Book Launch Guest Post: Desiderius Erasmus: The Folly or Far Sightedness of Renaissance Europe's Greatest Mind, by Amy McElroy

Available for pre-order

from Amazon UK and Amazon US

One cannot discuss the Renaissance without coming across the name of Desiderius Erasmus. He was renowned for scholarship, views on education, religion, and conduct. Erasmus found himself in the midst of the religious debate in Europe during the sixteenth century and regardless of where his path led he would find himself subject to praise and scrutiny.

Desiderius Erasmus has been a source of interest and research for many years and the scholar remains an important influence of religion and education today, but who was he?

There is nothing simple about the life of Desiderius Erasmus. His place and year of birth are just two of the issues that raise questions about his life. He has at least two places who claim the honour of his birth, Gouda and Rotterdam. His birth can be narrowed to 1466-1469, some claim Erasmus manipulated his birth year to either conceal the circumstances of his birth or claim he was too young to make life altering decisions. Even his name can sometimes be a matter of debate. 

At the time of his birth it was common for children to take on the name of their father as their surname. Erasmus was the illegitimate son of Gerard Helias and Margareta Roger, therefore one may expect his name to have been Desiderius Gerard, but he was given the sole name of Erasmus, possibly after Saint Erasmus whom his father paid respects to on more than one occasion. Erasmus himself added Desiderius to his name but throughout his life he referred to himself as Erasmus.

Erasmus wrote his Compendium Vitae as an abridgement of his life, which he referred to as ‘An Iliad of Woes’. Erasmus claims his father was one of many sons and therefore was volunteered for the Church; a common practice in families with multiple children. Gerard instead left Rotterdam, and Margareta, and travelled to Rome where he worked as a scribe. 

His family informed him Margareta had died which drove him to take his vows and return to Rotterdam only to find their deception, Margareta was very much alive and with a baby, Erasmus. Having taken his vows the couple remained apart.

Erasmus began his schooling at a young age and was not initially the proficient scholar we may have expected but when he moved to a school in Deventer he fell in love with the Latin language. Sadly, when he was still a boy his parents died within a year of each other and he was left at the mercy of his guardians, whom he blamed for mismanaging his inheritance leaving him penniless and with no prospects other than entering a monastery. 

Erasmus dreamed of attending university but with no funds left he had no choice and instead entered a monastery at Stein, under the rule of Saint Augustine. Due to periods of il-health as a youth, Erasmus was granted leniency with some rules, including skipping some services and eating meat on fast days. He also made extensive use of the monastery library and influenced others to study.

He eventually took his vows and became a Augustinian Canon Regular but his saving grace came in 1493 when his skill in Latin were noted by Henry Bergen, Bishop of Cambrai. Bergen was chasing his own dream of obtaining a cardinal’s hat and intended to travel to Rome. He needed a Latin secretary and who better than Erasmus.

John III of Glymes and Henry of Bergen kneeling with their patron saints

Erasmus was taken into the bishops service and escaped the cloisters but this was only the beginning of his life outside the monastery.

Bergen’s plan for to travel to Rome never transpired and he was persuaded to allow Erasmus to enrol at Collège de Montaigu, Paris, and to pay for his education. This was what Erasmus had dreamed of but soon after arrival he realised it was not the experience he had imagined. Lectures bored him, conditions appalled him, and the funds promised to him to meet the costs of attendance were not received. 

He was soon tutoring young men to make ends meet, specifically English men that had travelled to Paaris to further their education. Amongst those would be some of his most loyal and generous patrons, including William Blount, 4th Baron Mountjoy. Mountjoy would become his gateway to England and introduce him to those who would become his closest friends and allies.

His first of many trips to England took place in 1499, and on this occasion, he would meet Thomas More and John Colet, both would remain influential throughout their lives.

John Colet, Dean of St Paul’s.

Over the next decades, Erasmus would travel across Europe, staying with friends, discovering manuscripts, and seeking patronage. He would become a friend to kings, princes, popes, and cardinals but he also made enemies.

He produced a huge number of texts including a translation of the New Testament. Many of his works were praised but the New Testament was amongst those that caused controversy and a series of religious debates. The later debates between Erasmus and Martin Luther are well known but Luther was not his only critic, 

Erasmus received criticism from many over the years. He was named a coward and insulted for his opinions and writing. He was bullied in attempts to make him choose sides as the Reformation began to spread but he remained a Catholic to his death.

Erasmus was anything but a coward, he stood alone in a storm that engulfed him, refusing to placate either side. Friends supported him but enemies attempted to diminish his efforts. He only wrote what he believed in and once wrote ‘I write what will live forever’, in that he was correct, but he also wrote ‘my books will be read in every country in the world’, a prophecy that he would no doubt be proud came true. 

Having spent many months researching Erasmus I find him a fascinating man who was not afraid to write about what he believed in. He held strong opinions about education which brought him into the confines of the humanist circle, but in doing so he also angered many with his views on education and religion.

Erasmus was much more than a scholar, he published extensively, many works are still printed today and some of his quotes have passed through the ages so that today, many are repeated without the knowledge they originated with him. 

My aim of writing about Erasmus was to show that although he receives conflicting commentary, both during his life and after, he was steadfast in his beliefs and I hope to have done the greatest scholar of all time justice in my book, Desiderius Erasmus: The Folly or Far Sightedness of Renaissance Europe’s Greatest Mind.

Amy McElroy

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About the Author

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, Educating the Tudors, was published in January 2023 and focuses on the education of all classes, the subjects they learned and who taught them. Her second book, Women’s Lives in the Tudor Era is out February 2024 and she is currently writing her third book, Mary Tudor, Queen of France. Amy also has a fourth, Desiderius Erasmus, in the pipeline, with a few more ideas up her sleeves for the future. You can find out more about Amy at her blog - https://amymcelroy.blog/ and follow her on Facebook and Twitter @AmyMc_Book

Special Guest Interview with Amy McElroy, Author of Women's Lives in the Tudor Era

Available from Amazon UK

and Amazon US

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'm pleased to welcome author Amy McElroy back to The Writing Desk to talk about her book, Women’s Lives in the Tudor Era:

Tell us about your book

When writing Educating the Tudors, 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. 

The end result is Women’s Lives in the Tudor Era. 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.

 
What is your preferred writing routine?

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.

What advice do you have for new writers?

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.

What have you found to be the best way to raise awareness of your books?

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 Talking Tudors Podcast 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.

Tell us something unexpected you discovered during your research

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.

Amy McElroy

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About the Author

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, Educating the Tudors, was published in January 2023 and focuses on the education of all classes, the subjects they learned and who taught them. Her second book, Women’s Lives in the Tudor Era is out February 2024 and she is currently writing her third book, Mary Tudor, Queen of France. Amy also has a fourth, Desiderius Erasmus, in the pipeline, with a few more ideas up her sleeves for the future.
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 - https://amymcelroy.blog/ and follow her on Facebook, Twitter @AmyMc_Books and Bluesky undefine

Book Review: The Turncoat’s Revenge (Lord's Learning Book 3) by Eleanor Swift Hook

Available for pre-order

from Amazon UK and Amazon US

Spring 1628: England is at war with France as the rest of Europe consumes itself in increasingly bitter conflict. n Dunkirk, Philip Lord, disgraced adventurer, has a new ship and through it the chance to gain enough from his privateering to follow his guiding star. But when he must risk everything to rescue a fellow Dunkirker at sea, he and the ever-loyal Jorrit are thrown into mortal danger.

The Turncoat’s Revenge continues the ‘Lord's Learning’ prequel to Eleanor Swift Hook’s ‘Lord’s Legacy’ series. exploring the consequences of divided loyalty. From several points of view we examine what it means to navigate duty and desire when the stakes are high and the path forward is anything but clear.

Although this is a work of historical fiction, I was impressed by the skill with which real historical figures and events are seamlessly woven into the tapestry of the story. As well as grounding the narrative with immersive period detail, these reak events provide the characters with a compelling context.

Having read the ‘Lord’s Legacy’ series, I also enjoyed the layers of back story which continue to be revealed. At times brutal and even shocking action reminds readers of the challenges of the era, and make this boo a real ‘page turner.’ Highly recommended.

Tony Riches

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About the Author

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 www.eleanorswifthook.com and find her on Twitter @emswifthook

See Also:

Book Review: The Mercenary's Blade (Lord's Legacy Book 1)

Book Launch Guest Post by Nicola Harris, Author of Infidel: The Daughters of Aragon (Six Tudor Queens)

Available from Amazon UK and Amazon US

A princess. A survivor. A daughter of Aragon.  Born in the glittering courts of Castile and Aragon and forged in the shadow of war, Catalina de Aragón grows up surrounded by queens, rebels, and ghosts. She is her mother’s last daughter, the final jewel of a dynasty built on conquest and faith, and the one child Isabella of Castile cannot bear to lose. But destiny has already claimed Catalina.

The Research and Inspiration Behind Infidel: The Daughters of Aragon By Nicola Harris

My research for Infidel began long before I ever thought of writing a novel about Catherine of Aragón. It began on a beach in Tenerife, years before tourism transformed the island. To a child, it felt like another world. The light, the heat, the colours, the food, the rhythm of life. 

I was fortunate enough to spend a great deal of time with a Spanish family who welcomed me into their home and their culture year after year. They taught me fragments of their language and, more importantly, the stories that shaped their history. Through them, I first encountered the world of Muslim Spain and the Catholic warrior monarchs who fought to reclaim it. It was impossible not to be fascinated.

Catalina’s mother, Isabella of Castile, stood out immediately. She was disciplined, relentless, and utterly convinced of her divine purpose. She was also a mother raising her children in a kingdom defined by conflict. 

Isabella I of Castile (1451-1504), queen of Castile and León.

That tension between power and vulnerability became the foundation of my interest in Catalina’s early life. Before she was a queen, she was a child shaped by siege warfare, political ambition, and the expectations of a dynasty that demanded strength from its daughters.

Portrait by Juan de Flandes thought to be of 11-year-old Catherine. 

As I began to research more deeply, I found myself drawn to the wider world that touched Catalina’s childhood. I have always been captivated by the fall of Constantinople and the Turkish Sultan Mehmed II’s audacious plan to take the city. 

On a trip to Turkey a few years ago, I spoke with a Turkish waiter about his view of the sultan. His pride and respect for Mehmed stayed with me. It reminded me that history is never simple. Every figure we study has another side, another story, another set of loyalties and beliefs. 

That conversation helped me approach the period with a wider lens, aware that the Christian and Muslim worlds were not simply enemies but complex civilisations with their own brilliance and contradictions.

Juana of Castile, Catalina’s older sister, became a vital part of the novel for this reason. She is often reduced to the label Juana the Mad, but she was far more than that. In Infidel, Juana allows me to explore the moral questions surrounding the Muslim wars and the Inquisition. 

She is outspoken, intelligent, and unwilling to accept cruelty as the natural cost of faith. Through her, I could give voice to the discomfort a modern reader might feel when confronted with the punishments and persecutions of the age. Without revealing too much, Juana’s own journey takes her far from home, and the emotional cost of that distance shapes her view of the world.

Her brother Juan was married to Margaret of Austria, who is frequently remembered for educating Anne Boleyn. What is less often acknowledged is that long before Anne ever entered Margaret’s household, Catalina was already connected to Margaret by family.

In Infidel, those family connections matter. It reminds us that Catalina did not exist only in relation to Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. She belonged to a wider European network of women whose lives, loyalties, and alliances shaped the courts that Anne would later enter.

There is a great deal of sadness in this story, because there was a great deal of sadness in Catalina’s early life. She lost people she loved. She witnessed the brutality of war. She learned to read cyphers and how to read hearts. She watched her parents arguing over her father’s love affairs. She learned to stand firm even when everything around her was shifting. 

Her childhood was not soft or sheltered. It was an ordeal. She came face to face with native Americans who were snatched from their land and brought to the palace. I wanted to understand what forged her, what hardened her, and what gave her the strength she carried into England. Her resilience did not appear by magic. It was earned.

Infidel grew from all these threads: my early love of Spain, my fascination with the fall of Constantinople, my respect for the complexity of the period, my interest in the overlooked connections between women like Catalina and Margaret of Austria, and my desire to show Catalina not as a symbol but as a girl shaped by fire. 

She was fierce, vulnerable, determined, and unforgettable long before she became a Tudor queen. I wanted to bring that girl to life. I wanted to show the sisters who stood beside her, the world that formed her, and the dynasty that demanded so much from its daughters.

Nicola Harris

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About the Author

Nicola Harris has been a lifelong enthusiast of Tudor history, with a particular fondness for castles, queens, and the emotional undercurrents of court life.  Before illness changed her path, she worked with children as a Nursery Nurse. Nicola was an Aid worker in Romania for the BBC's Blue Peter Appeal in the early 1990s, Writing became a lifeline when she became seriously ill and was diagnosed with a genetic disability. Although she will  never “get better,” Nicola has completed three novels with a fourth in the pipeline. She lives in England with her husband and has two adult children—none of whom share her historical obsession, but who have endured countless castle visits with admirable patience (and the occasional ice cream bribe). Find out more at Nicola's website: https://nicolaharrisauthor.com and find her on Twitter @harris_nic59544

Book Review: Dynasties: The Noble Families of England by Patrick Coleman

Available from Amazon UK and Amazon US

With origins in the powerful earldoms of the Saxon period, the aristocracy is woven into the fabric of England. Going from Tudor and Stuart courtiers to Georgian and Victorian magnates, the noble families more recently suffered a decline before their rise from the ashes as guardians of heritage

Patrick Coleman focuses on the stories and myths behind the families who shaped English history from the medieval period to modern times, so the book is more like a collection of historical narratives than a reference guide.

The author admits in his introduction that his selection of families and stories is subjective, but I found the chapters on some of the less well-known families interesting. The book also examines how the fortunes of these ‘Dynasties’ related to events in British history. 

There is also some discussion of how their estates still shape popular ideas of British aristocracy, from Longleat Safari Park to TV dramas like Downton Abbey.

Dynasties: The Noble Families of England is an informative introduction to the world of the English aristocracy for anyone interested in the powerful families who helped shape the country’s past.

Tony Riches

I would like to thank the publishers, Amberley, for providing a review copy.

Book Launch Guest Post by Rachel Elwiss Joyce, Author of Lady of Lincoln: A Novel of Nicola de la Haye, the Medieval Heroine History Tried to Forget (The Nicola de la Haye Series Book 1)

Available from Amazon UK and Amazon US

A true story. A forgotten heroine. In a time when women were told to stay silent, could she become the saviour her people need? 12th-century England. Nicola de la Haye wants to do her duty. But though she’s taught a female cannot lead alone, the young noblewoman bristles at the marriage her father has arranged to secure her inheritance. And when an unexpected death leaves her unguided, the impetuous girl shuns the king’s blessing and weds a handsome-but-landless knight.

Lady of Lincoln and Today’s Anniversary of the Start of the Great Rebellion 1173-4

The Night Everything Changed

5 March 1173. King Henry II's birthday celebration at Chinon Castle blazed with torchlight and wine. The great hall rang with laughter as father and son—the old king and Henry the Young King—made their public reconciliation. Courtiers toasted. Musicians played. Their earlier rupture seemed healed.

But precisely 853 years ago to this day, in the dark hours before dawn on 6 March 1173, while the royal household slept off their drunkenness, the young king slipped through the castle gates and rode hard with his companions for Paris.

Henry II

By morning, England's future had split open. Within weeks, the kingdom would descend into the brutal civil war we now call the Great Rebellion of 1173–74—a conflict that would cost countless lives and tear families apart.

What the Chroniclers Didn't Tell You

The medieval chroniclers followed kings and magnates across battlefields and courts. They recorded troop movements, sieges, diplomatic manoeuvres. What they rarely recorded were the consequences for everyone else—the people whose lives were upended by decisions made in royal councils, whose lands became battlegrounds, whose futures hung on which army prevailed.

They especially ignored the women.

But women didn't cease to exist during civil wars. They didn't stop managing estates, protecting dependents, or making impossible choices when their world fractured around them. They just didn't make it into the chronicles—unless they did something truly extraordinary.

An Inheritance Already Under Siege

By 1173, Nicola de la Haye wasn't waiting to inherit. She already held her family's barony and the hereditary constableship of Lincoln Castle—one of the most strategically vital royal fortresses in England. These weren't future expectations. They were working realities: estates to manage, villagers depending on her protection, a castle forming part of the king's defensive network.

She was young, she was married, and she understood her world's rules. But the inheritance was hers. Not her husband's. Hers.

The problem? Her husband assumed the title of Baron and Constable in her name. And when civil war erupted, he chose the Young King's cause, being one of those very companions of the Young King who had ridden into the French King’s arms. 

Suddenly Nicola faced a nightmare: her husband in rebellion, her inheritance threatened, her people exposed to violence. Should she remain loyal to the man she'd married, or to the birthrights and responsibilities that were hers alone?

Caught Between Loyalty and Survival

The medieval world didn't offer women many choices. But Nicola de la Haye wasn't like most women. She couldn't abandon her villagers to slaughter or starvation. She couldn't let the old king's agents strip away her family's legacy. And she certainly couldn't let her husband's choices destroy everything she'd been born to protect.

This was the woman who would later hold Lincoln Castle against a French invasion—the woman William Marshal himself would call "so brave a lady" that it would be dishonourable not to ride to her aid. Even in her youth, trapped between a rebelling husband and a suspicious king, Nicola found her path.

Lady of Lincoln tells that story—the story the chroniclers missed. The early years of a young woman who would become known as "the woman who saved England," tested by a brutal civil war she never chose, forced to make decisions that would define her life.

Remembering the Edges of Rebellion

On this anniversary of the day Henry the Young King slipped away from his father's court under cover of darkness, it's worth remembering something the chroniclers rarely acknowledged: civil wars aren't only fought by those men at the top who start them.

Henry the Young King 

They're also lived by those who must hold estates together while the ground shifts beneath them. By those who must keep people fed, justice functioning, defences maintained—even as armies march and loyalties fracture.

And so often, they were lived by women like Nicola de la Haye: women who held everything together while the men who claimed authority tore it apart.

Lady of Lincoln explores the early life of Nicola (also known as Nicholaa) de la Haye against the backdrop of the Great Rebellion—a devastating conflict born of Henry II's bitter struggles with his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine and their sons. It's a story of inheritance and identity, of impossible choices and iron will, and of a young woman learning to command in a world that wanted her silent.

Rachel Elwiss Joyce

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About the Author

After a rewarding career in the sciences, Rachel returned to her first love—history and the art of storytelling. Fascinated by the women history neglected, or tried to forget, she creates meticulously researched, emotionally resonant fiction that brings her characters’ stories vividly to life. Her fascination with the past began early. At six years old, she was already inventing tales about medieval women in castles, inspired by her treasured Ladybird books and other picture-rich stories that transported her to another time. By the time she discovered Katherine by Anya Seton as a teenager, she knew the joy and escape that only great historical fiction can bring. Rachel’s two grown-up children still tease her (fondly) about childhoods spent being “dragged” around castles, archaeological sites, and historical re-enactments. For Rachel, history and imagination have always gone hand in hand.There was, however, a long gap between the stories of her childhood and her decision to write her own novel. The spark came when she discovered the remarkable true story of Nicola de la Haye—the first female sheriff of England, who defended Lincoln Castle against a French invasion and became known as “the woman who saved England.” Rachel knew she had found her heroine, and a story she was destined to tell. Rachel lives in the UK, where she continues to explore the lives of women who shaped history but were left out of its pages. Lady of Lincoln is her debut novel, the first book in her Nicola de la Haye Series, with sequels to follow. Find out more at www.rachelelwissjoyce.com and find Rachel on Facebook and 

X/ Twitter: @RachelElwJoyce

Book Review: Missing... Rose Malone, by Linda Huber

Available from Amazon UK and Amazon US

Josiane Kent is worried. Her friend Rose has posted zero photos on social media all week, despite being on holiday in Edinburgh, the most photogenic city ever. Not only that, she isn’t answering her phone. Something isn’t right. Josiane, along with Rose’s on-off boyfriend Matt and Val, Rose’s boss, starts investigating.

Linda Huber’s new thriller Missing… Rose Malone is a psychological suspense mystery with emotional depth – and a steadily tightening sense of unease. 

The story is full of clues to keep readers guessing, and explores how a single traumatic event ripples through interconnected lives and relationships. 

Strong characters and authentic realism strengthen the impact, as readers become invested in the outcome of the mystery and the personal arcs within the narrative.

Missing… Rose Malone is an engaging and well-constructed thriller that will appeal to readers who appreciate character-driven mysteries with strong psychological elements. Does it end with a surprising twist? You will have to read it to find out.

Tony Riches

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About the Author

Linda Huber grew up in Glasgow, Scotland, but went to work in Switzerland for a year aged twenty-two, and has lived there ever since. Her day jobs have included working as a physiotherapist in hospitals and schools for handicapped children, and teaching English in a medieval castle. Linda’s writing career began in the nineties, when she had over fifty feel-good short stories published in women’s magazines. Her newest project is a series of feel-good novels set in her home area on the banks of Lake Constance in N.E. Switzerland. She really appreciates having the views admired by her characters right on her own doorstep! Find out more at Linda's website https://lindahuber.net/ and find her on Facebook, Twitter @LindaHuber19 and Bluesky @lindahuberauthor.bsky.social