXQRs9zxVvLW0dzRA2ApPRBXwyv2ifQy6HaZ8iE7OVfx9udurtwqAKfsYFj0pDOtGrGJwiVsfZD0WfifsXTuxBYFT0NGxWT6gmaRzLbjhK04nvqNotzkvxQrcPd6MhcnM6y3u6dzKWuaHbNC7f9JXXNpeykOrB3EGjS253iwmMus-2Be4wwGDoYA5DI/s522/MI9.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="522" data-original-width="356" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUcXQRs9zxVvLW0dzRA2ApPRBXwyv2ifQy6HaZ8iE7OVfx9udurtwqAKfsYFj0pDOtGrGJwiVsfZD0WfifsXTuxBYFT0NGxWT6gmaRzLbjhK04nvqNotzkvxQrcPd6MhcnM6y3u6dzKWuaHbNC7f9JXXNpeykOrB3EGjS253iwmMus-2Be4wwGDoYA5DI/w273-h400/MI9.jpg" width="273" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Available from <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/MI9-History-Secret-Service-Evasion-ebook/dp/B08GSQTRT6" target="_blank">Amazon UK</a> and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/MI9-History-Secret-Service-Evasion-ebook/dp/B08GSQTRT6" target="_blank">Amazon US</a></span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i>When Allied fighters were trapped behind enemy lines, one branch of military intelligence helped them escape: MI9. The organization set up clandestine routes that zig-zagged across Nazi-occupied Europe, enabling soldiers and airmen to make their way home. Secret agents and resistance fighters risked their lives and those of their </i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i>families to hide the men.</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">You often hear that people never talked about the heroic work they did in the war, and this is particularly true of those in the intelligence services. The work of the SOE has become a mainstay of wartime dramas, yet I knew next to nothing about MI9 before reading this book.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Drawing from thousands of recently declassified records, memoirs, and personal testimonies, Helen Fry gathered enough to fill several volumes. This book is therefore packed with fascinating details and stories of this secretive branch of British military intelligence, responsible for assisting Allied airmen and soldiers trapped behind enemy lines in their dangerous journeys back to safety.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I particularly liked the personal accounts of the bravery of the men and women navigating the perilous landscape of wartime Europe. There are harrowing tales of captured personnel, the ingenuity and dedication of MI9 operatives, and the courage of civilians who risked their lives to hide escapees. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The book includes previously untold aspects of MI9's operations, the challenges faced in establishing escape lines in Italy due to communication difficulties and the surprising level of vigilance in Italian POW camps. This nuanced perspective adds depth and complexity to our understanding of the organisation's efforts.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Helen Fry shines a light on this hidden world, and the people who faced impossible odds. "MI9" has a unique blend of historical detail and thrilling human drama. Her engaging writing style and meticulous research make this book a valuable tribute to the unsung heroes who operated in the shadows, tipping the scales in favor of the Allied cause. Highly recommended.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><b><br /></b></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i><b>Tony Riches</b></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i><b><br /></b></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"># # #</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>About the Author</b><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh228Co-08BEXhe4fXZ5XeQ1rMycjbppRbFgwyKJFoLE65s6KFAFZULrwCEntvWu-lV65vK1ODwqiw3To92Dvdh8g7x8O6EfFdMiQ9rfzgbUyh7O447RdB6juN1C6gwrZsO0To6YAriMJogSPzAnP6qEHtsTPYs_p3cHOUR6eCKurncg9dALPi6y2-qJkE/s4425/Dr%20Helen%20Fry.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4425" data-original-width="3278" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh228Co-08BEXhe4fXZ5XeQ1rMycjbppRbFgwyKJFoLE65s6KFAFZULrwCEntvWu-lV65vK1ODwqiw3To92Dvdh8g7x8O6EfFdMiQ9rfzgbUyh7O447RdB6juN1C6gwrZsO0To6YAriMJogSPzAnP6qEHtsTPYs_p3cHOUR6eCKurncg9dALPi6y2-qJkE/s320/Dr%20Helen%20Fry.jpg" width="237" /></a></div>Historian and biographer Helen Fry is the author of the bestselling book <i>The Walls Have Ears: The Greatest Intelligence Operation of WWII, Spymaster: The Man who saved MI6, MI9: The British Secret Service for Escape & Evasion,</i> and more than twenty books on intelligence, prisoners of war, and the social history of World War II. She appears regularly in TV documentaries, media interviews and podcasts. In 2022 she was recognised as a Woman of Achievement in the Women of the Year Lunch 2022. Find out more at Helen's website <a href="http://www.helen-fry.com">www.helen-fry.com</a> and find her on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/DrHelenFry" target="_blank">Facebook</a> and Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/DrHelenFry" target="_blank">@DrHelenFry</a><i style="text-align: right;"> </i></div>tonyricheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18169101546380473710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122296933621146875.post-16195506643324606862024-02-24T14:58:00.001+00:002024-02-24T19:51:58.295+00:00Book Review: The Secrets of Crestwell Hall, by Alexandra Walsh<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic6151sz5p6fRecWUVkbd8YJfU5pBLnmCWo7ckspDsz5c0UBH52EzEbDLmqZiKMdfabVIa6wTCIFnYEifmZG89NpLAQmFwuJh7gg3qJ8OP-DsGt8hSTVOiIeJPJSRvJEW6nLpsGnvHFzmJ35C22YPPxOPYDeNWKlDvhd14VoNk7iX_eB2Airg_Weft41s/s522/The%20Secrets%20of%20Crestwell%20Hall.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="522" data-original-width="339" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic6151sz5p6fRecWUVkbd8YJfU5pBLnmCWo7ckspDsz5c0UBH52EzEbDLmqZiKMdfabVIa6wTCIFnYEifmZG89NpLAQmFwuJh7gg3qJ8OP-DsGt8hSTVOiIeJPJSRvJEW6nLpsGnvHFzmJ35C22YPPxOPYDeNWKlDvhd14VoNk7iX_eB2Airg_Weft41s/w260-h400/The%20Secrets%20of%20Crestwell%20Hall.jpg" width="260" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Available from <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Secrets-Crestwell-Hall-captivating-emotional-ebook/dp/B0CFZXNZNP" target="_blank">Amazon UK</a> and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Secrets-Crestwell-Hall-captivating-emotional-ebook/dp/B0CFZXNZNP" target="_blank">Amazon US</a></span></b></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><i>1605: Bess Throckmorton is well used to cunning plots and intrigues. With her husband Sir Walter Raleigh imprisoned in the Tower of London, and she and her family in a constant battle to outwit Robert Cecil, the most powerful man in the country who is determined to ruin her, Bess decides to retreat to her beloved home, Crestwell Hall.</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div>I've enjoyed reading the new dual timeline novel, <i>The Secrets of Crestwell Hall</i>, by Alexandra Walsh, which switches between the present day and events leading up to the 1605 Gunpowder Plot.</div><div><br /></div><div>The suspense simmers as we get to know the likeable central characters, Isabella Lacey, her ten-year-old daughter, Emily, her Aunt Thalia - and the enigmatic Lady Elizabeth Raleigh. </div><div><br /></div><div>I'm always fascinated when new Tudor primary sources turn up, such as the 2023 discovery of a jewelled fifteenth-century prayer book in Trinity College Library depicted by Holbein in his portrait of Thomas Cromwell. I was therefore hooked as Isabella searched the dark corners of Crestwell Hall for lost Elizabethan relics.</div><div><br /></div><div>I particularly liked the focus on the wives and female relatives of the Catholic 'Gunpowder Plotters', and their different point of view of the planned revolution. </div><div><br /></div><div>There is a genuine 'well, I wasn't expecting that!' twist in the final chapter, which brings together several stands that kept me guessing. I highly recommend <i>The Secrets of Crestwell Hall</i>, which I'm happy to award five out of five stars. </div><div><br /></div><div><b><i>Tony Riches</i></b></div><div style="font-style: italic; text-align: center;"># # #</div><div style="font-style: italic; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="font-style: italic; text-align: left;"><div style="font-style: normal;"><b>About the Author</b></div><div style="font-style: normal;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU1dpEXWRpUo7QgyVvtIM1RC1BN63U5WsV4hNZTyIIP7WEYG9145_EDWVfRAUvYniusJNty20x2czIl6S97QE9zaF3w1kb91jXCtNRBHyA52GTbX167C_9R65zLrN0NnP68VPKcZ2R6po/s555/Alexandra+Walsh.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="555" data-original-width="420" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU1dpEXWRpUo7QgyVvtIM1RC1BN63U5WsV4hNZTyIIP7WEYG9145_EDWVfRAUvYniusJNty20x2czIl6S97QE9zaF3w1kb91jXCtNRBHyA52GTbX167C_9R65zLrN0NnP68VPKcZ2R6po/s320/Alexandra+Walsh.jpg" width="242" /></a></div></div><p style="font-style: normal;">Alexandra Walsh is a bestselling author of the dual timeline women’s fiction. Her books range from the 15th and 16th centuries to the Victorian era and are inspired by the hidden voices of women that have been lost over the centuries. <i>The Marquess House Saga </i>offers an alternative view of the Tudor and early Stuart eras, while <i>The Wind Chime </i>and <i>The Music Makers</i> explore different aspects of Victorian society. Formerly, a journalist for over 25 years, writing for many national newspapers and magazines; Alexandra also worked in the TV and film industries as an associate producer, director, script writer and mentor for the MA Screen Writing course at the prestigious London Film School. She is a member of The Society of Authors and The Historical Writers Association. For updates and more information visit her website: <a href="http://www.alexandrawalsh.com/" target="_blank">www.alexandrawalsh.com </a>and follow her on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/themarquesshousetrilogy" target="_blank">Facebook</a>, Twitter <span color="inherit" style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-weight: inherit; white-space: inherit;"><a href="https://twitter.com/purplemermaid25" target="_blank">@purplemermaid25</a></span> and Bluesky <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/purplemermaid25.bsky.social" target="_blank">@purplemermaid25.bsky.social</a></p></div></div>tonyricheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18169101546380473710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122296933621146875.post-74999693030056870972024-02-23T07:17:00.001+00:002024-03-07T07:39:34.504+00:00Special Guest Post: Writing and Researching “The Other Gwyn Girl” by Nicola Cornick<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzLqqm7OpiQio2NjWeagtu6N_DehLqzQKpqGPpgF6kGN-5B35TZBfe7uqQ4HuZVt4xybEtZr3JX5SSaFku-mBqLm4p77JQcS1oHicz0oMexztTCdcvGaU_z-a3EGva-xHZe7qgsXQudXTPkrWtEX-6gMa9ONwC8_UeL7JFfzSZ_ThOpzMZizzfeOOelbc/s2730/The%20Other%20Gwyn%20Girl%20Cover.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2730" data-original-width="1780" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzLqqm7OpiQio2NjWeagtu6N_DehLqzQKpqGPpgF6kGN-5B35TZBfe7uqQ4HuZVt4xybEtZr3JX5SSaFku-mBqLm4p77JQcS1oHicz0oMexztTCdcvGaU_z-a3EGva-xHZe7qgsXQudXTPkrWtEX-6gMa9ONwC8_UeL7JFfzSZ_ThOpzMZizzfeOOelbc/w261-h400/The%20Other%20Gwyn%20Girl%20Cover.jpeg" width="261" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Available </span></b><b><span style="font-size: large;">from <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Other-Gwyn-Girl-spellbinding-captivating-ebook/dp/B0CMSYK86B" target="_blank">Amazon UK</a> and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Other-Gwyn-Girl-spellbinding-captivating-ebook/dp/B0CMSYK86B" target="_blank">Amazon US</a></span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><i>1671 – London: The Civil War is over and Charles II, the ‘Merry Monarch’, is revelling in the throne of his murdered father and all the privileges and power that comes with it. Sharing the spoils is his favourite companion, the celebrated beauty, actress Nell Gwyn.</i></div></div><i><br /></i><p>I have an attraction to the stories of women – and the occasional man – from the footnotes of history, historical characters whose lives have either been ignored or erased from the historical record, or about whom the slightest of tantalising clues reach us. </p><p>Those shadowy characters who have previously inspired me range from Mary Seymour, the lost daughter of Queen Katherine Parr and Thomas Seymour, to Catherine Catesby, wife of Gunpowder plot ringleader, Robert. All have been eclipsed in some way by other more famous characters in the historical narrative. All have a story to tell even if the evidence for it is faint or well-hidden.</p><p>My dual-time novel about Rose Gwyn, the sister of the far more famous Nell Gwyn came about in much the same way as the others. A relative had acquired a new portrait for his collection which claimed to be Nell Gwyn. I had a general awareness of Nell as an actress from the Restoration era and one of the more famous mistresses of King Charles II but the portrait prompted me to read more about her, and one line in a biography jumped out at me:</p><p>“Nell and her elder sister Rose both worked as orange girls in the theatre…”</p><p>I knew about the oranges – they could almost serve as Nell Gwyn’s emblem and sometimes unofficially do, but the bit that caught my interest was that Nell had an elder sister, Rose. </p><p>Finding any references to Rose Gwyn in the historical record was almost impossible. She was more than elusive, almost invisible. There is a lot of information on Nell Gwyn and from that one can infer some elements of her sister’s life, particularly in their shared upbringing and early life, raised on the backstreets around Covent Garden and in the brothel where their mother worked. </p><p>However, much of what is written about Nell is gleaned from letters, diaries and contemporary observations rather than official records. Many of these are biased depending on the author. A lot of what we “know” of Nell including her wittiest comments and the anecdotes such as her dangling her elder son out of first floor window until the King gave him a title, are hearsay and legend, no doubt embroidered in the retelling. So where does that leave a sister about whom no one bothered to record much at all?</p><p>The first official record of Rose Gwyn is from 1663 when she was imprisoned for theft and wrote to the King to petition for bail (or someone wrote on her behalf as both she and Nell had no formal education). One chronicler refers to her as the “notorious thief Rose Gwyn.” </p><p>In her letter, Rose stated that her father had “lost all he had in the service of the late King.” Her petition was successful, supporting the genealogical data that suggests their father was Captain Thomas Gwyn, who died in a debtor’s prison shortly after Nell was born. Like many of the minor Royalist gentry, the Civil War had left his family destitute.</p><p>Both Rose and Nell sold sweet oranges to the audiences who flocked back to the theatre after Charles II’s restoration in 1660 but whilst for Nell this was a springboard into an acting career, Rose had no such talent. The next we hear of her she was married to a highwayman called Captain John Cassells. In 1670 Rose helped one of his fellow “knights of the road” to gain a pardon from the King for his crimes, presumably by asking Nell to intercede for him. What happened to John Cassells is a mystery – he was no Dick Turpin and his story has not come down to us through history – but we know that he pre-deceased Rose and that she married for a second time.</p><p>These then, were the meagre facts of Rose Gwyn’s life which provided a framework for my story. Had I been writing a non-fiction book I would have struggled but the gaps in the historical record give a novelist ample space to allow their imagination to roam. As this was a dual time novel, I wanted the contemporary narrative to be a mirror of the historical one in some senses, weaving together as the story progressed. And in one respect I was fortunate; there is some evidence that for the first few years of their life, Nell and Rose Gwyn grew up in Oxford. </p><p>I was able to visit the parish that was said to have been their home, and to wander the city streets, picturing them back in the 17th century when Oxford played such a key role in the Civil War, and later when Charles II located his court there during the plague. That seventeenth-century Oxford is close beneath the surface; visiting the city, it is possible to shut out the present day and recreate in your mind’s eye the place that Rose Gwyn knew. </p><p><b><i> Nicola Cornick</i></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b># # #</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>About the Author</b></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipjdpdseiDQ7FdnsobKOXY1sigRXk4ZFFdgTwgSUMk3AyJ20qATuruPJ84Kg7zTvfmAlIxf8BskKYUeUBHJyYdaCBiTgZUn5Cx9abhqqeQNvhY6opfx11n11-EvMBAhytiIcMxHAb2aTJ__Cvr0B6vUvaWyuvBOaZBt7C0Shr1hrtFNUs24KrSwEZg8Dw/s1520/Nicola%20Cornick.jpeg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1520" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipjdpdseiDQ7FdnsobKOXY1sigRXk4ZFFdgTwgSUMk3AyJ20qATuruPJ84Kg7zTvfmAlIxf8BskKYUeUBHJyYdaCBiTgZUn5Cx9abhqqeQNvhY6opfx11n11-EvMBAhytiIcMxHAb2aTJ__Cvr0B6vUvaWyuvBOaZBt7C0Shr1hrtFNUs24KrSwEZg8Dw/s320/Nicola%20Cornick.jpeg" width="253" /></a></div>Nicola Cornick grew up in Yorkshire and studied History at the University of London and at Ruskin College Oxford where she was awarded a Distinction for her Masters dissertation on heroes and hero myths. She worked in academia for a number of years before becoming a full-time writer. She is the author of acclaimed dual-time mysteries as well as of award-winning historical romance. When she isn’t writing, Nicola volunteers as a guide and researcher for the National Trust at the 17th century hunting lodge Ashdown House. She has given talks and chaired panels for a number of festivals and conferences including the London Book Fair, the Historical Novel Society and the Sharjah Festival of Literature. Nicola also gives talks on history topics to WIs, history societies and other interested groups. In her spare time she is a bookseller at Wantage Bookshop and a puppy walker for the Guide Dogs charity. Find out more at Nicola's website <a href="http://www.nicolacornick.co.uk">www.nicolacornick.co.uk</a> and follow her on TwitterX <a href="https://twitter.com/NicolaCornick" target="_blank">@NicolaCornick</a><p></p>tonyricheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18169101546380473710noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122296933621146875.post-86008380478025874002024-02-21T08:31:00.000+00:002024-02-21T08:31:52.813+00:00Historical Fiction Spotlight: The Crimson Child (Empire of Shadows Book 2) by R.N. Morris<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp6HgOc87wbEg8ZGzNSpbULZWKsS9tN0Hv3aQ972YXP3ZrlYSSRaJnklrrvrpaRm5ZCAEnOXfTDBviXEOijWQAnjamlECHcA0g5y7mlCHIo9XxvQlWwwa-yDoiP51E4fmPCsX-LR-TPxx3wS0kvzXq4OtQ5XEl2MTyPnNmCm5uugW5jN0OuAG8iuTV/s500/The%20Crimson%20Child.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="313" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp6HgOc87wbEg8ZGzNSpbULZWKsS9tN0Hv3aQ972YXP3ZrlYSSRaJnklrrvrpaRm5ZCAEnOXfTDBviXEOijWQAnjamlECHcA0g5y7mlCHIo9XxvQlWwwa-yDoiP51E4fmPCsX-LR-TPxx3wS0kvzXq4OtQ5XEl2MTyPnNmCm5uugW5jN0OuAG8iuTV/w250-h400/The%20Crimson%20Child.jpeg" width="250" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Available from <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0C3SG1L8D" target="_blank">Amazon UK</a> and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Crimson-Child-Empire-Shadows-Book-ebook/dp/B0C3SG1L8D" target="_blank">Amazon US</a></span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b>Spring 1880. St Petersburg</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">While on an outing with his family in a leafy park, a retired general encounters a mysterious child dressed in red. The child leads him to a secluded spot. And a violent death.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">The shocking crime, committed in broad daylight against a respected member of the establishment, strikes terror at the heart of the city.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">It also draws the attention of the powers that be, who put pressure on magistrate Pavel Pavlovich Virginsky to solve the case quickly.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">But with no witnesses, apart from a drunken fantasist who may or may not have seen the murderer making their escape, Virginsky faces one of the most challenging and bizarre cases of his career.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Then an unexpected confession brings a sudden breakthrough. Or does it? For Virginsky, it’s all a little too convenient.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Meanwhile the tsar’s trusted adviser, Count Loris-Melikov, pushes Virginsky to undertake a dangerous mission. He must find a way to infiltrate a group of disaffected reactionaries with whom the dead man was associated.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Could this shadowy group be behind the general’s murder? And what will they do to Virginsky if they find out he is there to spy on them?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">As he closes in on the murderer, Virginsky uncovers a dark history in which the crimes of the past give rise to further crimes.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">And the desire for revenge culminates in a devastating tragedy.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">R. N Morris is the author of eleven novels. His series of St. Petersburg novels revolving around the character of Porfiry Petrovich include A Gentle Axe and A Vengeful Longing, which was shortlisted for the 2008 CWA Duncan Lawrie Dagger for Best Novel and was Highly Commended in the CWA Ellis Peters Prize for Best Historical Crime Novel in 2008. He also wrote the libretto to the opera When The Flame Dies, composed by Ed Hughes.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><b>Praise for Roger Morris:</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">"Morris’ recreation of the seamy side of 19th-century St Petersburg is vivid and convincing … As to who did it, Morris keeps the reader guessing until the end.” <b><i>The Independent.</i></b></div></div></blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">“Morris has created an atmospheric St Petersburg, and a stylish set of intellectual problems, but what makes A Gentle Axe such an effective debut is its fascination with good and evil.” <b><i>Times Literary Supplement.</i></b></div></div></blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">“Morris’s descriptions of the horrors of insanitary slum dwellings in St Petersburg are extraordinarily vivid, but the most striking feature of the novel is the way in which Porfiry’s sophisticated understanding of human nature compensates for the limited investigatory tools at his disposal.”<b><i> The Times.</i></b></div></div></blockquote><p style="text-align: center;"># # #</p><p><b><span style="font-size: large;">About the Author</span></b></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIgSekCQUcEDETLu5ICH8tkqUu4r-pY5aDojkO3M0eRRCj9er8BxzABF2bweY6zAB24r9ZGzB3-TTyh_46MsaVgV_8X1rtrya9jrKioYAVl36LpkZ5vtprjVl5c0Whdkj6L5I27bAfhN8/s600/rm-shot-600x474.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="474" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIgSekCQUcEDETLu5ICH8tkqUu4r-pY5aDojkO3M0eRRCj9er8BxzABF2bweY6zAB24r9ZGzB3-TTyh_46MsaVgV_8X1rtrya9jrKioYAVl36LpkZ5vtprjVl5c0Whdkj6L5I27bAfhN8/s320/rm-shot-600x474.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Roger (R. N.) Morris is the author of thirteen novels. The latest is Fortune’s Hand, a historical novel about Walter Raleigh. He is also the author of the Silas Quinn series of historical crime novels and the St Petersburg Mysteries, featuring Porfiry Petrovich, the investigating magistrate from Crime and Punishment. Find out more at Roger's website <a href="http://rogernmorris.co.uk" target="_blank">rogernmorris.co.uk</a> and find him on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/RNMorrisauthor" target="_blank">Facebook</a> and Twitter at <a href="https://twitter.com/rnmorris" target="_blank">@rnmorris</a><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='394' height='236' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dy-5cHXUj8ideLKMfzGW65KLLdwBW-HgyE9Rlz2WhcOeXUPJuHEAboTp3B1AUXNE_2eY3D6_n_32quS7S12Bw' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>tonyricheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18169101546380473710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122296933621146875.post-42836431597602370642024-02-17T09:54:00.001+00:002024-02-29T16:27:21.659+00:00A Court of Betrayal: The gripping new historical novel from the Sunday Times bestselling author Anne O'Brien<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGv926f0pOG9duBc31z8StuZeNe4__Skc9umSY9YxATdDiyE0imURTurLbBQPaf_2mCa5SxR_MY_RzHoZ2fJPPKMm0WshBYYNvoS5VmIfLXkO7Pe7VToTDqqQdh55cy0Zf0TeTpKaGtKml7_g3tjo_NGj0Y_vsN5pznvyQPazmMIBon9fx35HVRHZad94/s500/a.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="327" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGv926f0pOG9duBc31z8StuZeNe4__Skc9umSY9YxATdDiyE0imURTurLbBQPaf_2mCa5SxR_MY_RzHoZ2fJPPKMm0WshBYYNvoS5VmIfLXkO7Pe7VToTDqqQdh55cy0Zf0TeTpKaGtKml7_g3tjo_NGj0Y_vsN5pznvyQPazmMIBon9fx35HVRHZad94/w261-h400/a.jpg" width="261" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Available from </span></b><b><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0C68WW4JG" target="_blank">Amazon UK</a> and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Court-Betrayal-gripping-historical-bestselling-ebook/dp/B0C68WW4JG" target="_blank">Amazon US</a></span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div>The Welsh Marches, 1301: Strong-willed heiress Johane de Geneville is married to Roger Mortimer, Earl of March, at just fifteen years old.<br /><br />Soon Johane finds herself swept up in a world of treacherous court politics and dangerous secrets as her husband deposes Edward II and rules England alongside Queen Isabella.<br /><br />Yet when Roger is accused of treason, she is robbed of her freedom and must survive catastrophic events in her fight for justice - with her life, and her children's, hanging in the balance...<br /><br />Will she pay for her husband's mistakes, or will she manage to escape from a terrible fate?<div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDEbhfRuoecrBbpwJ-GqutCsndTkhwv7pcF67656XRUHem3Dv34XFr_9MyYhvObWDOdmgZESrVF740GgXLeZ8YgTz1CeqOmtjtXsfSzpPCTRj_f3X9IstoG_4p7baXFD2zKXOzUPqQB4zzCUlwIkLcCaZFyw97wl6XO0jvqQVrOYJsVlsRptgeXLlOKjw/s1176/Screenshot%202024-02-17%20at%2009.51.35%20am.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="596" data-original-width="1176" height="203" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDEbhfRuoecrBbpwJ-GqutCsndTkhwv7pcF67656XRUHem3Dv34XFr_9MyYhvObWDOdmgZESrVF740GgXLeZ8YgTz1CeqOmtjtXsfSzpPCTRj_f3X9IstoG_4p7baXFD2zKXOzUPqQB4zzCUlwIkLcCaZFyw97wl6XO0jvqQVrOYJsVlsRptgeXLlOKjw/w400-h203/Screenshot%202024-02-17%20at%2009.51.35%20am.png" width="400" /></a></div><div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"># # #</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><p><span><b>About the Author</b></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYLy-CsEj0MfEYUQwR5-T_JxrUhy5-QpXgsXti0Fo-_L2oE1J8MN7nCP_ggvb3UngRw8f1k99pPRpjEblsGl7jaBnYBywSharaG7QGcA6YU8rrIJ-mMGmA-s1k41IWR7pvTWtfVdGAqqs/s200/Anne+o+Brien.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="198" data-original-width="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYLy-CsEj0MfEYUQwR5-T_JxrUhy5-QpXgsXti0Fo-_L2oE1J8MN7nCP_ggvb3UngRw8f1k99pPRpjEblsGl7jaBnYBywSharaG7QGcA6YU8rrIJ-mMGmA-s1k41IWR7pvTWtfVdGAqqs/s0/Anne+o+Brien.jpg" /></a></div><p>Anne O’Brien was born in West Yorkshire. After gaining a BA Honours degree in History at Manchester University and a Master’s in Education at Hull, she lived in East Yorkshire for many years as a teacher of history. She now lives with her husband in an eighteenth-century timber-framed cottage in the depths of the Welsh Marches in Herefordshire, on the borders between England and Wales, where she writes historical novels. The perfect place in which to bring medieval women back to life. Find out more at Anne's website <a href="http://www.anneobrien.co.uk/" target="_blank">http://www.anneobrien.co.uk/</a> and find her on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/anneobrienbooks/" target="_blank">Facebook</a> and Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/anne_obrien" target="_blank">@anne_obrien</a></p></div></div>tonyricheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18169101546380473710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122296933621146875.post-1242978362242689642024-02-13T08:05:00.000+00:002024-02-13T08:05:49.740+00:00Special Guest Post by Deborah Swift, Author of The Shadow Network (WW2 Secret Agent Series) <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi64-ACHzZrGmYqiL3sOEljZi7ZRA9344wq61HVklHrVP9aVryyyj86WYnCyfCzKrlpur0issqdHsDBcrZvH_TJUkp8UR9jAKLUW6h-KD8parngQBULZbBTN7lNMnYLmqOinU0oMx_yGtZaUsPSBZOivRwx0XE95BFuc5-KmN01HWt1N_abXEDG-A8Vj88/s767/Cover%20of%20The%20Shadow%20Network.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="767" data-original-width="500" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi64-ACHzZrGmYqiL3sOEljZi7ZRA9344wq61HVklHrVP9aVryyyj86WYnCyfCzKrlpur0issqdHsDBcrZvH_TJUkp8UR9jAKLUW6h-KD8parngQBULZbBTN7lNMnYLmqOinU0oMx_yGtZaUsPSBZOivRwx0XE95BFuc5-KmN01HWt1N_abXEDG-A8Vj88/w261-h400/Cover%20of%20The%20Shadow%20Network.JPG" width="261" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b style="background-color: white; color: #424242; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15.456px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Available on <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Shadow-Network-gripping-sweeping-historical-ebook/dp/B0C4XJ5TBS" target="_blank">Amazon UK</a> and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Shadow-Network-gripping-sweeping-historical-ebook/dp/B0C4XJ5TBS" target="_blank">Amazon US</a></span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b style="background-color: white; color: #424242; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15.456px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>England, 1942: Having fled Germany after her father was captured by the Nazis, Lilli Bergen is desperate to do something pro-active for the Allies. So when she’s approached by the Political Warfare Executive, Lilli jumps at the chance. She’s recruited as a singer for a radio station broadcasting propaganda to German soldiers – a shadow network.</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><b>The Aspidistra Radio Transmitter by Deborah Swift<br /></b><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">The Shadow Network which forms the title of my latest book refers to the fake news radio stations set up by Sefton Delmer in WW2. These secret radio stations operating in WW2 pretended to be genuine German radio stations and employed German prisoners of war or other German speakers to make their broadcasts. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">The broadcasts were deliberately racy and were designed to capture the hearts of ordinary Germans and make them believe they were listening to a forbidden radio station from their own country. Their popularity spread, and they got wide audiences for their programmes.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv4TFQtGpTeC80DqZrHYmeeK6D9eGwIvWQMlWJOC_Px5zqagI3dOWhzreqiG2Edywik2iYbEWsifYqWMhQexmMj34rN7XMCFiMsS0LUau8VlUcn50_vdrmN-4P7aBKyc_ZpZQyWdVp23J9PD4LxyQvJwX7siLj3ch9CLHB0PIPPj7oNNE8eT5A2B8EyUM/s640/old-microphone-2290314_640.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="427" data-original-width="640" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv4TFQtGpTeC80DqZrHYmeeK6D9eGwIvWQMlWJOC_Px5zqagI3dOWhzreqiG2Edywik2iYbEWsifYqWMhQexmMj34rN7XMCFiMsS0LUau8VlUcn50_vdrmN-4P7aBKyc_ZpZQyWdVp23J9PD4LxyQvJwX7siLj3ch9CLHB0PIPPj7oNNE8eT5A2B8EyUM/w400-h268/old-microphone-2290314_640.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br />The radio signal for these ‘fake news’ radio stations needed to be strong enough to appear as though it came from Germany and had to be more powerful than anything that was then available.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi60Ly9ZKLfaNYTwxYQ-SvkhJaQDN_omYria8DXRIzgczSp6dZQt-ULRonOtgc65kEFNYZ4SOrdzVVFp2IpOgPY4CGw0emFU8weZWwVmV4iAq4hjJ04SZL4RaSuzQpl6ZSx_AbAS9f4QUuJVJedX6rdWZ6Mj1swUmztTGUc-hO_tGkTBbVar0KwVkUukmY/s377/Harold%20Robin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="377" data-original-width="273" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi60Ly9ZKLfaNYTwxYQ-SvkhJaQDN_omYria8DXRIzgczSp6dZQt-ULRonOtgc65kEFNYZ4SOrdzVVFp2IpOgPY4CGw0emFU8weZWwVmV4iAq4hjJ04SZL4RaSuzQpl6ZSx_AbAS9f4QUuJVJedX6rdWZ6Mj1swUmztTGUc-hO_tGkTBbVar0KwVkUukmY/w290-h400/Harold%20Robin.jpg" width="290" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><i>Harold Robin</i></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><i><br /></i></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div>By coincidence, the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) had created two high-powered radio transmitters which could not be used in the US, because of a change in American law. The RCA were eager to sell them to Britain. So Harold Robin, a Foreign Office radio engineer, saw their potential, and travelled to America to examine them, and then worked to improve them. </div><div><br /></div><div>He adapted a transmitter so it was able to move frequency in a fraction of a second, at the flick of a switch.The pow<span style="text-align: left;">erful ex-RCA transmitter, eventually installed in Sussex, England, was named Aspidistra, referencing the popular Gracie Fields song ‘The Biggest Aspidistra in the World’, in which an Aspidistra houseplant grows until it ‘nearly reached the sky’.</span></div><div><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div>In fact, most of the technology was buried underground at the site at Crowborough, though its antennae were visible – three guyed masts, each 110 metres tall, directing the signal broadly eastwards. The Art Deco–style transmitter building was housed in an underground shelter which had to be excavated by the Canadian army troops who were stationed nearby.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /><b>Intrusion operations<br /></b><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ6vewghkuN9l4a95-bGEZr7rHpPXtiKwr8BP1xA8jo6kmUPXATHJmio8K0Xbplf9MXaL5Z1FKWpey4b1_v2vAMdfx5qqdjMK7_Hj6x0uTJ0fWwdb7nc8TXlK8F-qUaffGSfjUgKIaF9a1_Zx3YiSeQ6fZFV1SRwzFjroTkf9PiK5FMmKzWLLYlC0qF1k/s423/Aspidistraintrusion%20(1).png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="285" data-original-width="423" height="270" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ6vewghkuN9l4a95-bGEZr7rHpPXtiKwr8BP1xA8jo6kmUPXATHJmio8K0Xbplf9MXaL5Z1FKWpey4b1_v2vAMdfx5qqdjMK7_Hj6x0uTJ0fWwdb7nc8TXlK8F-qUaffGSfjUgKIaF9a1_Zx3YiSeQ6fZFV1SRwzFjroTkf9PiK5FMmKzWLLYlC0qF1k/w400-h270/Aspidistraintrusion%20(1).png" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">The Aspidistra mast was so powerful it could be used to intercept German frequencies. During Allied air raids, German radio transmitters were switched off so the Allies couldn’t use them to locate their installations.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> <br />As soon as the Germans switched off their masts, Aspidistra began transmitting on its frequency, just like the German station. The transition was seamless and German listeners believed the original station was still broadcasting. Aspidistra operators would then insert pro-British propaganda and fake news into the broadcast as if it was coming from official German sources.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoYch0fNfdllAnaqrUrtE19zPDUaOMwDkXR1GrbmL5J5XynQsuSOjk-NuHZAby7m4uHoDMkvV9VUYeqKo_ECFDVQGZT3NYYyObI9oTBfP4hAVh3PoslvWD3_qbrqeD-uhCv1e2vRc1ASNi7qWa8TV2AHtTVX_tdkPass7z4Dc2fVjgSLlkA2laDEUFg1A/s640/radio-742266_640.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="427" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoYch0fNfdllAnaqrUrtE19zPDUaOMwDkXR1GrbmL5J5XynQsuSOjk-NuHZAby7m4uHoDMkvV9VUYeqKo_ECFDVQGZT3NYYyObI9oTBfP4hAVh3PoslvWD3_qbrqeD-uhCv1e2vRc1ASNi7qWa8TV2AHtTVX_tdkPass7z4Dc2fVjgSLlkA2laDEUFg1A/w268-h400/radio-742266_640.jpg" width="268" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b><i>Radio Transmitter</i></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><i><br /></i></b></div><div style="text-align: left;">After the war, Aspidistra was used by the BBC. It made its final transmission on 28 September 1982, before being finally switched off by Robin, the man who had been responsible, forty years earlier, for bringing the transmitter from the US and setting up the station at Crowborough.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div>In my novel based around the Aspidistra transmitter and the fake news radio stations, I include a fictional plot to blow up the transmitter. Although fictional, this is not unlikely as there were several attempts by the Germans to sabotage infrastructure and communications systems in England at the time.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> <br />If you’d like more information about Radio Aspidistra I recommend this <a href="https://www.nutsvolts.com/magazine/article/britains-raiding-dreadnought-of-the-ether" target="_blank">Nuts and Volts Magazine article</a>.<br /><br /><b><i>Deborah Swift</i></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><b><i><br /></i></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-I6E8BIqJbQ1NWDp_IRqab5hPIYMXJ4o6r6DRXfubE_NzMIX2EhyYFdqTAh4CsxJkDm-AxcSp_56iN_YmzcN1X-pQHOfkMsRe8OxYI_lqljyRxHkdQO69atUjr949Up99wN2AfdUY_P0LoUl7uQab-QNODxRCv5QG6cPYH2orvdEmrmI9pjvCLmm1JAo/s400/Deborah%20Swift.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="400" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-I6E8BIqJbQ1NWDp_IRqab5hPIYMXJ4o6r6DRXfubE_NzMIX2EhyYFdqTAh4CsxJkDm-AxcSp_56iN_YmzcN1X-pQHOfkMsRe8OxYI_lqljyRxHkdQO69atUjr949Up99wN2AfdUY_P0LoUl7uQab-QNODxRCv5QG6cPYH2orvdEmrmI9pjvCLmm1JAo/s320/Deborah%20Swift.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>Deborah Swift is the English author of eighteen historical novels, including Millennium Award winner Past Encounters, and The Lady’s Slipper, shortlisted for the Impress Prize. Her most recent books are the Renaissance trilogy based around the life of the poisoner Giulia Tofana, The Poison Keeper and its sequels, one of which won the Coffee Pot Book Club Gold Medal. Recently she has completed a secret agent series set in WW2, the first in the series being The Silk Code. Deborah used to work as a set and costume designer for theatre and TV and enjoys the research aspect of creating historical fiction, something she loved doing as a scenographer. She likes to write about extraordinary characters set against the background of real historical events. Deborah lives in North Lancashire on the edge of the Lake District, an area made famous by the Romantic Poets such as Wordsworth and Coleridge. Find out more at Deborah's website <a href="http://www.deborahswift.com/" target="_blank">www.deborahswift.com</a> and follow her on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/authordeborahswift/">Facebook</a> and Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/swiftstory" target="_blank">@swiftstory</a></div></div><p></p>tonyricheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18169101546380473710noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122296933621146875.post-61025508321348660242024-02-10T10:11:00.001+00:002024-02-10T18:12:54.943+00:00New Audiobook Sample: The story of Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, one of the most intriguing men of the Elizabethan Court, Narrated by Nigel Peever.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiendJvCInAagA8Kb59CnosyN92P3ZY30vSz7EMaodGnC9ndlKI6LhImJwtTV8kdEe9r5Bss0KVkReJ4bp9Qf3TsIzaDNgBHTnccIWy_nuyqUspQt66VrFUw6f3bXLMbU1VQmUxE0U79diLtUukSq1UiY1vzA6nOvrUucIP-9rVxFPzvYqjPF2_Lqn1bPc/s2400/Essex%20audiobook.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2400" data-original-width="2400" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiendJvCInAagA8Kb59CnosyN92P3ZY30vSz7EMaodGnC9ndlKI6LhImJwtTV8kdEe9r5Bss0KVkReJ4bp9Qf3TsIzaDNgBHTnccIWy_nuyqUspQt66VrFUw6f3bXLMbU1VQmUxE0U79diLtUukSq1UiY1vzA6nOvrUucIP-9rVxFPzvYqjPF2_Lqn1bPc/w400-h400/Essex%20audiobook.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Available from <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Essex-Tudor-Rebel-Elizabethan-Book/dp/B0CVBLF3TC" target="_blank">Amazon UK</a> and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CVBMQQ4K" target="_blank">Amazon US</a></span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">and from <a href="https://www.audible.com/pd/B0CVBKH8NB/?source_code=AUDFPWS0223189MWT-BK-ACX0-386259&ref=acx_bty_BK_ACX0_386259_rh_us" target="_blank">Audible</a></span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, is one of the most intriguing men of the Elizabethan period. Tall and handsome, he soon becomes a ‘favorite’ at court, so close to the queen many wonder if they are lovers.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">The truth is far more complex, as each has what the other yearns for. Robert Devereux longs for recognition, wealth and influence. His flamboyant naïveté amuses the ageing Queen Elizabeth, like the son she never had, and his vitality makes her feel young.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Continuing the story of the Tudors, begun in Tony Riches’ best-selling Tudor trilogy, this epic tale of loyalty, love and adventure follows Robert Devereux from his youth to his fateful rebellion.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div></div><p></p>
<iframe allow="autoplay" frameborder="no" height="500" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/1742826816&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true&visual=true" width="100%"></iframe><div><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: center;"># # #</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>About the Narrator</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsG3o324lpKeEjhKUEE0l8S64Zd2kwc1djYE02HQNnxNDbxT7WFARTP8uO0UDwlgdNgt2J8eNkVOLAeyvob7rYmjU8WHuWW_KWh6kJnvQ1mZV7Brndy7uBCpIkx-3q3KXMBttJUnyINk7K1TrEUSSYK7zNKgklGbj1IIoUl6DxSu_Dwly5Gaxs33-f74Y/s674/Nigel%20Peever.webp" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="674" data-original-width="568" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsG3o324lpKeEjhKUEE0l8S64Zd2kwc1djYE02HQNnxNDbxT7WFARTP8uO0UDwlgdNgt2J8eNkVOLAeyvob7rYmjU8WHuWW_KWh6kJnvQ1mZV7Brndy7uBCpIkx-3q3KXMBttJUnyINk7K1TrEUSSYK7zNKgklGbj1IIoUl6DxSu_Dwly5Gaxs33-f74Y/s320/Nigel%20Peever.webp" width="270" /></a></div>Nigel Peever is a northern based actor with thirty years experience in Theatre and TV and especially pantomime. Originally gaining equity status the traditional way through weekly rep at the Lyceum Theatre in Crewe straight from school and college and his first professional production with The Rollingstock Theatre Company when he was aged just 14. Since turning pro aged 19 in 1985 Nigel has worked extensively in Theatre and TV. He also produces audiobooks at home working in conjunction with authors and rights holders for sale at Amazon, Audible and Itunes. Find out more from Nigel's website <a href="https://www.nigelpeever.co.uk/">https://www.nigelpeever.co.uk/</a> and find him on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/NigelPeever" target="_blank">@NigelPeever</a> </div>tonyricheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18169101546380473710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122296933621146875.post-47432269728027795632024-02-09T08:34:00.001+00:002024-02-09T08:38:27.166+00:00Special Guest Post by Melita Thomas, Author of 1000 Tudor People<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI38ViS80m7cy4vRXqZ8Cql3hyZYwi_8AWYDIRJ-WIyhSGzijfE-bOQ5ZPETkM7YOnRgqWnLtzy3Q6010IPao1E1aSDfaarusactxi2QU9r9kCeomJ0AFfkE70F4Ui0UnqjkI-d6hM47z3RZH0UKEo7Ocmtp7l0Ijwyg7usJS_0KpAviBQFWl-gLgBlB0/s522/1000%20Tudor%20People%20.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="522" data-original-width="423" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI38ViS80m7cy4vRXqZ8Cql3hyZYwi_8AWYDIRJ-WIyhSGzijfE-bOQ5ZPETkM7YOnRgqWnLtzy3Q6010IPao1E1aSDfaarusactxi2QU9r9kCeomJ0AFfkE70F4Ui0UnqjkI-d6hM47z3RZH0UKEo7Ocmtp7l0Ijwyg7usJS_0KpAviBQFWl-gLgBlB0/w324-h400/1000%20Tudor%20People%20.jpg" width="324" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Available for pre-order from</span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/1000-Tudor-People-Melita-Thomas/dp/1802583084" target="_blank">Amazon UK</a> and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/1000-Tudor-People-Melita-Thomas-ebook/dp/B0CS4MS3H6" target="_blank">Amazon US</a></span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Pre-orders at a discount may be made <a href="https://shop.tudortimes.co.uk/products/1000-tudor-people" target="_blank">here</a> </span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i>The product of years of diligent research, this ambitious title brings the incredibly varied lives (and deaths!) of 1000 Tudor people into a single, accessible volume. Illustrated with historical portraits and a wealth of detail, including specially designed family trees to chart the links between major Tudor figures.</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div><br />Writing 1<i>000 Tudor People</i> has been a labour of love over three years. I began it in the autumn of 2020 and handed the final sections to the publisher towards the end of 2022. It then took a further year to bring together all the illustrations and the timelines, proofread it, and turn it into the weighty volume that will hit the shelves on 28th March 2024. <div><br /></div><div>The idea behind the book was to give readers information about a much wider range of people who lived during the Tudor period than just the usual suspects who appear in books or on-screen. Of course the panorama of the royal family with their sneaky courtiers and scheming councillors is fun to read about, but there was so much more to the Tudor age. </div><div><br /></div><div>It was a period of massive change: life in 1485 was not very different from life in 1385, but by 1600 things had altered considerably, not just because of the Reformation, but also because of the expansion of knowledge brought about by the printing press, the introduction of plants and food that came from discoveries in the New World, the changes in the economic fortunes of England and Wales, and the expansion of mathematical and scientific knowledge.</div><div> <br />Choosing the thousand people was difficult. At the beginning, I thought that I might struggle to find enough individuals whose lives were sufficiently interesting or important to merit sharing, but once I began the research, I was quickly overwhelmed with quirky and fascinating characters, and I have a long list, which continues to grow, of people whom I have had, reluctantly, to leave out.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirfp7AEvzLz2S697c1_UZc7v1PhyphenhyphensbLkEHIb13WbIGDw9RtEks1-V_KivWiyOGdgH6LGQPSPi2t4colzcyQEKb0oWm9zMxEH3opsIY-bcsostvVseAkC6eExsz-Rk_xgrraN3y2srQI30xahUlKAJZsKaAC_CxtduFefKMHIiluVeYChIhVH65fxtC3uY/s687/Picture%201.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="687" data-original-width="687" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirfp7AEvzLz2S697c1_UZc7v1PhyphenhyphensbLkEHIb13WbIGDw9RtEks1-V_KivWiyOGdgH6LGQPSPi2t4colzcyQEKb0oWm9zMxEH3opsIY-bcsostvVseAkC6eExsz-Rk_xgrraN3y2srQI30xahUlKAJZsKaAC_CxtduFefKMHIiluVeYChIhVH65fxtC3uY/s320/Picture%201.png" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i>Sir Richard Martin, Lord Mayor of London © British Museum</i></div><br /><div>Although I wanted to expand from just the rich and famous, I had to include them. You can’t have a book about Tudor People that doesn’t include Henry VIII or Thomas Cromwell. But once I had dealt with the monarch, the royal family, and the principal politicians, I turned to the arts. Shakespeare, of course, was high on the list, so I consulted the research I had done on him for the feature on the <a href="https://tudortimes.co.uk/person-of-the-month/william-shakespeare" target="_blank">Tudor Times website.</a> </div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1xMRhRNoiDghuqlrH-mHDTVF76_pYXJr4I6757BPdS1Jw1g0JnhTetEFsmaLj55UOwf7RnezWIo-RV7SI4xpplp3L8MnbMSUHMQ9mt258RvsNnp3zRLOQZzpTgjvyt8_8uCwLvELYFZTgWaMC9Y-2C_Ua6PBfUPAomf0pj5xkd4Z_iajLZWCt8CnnLHI/s413/Picture%201.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="413" data-original-width="267" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1xMRhRNoiDghuqlrH-mHDTVF76_pYXJr4I6757BPdS1Jw1g0JnhTetEFsmaLj55UOwf7RnezWIo-RV7SI4xpplp3L8MnbMSUHMQ9mt258RvsNnp3zRLOQZzpTgjvyt8_8uCwLvELYFZTgWaMC9Y-2C_Ua6PBfUPAomf0pj5xkd4Z_iajLZWCt8CnnLHI/w259-h400/Picture%201.jpg" width="259" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="text-align: start;">© Folger Shakespeare Library Christopher Saxton. Atlas of the counties of England and Wales. </span><span style="text-align: start;">London, 1590?</span></i></div><div><br /></div><div>This led me to his colleagues and friends, so I added them, and as I researched each one, I found more names. Gradually, a great network of writers, philosophers, theatre-owners, entrepreneurs, gardeners, mathematicians, and even criminals evolved.</div><div> <br />One of the difficulties of writing about fifteenth and sixteenth century people is the inequality in records available, particularly of women. Even high-ranking women are much less represented in the records than men, and women below the level of nobility usually only appear in the records if they seriously transgressed social norms – consequently, a disproportionate number of the women included were considered to be criminals. </div><div><br /></div><div>Another challenge I had to address was the massive change in our approach to the past, which has happened in the last twenty to thirty years. This is partly about more inclusion of women, but also a different perspective on elements of our history. Older historiography has a fairly uncritical attitude towards individuals who have been seen as heroes for centuries – such as Francis Drake, Walter Raleigh, and the other ‘sea-dogs’. </div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRGagRuqPhmxGuPCl65vYxda-511lOjOqaJgfyGBYtmQ9UtkHL3boNirqsBLlNefxiGjUja0U_0FpZYhJhAz4Uq6Jorcc_8IZ5mbfTUzeTyZ39PkSmF_tkTjlse_d7yVmuUgDikB7FiVyVnnUa6TgYeXWJnJ5eNK_GZRWLDAm6YzuNtvYAj2h6wP5mLEE/s2956/Sir_Walter_Ralegh_by_'H'_monogrammist.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2956" data-original-width="2400" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRGagRuqPhmxGuPCl65vYxda-511lOjOqaJgfyGBYtmQ9UtkHL3boNirqsBLlNefxiGjUja0U_0FpZYhJhAz4Uq6Jorcc_8IZ5mbfTUzeTyZ39PkSmF_tkTjlse_d7yVmuUgDikB7FiVyVnnUa6TgYeXWJnJ5eNK_GZRWLDAm6YzuNtvYAj2h6wP5mLEE/w325-h400/Sir_Walter_Ralegh_by_'H'_monogrammist.jpg" width="325" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><i><br /></i></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i>Sir Walter Raleigh (<span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #54595d; font-size: 13.6px; text-align: left;">Wikimedia Commons)</span></i></div><br /><div>Today, historians are grappling with more honest interpretations of these men’s activities and I needed to seek out a wide range of sources to present a balanced view, without having the luxury of a word count that would enable me to explore these varied perspectives in detail. Unsurprisingly, I have some favourite characters – some of whom I’d like to meet, but others who might be rather scary in the flesh. </div><div><br /></div><div>One of the latter is Katherine Howard, Lady Berkeley, who was such a stickler for protocol that she made her manservant practise one hundred bows to get it absolutely right – I like her because she kept her pet hawks in her bedchamber, and did not care if her dresses got dirty. Another fun entry is Twm Sion Cati – otherwise known as Thomas Jones. He was a trickster who relieved his victims of their belongings by tricking them, rather than by violence. </div><div><br /></div><div>Ralph Rishton was another conman, who, at the time of his death had no fewer than eleven ongoing law suits relating to his matrimonial entanglements. Then there are the incredibly sad stories, such as those of Anne Askew and Margaret Clitherow (nee Middleton), who were martyred for their faith - one Protestant, the other Catholic.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCuDwG7yVdhd8nTEnPfJMbnhpNYU8VuKjWwpJEBp9GIJKfCpDrJixwUDNtVnT767hOb4mxvNjdTIwfRIQtM5efv-0oZMsSPSHFhpvkgbBlgJudsS_gWAjwu2pbob1qpw5AGCrSGNOv0G4K6P_FhZnk8AV0-q2psfwWPJgRzHKh0tFiRNouACnWp-54O0w/s869/St._Margaret_Clitherow_JS.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="869" data-original-width="616" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCuDwG7yVdhd8nTEnPfJMbnhpNYU8VuKjWwpJEBp9GIJKfCpDrJixwUDNtVnT767hOb4mxvNjdTIwfRIQtM5efv-0oZMsSPSHFhpvkgbBlgJudsS_gWAjwu2pbob1qpw5AGCrSGNOv0G4K6P_FhZnk8AV0-q2psfwWPJgRzHKh0tFiRNouACnWp-54O0w/w284-h400/St._Margaret_Clitherow_JS.jpg" width="284" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i>Margaret Clitherow (Wikimedia Commons)</i></div><br /><div>I hope that when the readers delve into <i>1000 Tudor People</i>, they will find stories to entertain, as well as inform them about the Tudor period. Hopefully, the book will also be a manual to be on hand every time the reader opens another book or watches a film or television programme about the Tudors, to find the key facts about all of the people involved.</div><div> <b><i><br />Melita Thomas</i></b></div><div><b><i><br /></i></b></div><div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><i># # #</i></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><i><br /></i></b></div><div><b></b></div><div><b>About the Author</b></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK04z68aaopZurhOA3dqqw5Gp-LjMJMit9bGb1ZYKe4HuCVWshpqTTEidPGeSPei9m1i1WU9ENbvflIiASQifElN4Ms1ExzMf_yNnneRjnaqC0ksP6ZsHAOPiVIRoC91bwrKSXFvWG2E55-yGvmlrGei9vR3PtZaON3_o2O4H0MDEY-82KxSv3bZrF/s400/Melita%20Thomas.jpeg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="400" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK04z68aaopZurhOA3dqqw5Gp-LjMJMit9bGb1ZYKe4HuCVWshpqTTEidPGeSPei9m1i1WU9ENbvflIiASQifElN4Ms1ExzMf_yNnneRjnaqC0ksP6ZsHAOPiVIRoC91bwrKSXFvWG2E55-yGvmlrGei9vR3PtZaON3_o2O4H0MDEY-82KxSv3bZrF/w200-h200/Melita%20Thomas.jpeg" width="200" /></a></div><div>Melita Thomas is the author of non-fiction works The King’s Pearl, and The House of Grey and co-author of the Tudor Times Books of Days series of gift books. She is a doctoral candidate at UCL, researching the social and political networks of Mary I and is the co-founder and chief contributor for Tudor Times, a repository of information about the Tudors and Stewarts 1485 – 16625. In her spare time, Melita enjoys long distance walking. You can find her on <a href="https://melitathomas.com/">https://melitathomas.com/</a> and on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/melitathomas92" target="_blank">@melitathomas92</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/TheTudorTimes" target="_blank">@thetudortimes</a>.</div></div></div>tonyricheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18169101546380473710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122296933621146875.post-7100274770393599582024-02-07T06:56:00.000+00:002024-02-07T06:56:51.078+00:00Book Launch Spotlight: To the Wild Horizon: A captivating story of love and endurance on the Oregon Trail, by Imogen Martin<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwH9sRWmJPRDrg9Z3CbmfT5QZ9ZiIY1KWe0DBOHDfHDl5dw3qq2h3Bi1PhKxvjRApXPSsk6LPmtn-qBU7eKYBKCWM9iVmlD1gDQ-_wudl39E5y8ThYt07O_E_WuDqTR2cwLylSnUPPvTJxO4s-rAZdC0R1AFtb2wrxBlj9bzEKu7gbkcTKWYEC2G-oAlI/s522/To%20the%20Wild%20Horizon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="522" data-original-width="340" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwH9sRWmJPRDrg9Z3CbmfT5QZ9ZiIY1KWe0DBOHDfHDl5dw3qq2h3Bi1PhKxvjRApXPSsk6LPmtn-qBU7eKYBKCWM9iVmlD1gDQ-_wudl39E5y8ThYt07O_E_WuDqTR2cwLylSnUPPvTJxO4s-rAZdC0R1AFtb2wrxBlj9bzEKu7gbkcTKWYEC2G-oAlI/w260-h400/To%20the%20Wild%20Horizon.jpg" width="260" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Available from <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CJ2VY32R" target="_blank">Amazon UK</a> and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Wild-Horizon-totally-captivating-endurance-ebook/dp/B0CJ2VY32R" target="_blank">Amazon US</a></span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><b><br /></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Missouri, 1846: In the frontier town of Independence the sound of a gunshot shatters the night. As the pistol drops from her hand and clatters to the ground, Grace knows she has no choice but to leave. Now.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">In this inspiring and deeply moving story of love, courage and endurance, a young woman on the run from the law sets off on a desperate journey of survival on the treacherous Oregon Trail.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Terrified she’s wanted for the murder of her landlord, Grace is certain that, even though she acted in self-defence, no one will believe her. Quickly packing the few belongings she and her little brother Tom possess, they race to join the line of dusty wagons preparing to leave for Oregon.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">As they set off, over the perilous Great Plains, knowing the wild rivers and the Rocky Mountains they must cross, Grace vows to do whatever it takes to protect Tom and get them both to safety. She will prove herself capable of surviving the hardest journey of her life.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i>This unputdownable and heart-wrenching historical novel shows the true strength and resilience of a woman’s heart, even when she has everything to lose and the odds are stacked against her. Fans of Kristin Hannah, Amy Harmon and Olivia Hawker will lose themselves in To the Wild Horizon.</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"># # #</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div><b>About the Author</b></div><i><b></b></i><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyaimXshX2nNRJ3ohU2heit4guxWNCCMZ0dyYcgo4fPe0LkKSYV_ew5B1gaXEk9kzFJ_HUPtzbtPF-CkKUfKnxUZlWmKbALdBwJlZmJMDkx_nzqNJdJR6VqBk5-ZsOlBwhPvaT92hICGBJYPiOYCRi_cX0tOsJ-EqNNHjunsZexNbAS5NOYwc8hVhQOq4/s640/thumbnail_Imogen%20Martin%20headshot%20800kb.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="455" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyaimXshX2nNRJ3ohU2heit4guxWNCCMZ0dyYcgo4fPe0LkKSYV_ew5B1gaXEk9kzFJ_HUPtzbtPF-CkKUfKnxUZlWmKbALdBwJlZmJMDkx_nzqNJdJR6VqBk5-ZsOlBwhPvaT92hICGBJYPiOYCRi_cX0tOsJ-EqNNHjunsZexNbAS5NOYwc8hVhQOq4/s320/thumbnail_Imogen%20Martin%20headshot%20800kb.jpg" width="228" /></a></div>Imogen Martin writes sweeping, historical fiction. Her first two novels are set in nineteenth century America. As a teenager, she took the Greyhound bus from San Francisco to New York. Over those three days of staring out of the window at the majestic mountains and endless flat plains, stories wound themselves into her head: tales of brooding, charismatic men captivated by independent women.<br />Since then, she has worked in a coffee-shop in Piccadilly, a famous bookstore, and a children’s home. She has run festivals, and turned a derelict housing block on one of the poorest estates in the UK into an award-winning arts centre. During 2020 Imogen was selected by Kate Nash Literary Agency as one of their BookCamp mentees, a mentorship programme designed to accelerate the careers of promising new writers. Married with two children, Imogen divides her time between Wales and Sardinia. Find out more at Imogene's website <a href="https://imogenmartinauthor.com">https://imogenmartinauthor.com </a> and find her on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ImogenMartin.Author" target="_blank">Facebook</a> and Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/ImogenMartin9" target="_blank">@ImogenMartin9</a></div></div></div>tonyricheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18169101546380473710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122296933621146875.post-22678760588845008192024-02-06T12:58:00.006+00:002024-02-06T15:48:34.459+00:00Book Review: Mary I: Queen of Sorrows, by Alison Weir<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRXTU_OONaDni0tS6VNALfWS14Bhh8dIjeJziIowadVCpsiRr2reMSNUmMVIelOjLB7whzxvutDG-481HV333Ms0lONQ8vXzBm1Z6fVCwmMeaZ3zbWacMPpR4Bi4uac6QV-_UyPe7ucHzwRsrZAIr1EWzaql9PVUESG3wpb0lv0nZpdU7FWRss5nV4Toc/s522/Mary%20I-%20Queen%20of%20Sorrows.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="522" data-original-width="339" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRXTU_OONaDni0tS6VNALfWS14Bhh8dIjeJziIowadVCpsiRr2reMSNUmMVIelOjLB7whzxvutDG-481HV333Ms0lONQ8vXzBm1Z6fVCwmMeaZ3zbWacMPpR4Bi4uac6QV-_UyPe7ucHzwRsrZAIr1EWzaql9PVUESG3wpb0lv0nZpdU7FWRss5nV4Toc/w260-h400/Mary%20I-%20Queen%20of%20Sorrows.jpg" width="260" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Available for pre-order</span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">from <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mary-Queen-Sorrows-Alison-Weir-ebook/dp/B0C6GK88Z3" target="_blank">Amazon UK</a> and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Mary-Queen-Sorrows-Alison-Weir-ebook/dp/B0C6GK88Z3" target="_blank">Amazon US</a></span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Adored only child of Henry VIII and his Queen, Katherine of Aragon, Princess Mary is raised in the golden splendour of her father's court. But the King wants a son and heir. </i><i>With her parents' marriage, and England, in crisis, Mary's perfect world begins to fall apart. Exiled from the court and her beloved mother, she seeks solace in her faith, praying for her father to bring her home. But when the King does promise to restore her to favour, his love comes with a condition. </i><i>The choice Mary faces will haunt her for years to come - in her allegiances, her marriage and her own fight for the crown. Can she become the queen she was born to be?</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">I've learned to go to the author's note before reading Alison Weir's books, and this one is particularly poignant. Alison talks about how, like Mary, her own parents separated when she was eleven years old. This experience means she can identify with the first crowned Tudor queen in her retelling of a familiar story.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Mary inherited a country in a social, political and economic mess, and did little to change the life of the people for the better, yet she emerges as a woman deserving of understanding, if not our sympathy.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Alison ran a competition for suggested subtitles for the book, and a popular suggestion was the enduring epithet 'Bloody Mary'. After having read the book I agree the eventual choice of 'Queen of Sorrows' was the right one. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Although a work of historical fiction, the story of Queen Mary is based on sound historical sources, and I'm happy to recommend this book to anyone wanting a more nuanced understanding of one of our most troubled queens. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><b><i>Tony Riches</i></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"># # #</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><b>About the Author</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><b><br /></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguLIvqPyO0gVxvNeOSfSgsdcvKKh0-mJrPtEG7zO-m3THZD4XU80SDVQnc12rTOCJds07vehd4M0C2LWbvDh7lxqf5-1SviQMYM5xuEuTsHrbYvrJIWk9VM8c0-iy15vleigf1zhBVSAA/s400/Alison+Weir.jpg" style="clear: right; display: block; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; padding: 1em 0px;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="400" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguLIvqPyO0gVxvNeOSfSgsdcvKKh0-mJrPtEG7zO-m3THZD4XU80SDVQnc12rTOCJds07vehd4M0C2LWbvDh7lxqf5-1SviQMYM5xuEuTsHrbYvrJIWk9VM8c0-iy15vleigf1zhBVSAA/w320-h320/Alison+Weir.jpg" width="320" /></a></div></div><p>Alison Weir is the New York Times bestselling author of the novels <i>Innocent Traitor</i> and <i>The Lady Elizabeth</i> and several historical biographies, including <i>Mistress of the Monarchy, Queen Isabella, Henry VIII, Eleanor of Aquitaine, The Life of Elizabeth </i>I, and <i>The Six Wives of Henry VIII.</i> She lives in Surrey, England with her husband. Find out more at Alison's website <a href="http://www.alisonweir.org.uk/">http://www.alisonweir.org.uk/</a> and find her on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/AlisonWeirAuthor" target="_blank">Facebook</a> and Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/AlisonWeirBooks" target="_blank">@AlisonWeirBooks</a></p><p>(A review copy of this book was kindly provided by the publishers, Headline UK)</p></div></div></div><br />tonyricheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18169101546380473710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122296933621146875.post-30330164786103694042024-02-05T16:20:00.001+00:002024-02-08T20:52:17.507+00:00Book Review: The Physician's Fate: Book Four of Lord's Legacy, by Eleanor Swift-Hook<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmclEwkWEsUCqtE7iFq2Zo6t_Rc22AeDyDwSsZDDJPAhBC8nqI9_f3setvHnSKXlVOSxq2626NW3GHGgioVPCg0-v6SK-JuIGDKh6HIaSgUzE0FIaKVU-RI2ThNgxmct5euG0UV0PJDyVXTh_gDt9Ip4E5ibWW4JUXVw9cPYmCX3YkrjLEOOhfKMptZcs/s522/The%20Physician's%20Fate.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="522" data-original-width="327" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmclEwkWEsUCqtE7iFq2Zo6t_Rc22AeDyDwSsZDDJPAhBC8nqI9_f3setvHnSKXlVOSxq2626NW3GHGgioVPCg0-v6SK-JuIGDKh6HIaSgUzE0FIaKVU-RI2ThNgxmct5euG0UV0PJDyVXTh_gDt9Ip4E5ibWW4JUXVw9cPYmCX3YkrjLEOOhfKMptZcs/w250-h400/The%20Physician's%20Fate.jpg" width="250" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Available from <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0BQCS2X2Y" target="_blank">Amazon UK</a> and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Physicians-Fate-Lords-Legacy/dp/B0BTRRBRNJ" target="_blank">Amazon US</a></span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></b></div><i><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Paris, December 1642:</i><i> Gideon Lennox is now employed by Sir Philip Lord, a notorious mercenary commander with a mysterious past. When Lord is sent to Paris to present King Charles’ condolences to his brother-in-law, King Louis, Gideon is at his side.</i></div></i><div style="text-align: left;"><div><br />For the first tine in this series the action moves to Paris. Christmas is approaching, but this is no holiday. as danger and intrigue lurk in every shadowy alleyway.</div><div><br /></div><div>This is the fourth book of the Lord's legacy series and shifts up another gear with a dual narrative. I kept picking up the book, even when I had important things to do, as I wanted to know if I'd guessed right about what happened next. (I invariably found I was wrong.)</div><div><br /></div><div>As always with this series, there are plenty of surprises, and deft touches of historical authenticity which make me want to learn more about this period. </div><div> </div><div>Although <i>The Physician's Fate </i>would work well as a stand-alone, I recommend starting with book one of the series to fully appreciate the impressive scale and depth of Eleanor Swift-Hook's skilled storytelling. <br /><i><i><br /></i></i></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-style: italic;"><b>Tony Riches</b></div><div style="font-style: italic;"><br /></div></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"># # #</div><div><div><b>About the Author</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div>Eleanor Swift-Hook enjoys the mysteries of history and fell in love with the early Stuart era at university when she re-enacted battles and living history events with the English Civil War Society. Since then, she has had an ongoing fascination with the social, military and political events that unfolded during the Thirty Years' War and the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. She lives in County Durham and loves writing stories woven into the historical backdrop of those dramatic times. You can find out more about the background of Lord's Legacy on her website <a href="http://www.eleanorswifthook.com.">www.eleanorswifthook.com</a> and find her on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/emswifthook" target="_blank">@emswifthook</a></div><div><br /></div><div>See Also:</div><div><a href="https://tonyriches.blogspot.com/2023/12/book-review-mercenarys-blade-lords.html" target="_blank"><b><br /></b></a></div><div><a href="https://tonyriches.blogspot.com/2023/12/book-review-mercenarys-blade-lords.html" target="_blank"><b>Book Review: The Mercenary's Blade (Lord's Legacy Book 1)</b></a></div></div><p></p>tonyricheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18169101546380473710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122296933621146875.post-69366962275265989582024-02-03T11:37:00.001+00:002024-02-03T11:37:06.400+00:00Book Review: Women of the Anarchy, by Sharon Bennett Connolly ~ A Compelling Narrative with Historical Insight.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbXklzHNsNzxz7zHzdNuca96UayynUW-3vFRn4MllJjfF_XdZsCYiVeXaZn4PrGrMVRfFyyKnsMmEGhV8bb60OqBKsqJt31mhOTTfJV3pm2aDLPDeJ4-tBMyAIvMJd6hYyXjJDTIk2CHULMKYxqxVwojNt83z896Ci6m_jw8xRuhHebJFW2vwiBpKIDiI/s522/Women%20of%20the%20Anarchy%20.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="522" data-original-width="340" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbXklzHNsNzxz7zHzdNuca96UayynUW-3vFRn4MllJjfF_XdZsCYiVeXaZn4PrGrMVRfFyyKnsMmEGhV8bb60OqBKsqJt31mhOTTfJV3pm2aDLPDeJ4-tBMyAIvMJd6hYyXjJDTIk2CHULMKYxqxVwojNt83z896Ci6m_jw8xRuhHebJFW2vwiBpKIDiI/w260-h400/Women%20of%20the%20Anarchy%20.jpg" width="260" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Available from <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Women-Anarchy-Sharon-Bennett-Connolly/dp/144569171X" target="_blank">Amazon UK</a> and </span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">for pre-order <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Women-Anarchy-Sharon-Bennett-Connolly/dp/144569171X" target="_blank">Amazon US</a></span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">The story of the Anarchy from the unique perspective of the two women at the center of the struggle for the crown.</span></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I'd never really understood the civil war known as 'The Anarchy', until now. Sharon Bennett Connolly shows her passion for the subject and her skill at translating meticulous research into a compelling narrative.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">People could be forgive for confusing Empress Matilda or 'Maud' with her cousin, Queen Matilda, wife of the 'usurper', King Stephen. As the surviving legitimate child of King Henry I, Empress Matilda fights for her birthright and that of her children. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Sharon Bennett Connolly<span style="background-color: white; color: #1f1f1f; font-size: 16px; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> avoids portraying these women as pawns or victims, but reveals </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1f1f1f; font-size: 16px; white-space-collapse: preserve;">complex characters, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1f1f1f; font-size: 16px; white-space-collapse: preserve;">driven by ambition,</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1f1f1f; font-size: 16px; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> love,</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1f1f1f; font-size: 16px; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> faith,</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1f1f1f; font-size: 16px; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> and an inspiring determination to take control of their own destinies.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1f1f1f; font-size: 16px; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> We see their vulnerabilities and triumphs,</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1f1f1f; font-size: 16px; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> their moments of weakness and resilience,</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1f1f1f; font-size: 16px; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> creating a deeply human and relatable portrait of these women's lives.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I recommend <i>Women of the Anarchy </i>to anyone with an interest in understanding more about how these remarkable and the often-overlooked women shaped their era and paved the way for those who followed.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></i></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">Tony Riches</span></i></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"># # #</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">About the Author</span></b></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio1gKMoTWbxLv0D3S3TOvKj-XYb8K3O_TQKAxtEog_M88SVe4gbe3iIbZNjwweaxJGXvhrHYN1gA9tq2sxwD3GvdzdVoCKKlpfMbypGHux_4BaOj8XYMUMHMQqoHgph2Oo8PeqnErL2xaY_shs5hhoyowyKYkBFJO0tWbZq2NzVNya2UrxsjyNyF4O/s2399/Sharon%20headshot.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2335" data-original-width="2399" height="194" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio1gKMoTWbxLv0D3S3TOvKj-XYb8K3O_TQKAxtEog_M88SVe4gbe3iIbZNjwweaxJGXvhrHYN1gA9tq2sxwD3GvdzdVoCKKlpfMbypGHux_4BaOj8XYMUMHMQqoHgph2Oo8PeqnErL2xaY_shs5hhoyowyKYkBFJO0tWbZq2NzVNya2UrxsjyNyF4O/w200-h194/Sharon%20headshot.jpeg" width="200" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: inherit;">Sharon Bennett Connolly FRHistS is the best-selling author of 4 non-fiction history books, including <i>Heroines of the Medieval World, Silk and the Sword: The Women of the Norman Conquest, Ladies of Magna Carta: Women of Influence in Thirteenth Century England</i>, and <i>Defenders of the Norman Crown: Rise and Fall of the Warenne Earls of Surrey</i>. A Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, Sharon has studied history academically and just for fun – and has even worked as a tour guide at a castle. She also writes the popular history blog, www.historytheinterestingbits.com. Sharon regularly gives talks on women's history; she is a feature writer for All About History magazine and her TV work includes Australian Television's 'Who Do You Think You Are?' Find out more from <a href="https://historytheinterestingbits.com/" target="_blank">Sharon's Blog</a> and find her on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Thehistorybits/" target="_blank">Facebook</a>, <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/thehistorybits.bsky.social" target="_blank">Bluesky</a> and Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/Thehistorybits" target="_blank">@Thehistorybits</a></span></div></div></div></div>tonyricheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18169101546380473710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122296933621146875.post-32073114523149267442024-02-02T10:16:00.000+00:002024-02-02T10:16:41.742+00:00Book Launch Guest Post by Judith Arnopp, Author of A Matter of Time: Henry VIII, The Dying of the Light (The Henrician Chronicle Book 3)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn8FTvO9U8R4kg3VgU4sbACJ1YWfe6sqY_cHRsIapUwhCdbfpX1C6vlDE7Wv3iNeQtL0-o8xP4cCb-j1dgdfnA9oUkhQwFNKWtBdMPLe4QfThO6XKPjiXysltrx7Uay9WVlfQQw2RK0FUOjAjtkD77Y6vgz-ViZPrKl3_jnPhGMlz8nAFS8D_RJ4TQbyc/s522/A%20Matter%20of%20Time.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="522" data-original-width="331" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn8FTvO9U8R4kg3VgU4sbACJ1YWfe6sqY_cHRsIapUwhCdbfpX1C6vlDE7Wv3iNeQtL0-o8xP4cCb-j1dgdfnA9oUkhQwFNKWtBdMPLe4QfThO6XKPjiXysltrx7Uay9WVlfQQw2RK0FUOjAjtkD77Y6vgz-ViZPrKl3_jnPhGMlz8nAFS8D_RJ4TQbyc/w254-h400/A%20Matter%20of%20Time.jpg" width="254" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Available from <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Matter-Time-Henry-Henrician-Chronicle-ebook/dp/B0CSG8G8YR" target="_blank">Amazon UK</a> and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Matter-Time-Henry-Henrician-Chronicle-ebook/dp/B0CSG8G8YR" target="_blank">Amazon US</a></span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i>With youth now far behind him, King Henry VIII has only produced one infant son and two bastard daughters. More sons are essential to secure the Tudor line and with his third wife, Jane Seymour dead, Henry hunts for a suitable replacement.</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><b>In Defence of Henry<br /></b><br />Most people are aware of Henry VIII’s story but when I began writing The Henrician Chronicle few authors had addressed the events of the reign from the king’s point of view. I have spent four years in Henry’s company. When I wrote the first few pages in the king’s voice, I had no idea how the final books would turn out, but I quickly realised it would be substantially different to other books on the subject.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> <br />The Henrician Chronicle tells the story of his reign as the king himself would have told it. Of course, it is biased in his favour but as the narrator, he is as honest as he can bring himself to be. He makes excuses, he skims over the parts he can’t bear to examine too closely but essentially he gives as honest an account of himself as someone in denial can.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br />I first encountered him around 1971, as an eleven-year-old and since then I have read almost everything ever written about him, the good and the bad. I constantly see him described as a ‘monster’, usually an ‘obese monster’ but his accusers seldom look deeper or consider the events that made him the man he was. I don’t believe in monsters; I believe in ‘monstrous behaviour’ but that is always carried out by human beings. Sadly, every one of Henry’s failings were very human. He was in search of love, admiration and success, as we all are and when things went awry, he struck out, as we all do – the difference was, Henry had greater power and stronger weapons.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> <br />As for being ‘fat’, when did obesity become a crime? The suits of armour that survive were certainly made for a tall man, those from the early part of his reign intended for an athlete to wear. After his activity was restricted due to a jousting injury, and he passed into middle age his girth expanded. Many of us are guilty of that.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPg_kgLo-KzmGhvJvSH5bTIdR1bam7yghWbpTAzKM9fvcr2lfjrsVyX-MHejyx4uyXIUnNrSzmsi6Zpz-wVTzIuf9mXwZjLlktmwdJzVhJg1yilI429XiZKH2ITPsGQZ1hX_Dzpxtq1CWbIRs97bhVei2OCZIjCQ_GRGSKT9eRq5M5glciWM71aJHZiaQ/s1000/henry%20armour%20simon's%20pic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="750" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPg_kgLo-KzmGhvJvSH5bTIdR1bam7yghWbpTAzKM9fvcr2lfjrsVyX-MHejyx4uyXIUnNrSzmsi6Zpz-wVTzIuf9mXwZjLlktmwdJzVhJg1yilI429XiZKH2ITPsGQZ1hX_Dzpxtq1CWbIRs97bhVei2OCZIjCQ_GRGSKT9eRq5M5glciWM71aJHZiaQ/w300-h400/henry%20armour%20simon's%20pic.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Just a few years before he died, he donned his armour and sailed off in search of glory, not just for himself but for England. His intent was to win back areas of France, to repeat the glories of Agincourt. Had he won, we might even be hailing him as a hero today.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> <br />The armour he wore in 1544, three years before his death, is certainly larger than that he wore in his youth, but it still doesn’t suggest he was grossly overweight. He was much closer to death before his weight became debilitating, necessitating him to be carried from room to room in a chair. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">It astonishes me in this day and age when we are supposed to be ‘kind’ and accepting of disability that he is negatively judged for growing old, ill and fat. Obesity is not the sign of a bad character, it is a physical condition, something to be pitied. Obesity does not equate to gluttony – there are many skinny gluttons.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br />I am not one moment suggesting we excuse his many crimes and, hate him if you will for them but please stop with the weight shaming! Perhaps even spare a thought for the golden prince who ascended the throne of England with a huge weight of expectation on his shoulders, expectations that he strove very hard but failed to achieve in almost every instance.<br /><br /><b><i>Judith Arnopp<br /></i></b><br />Judith’s trilogy The Henrician Chronicle, comprising of <i>A Matter of Conscience: Henry VIII, the Aragon Years. A Matter of Faith: Henry VIII, the days of the Phoenix, </i>and <i>A Matter of Time: the Dying of the Light, </i>is available now on Amazon Kindle and paperback.<br /><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://mybook.to/amok">mybook.to/amok</a> <a href="http://mybook.to/amofaith">mybook.to/amofaith</a>. <a href="http://mybook.to/amot">mybook.to/amot</a></div></blockquote><p style="text-align: center;"><b># # #</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>About the Author</b> </p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI8s8F6R71syPOdCMFeScWw_uWBgzdbQ-4N2GtriRorrW3v7VQxQ0sPm1-WlYg4MriIRK1ZdcyXEI0v27qOwTTC9hLUp0y9Le_-HAKbsTrBLsCRc-q33S-emNtD_0RTb6l99RsHTp0bF0M1jBrNV8NyJGRhfkl37bRZzZQkYh58tacXFsoJeFBWGUP_io/s1000/author%20pic%20judith%20pembroke.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="750" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI8s8F6R71syPOdCMFeScWw_uWBgzdbQ-4N2GtriRorrW3v7VQxQ0sPm1-WlYg4MriIRK1ZdcyXEI0v27qOwTTC9hLUp0y9Le_-HAKbsTrBLsCRc-q33S-emNtD_0RTb6l99RsHTp0bF0M1jBrNV8NyJGRhfkl37bRZzZQkYh58tacXFsoJeFBWGUP_io/s320/author%20pic%20judith%20pembroke.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>Judith Arnopp is a lifelong history enthusiast and avid reader with a BA in English/Creative writing and an MA in Medieval Studies. She lives on the coast of West Wales where she writes both fiction and non-fiction. She is best known for her novels set in the Medieval and Tudor period, focussing on the perspective of historical women but recently she has completed a trilogy from the perspective of Henry VIII himself. Judith is also a founder member of a re-enactment group called The Fyne Companye of Cambria which is when she began to experiment with sewing historical garments. She now makes clothes and accessories both for the group and others. She is not a professionally trained sewer but through trial, error and determination has learned how to make authentic looking, if not strictly historically accurate clothing. Her non-fiction book, How to Dress like a Tudor was published by Pen and Sword in 2023. Find out more at Judith's website <a href="http://www.judithmarnopp.com/">www.judithmarnopp.com/</a> and find her on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/juditharnopp">Facebook</a>, <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/jarnopp.bsky.social" target="_blank">Bluesky</a> and Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/JudithArnopp">@JudithArnopp</a><p></p>tonyricheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18169101546380473710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4122296933621146875.post-42475953772230659192024-02-01T09:38:00.001+00:002024-02-01T09:38:38.857+00:00Book Launch Spotlight: Heaven on Earth: The Lives and Legacies of the World's Greatest Cathedrals, by Emma J. Wells<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm4wJnJv3nRxnhMNJkR8EEOPuqT8dmogTrTId29_vqPqgVP9ch5yOqW3H3rVEpP0bG8AsuQZ7Er-bqFxrnVTaCZHwaOZSCvgiJCUsoYYwoO6NqDB-QaROjwF9heNJH8RKEUtAmFHScryXJITsGNz_luY4QC8MNs9WmlqK0NtJYjSk5lwHJFijmoit_wwE/s522/Heaven%20on%20Earth.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="522" data-original-width="340" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm4wJnJv3nRxnhMNJkR8EEOPuqT8dmogTrTId29_vqPqgVP9ch5yOqW3H3rVEpP0bG8AsuQZ7Er-bqFxrnVTaCZHwaOZSCvgiJCUsoYYwoO6NqDB-QaROjwF9heNJH8RKEUtAmFHScryXJITsGNz_luY4QC8MNs9WmlqK0NtJYjSk5lwHJFijmoit_wwE/w260-h400/Heaven%20on%20Earth.jpg" width="260" /></a></div>
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<b style="font-size: x-large;">Available on <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Heaven-Earth-Legacies-Greatest-Cathedrals/dp/1788541952" target="_blank">Amazon UK</a></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: center;"><i>A glorious history of sixteen of the world's greatest cathedrals, interwoven with the extraordinary stories of the people who built them.</i></div><div><br /></div><div>The emergence of the Gothic style in twelfth-century France, characterized by pointed arches, rib vaults, flying buttresses and large windows, forms the central core of Emma Wells's authoritative but accessible study of the golden age of the cathedral. </div><div><br /></div><div>More than architectural biographies, these are human stories of triumph and tragedy that take the reader from the chaotic atmosphere of the mason's yard to the cloisters of power. </div><div><br /></div><div>Together, they reveal how 1000 years of cathedral-building shaped modern Europe, and influenced art, culture and society around the world.</div><div><br /></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"> # # #</div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWH4bB5723BFWLkrJnGeiZGcRd0IYWe-W7DB8OcruqeS6UxI-kXCVBK0rVlsOgl4H83Mvv8PpyPhZfYhGOTCUoeXwIvM_lcPDI5-p4zaEsjo5kXlxmhy0hHRWxoFXMLBYP8uNUc-yIf7lrEpKt-VFw6lVDex-6-MHRuvYbb_2d-m3FFJeu0aE0GgXN-9I/s832/Emma%20J.%20Wells.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="832" data-original-width="640" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWH4bB5723BFWLkrJnGeiZGcRd0IYWe-W7DB8OcruqeS6UxI-kXCVBK0rVlsOgl4H83Mvv8PpyPhZfYhGOTCUoeXwIvM_lcPDI5-p4zaEsjo5kXlxmhy0hHRWxoFXMLBYP8uNUc-yIf7lrEpKt-VFw6lVDex-6-MHRuvYbb_2d-m3FFJeu0aE0GgXN-9I/w246-h320/Emma%20J.%20Wells.png" width="246" /></a></div>Dr Emma Wells is an historian, archaeologist, author, broadcaster and award-winning academic. She is Associate Lecturer at the University of York and an Historic Buildings Consultant. She has a PhD from the University of Durham (soon to be published as a book) and is a regular contributor to television and radio as an expert on pilgrimage. Find out more at <a href="http://www.emmajwells.com/" target="_blank">www.emmajwells.com</a> and you can find Emma on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/dremmajwells/" target="_blank">Facebook </a>and Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/Emma_J_Wells" target="_blank">@Emma_J_Wells</a>.</div>
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