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22 August 2026

The Tudor’s Road to Bosworth Part 7: The Battle of Bosworth



In this series I have followed the progress of Henry and Jasper Tudor from Pembroke Castle to their long exile in Brittany and return with an army to Wales. Their long march, covering as much as twenty-six miles a day, ended when they encountered King Richard’s army camped at Ambion Hill, close to Sutton Cheyney.

The Battle of Bosworth is poorly documented, with no first-hand accounts surviving. Anything we read about the battle therefore has to be looked at closely to see who wrote it and when. 


I visited the at Bosworth Battlefield Heritage Centre for the special anniversary weekend events, which now attract visitors to the area from all over the world. As well as a re-creation of the march to Bosworth, there was a full scale re-enactment of the battle, complete with the hundreds of archers and the artillery of the Wars of The Roses Society.


It was also fascinating to visit the ‘living history’ encampment and see the soldiers preparing for battle. I spoke to several of them and they take great pride in achieving historical accuracy – even to the extent of sleeping in their flimsy canvas tents overnight, despite the strong winds.


There was a poignant moment as we all held a one-minute silence in memory of the men who died at Bosworth Field.  I’d be interested to know what Henry Tudor would have to say if he knew the battle was still being re-enacted so many centuries after his amazing victory.   

Tony Riches 


See Also:


About the Author: 

Tony Riches is a full-time UK author of historical fiction. He lives with his wife in Pembrokeshire, West Wales and is a specialist in the lives of the early Tudors. As well as his Elizabethan series, Tony’s historical fiction novels include the best-selling Tudor trilogy and his Brandon trilogy, (about Charles Brandon and his wives). For more information about Tony’s books please visit his website tonyriches.com and find him on  Instagram, Bluesky and Twitter/X @tonyriches.

20 August 2026

Author Anna Belfrage Reviews Queen Anna, Book One of the Stuart Queens Trilogy


Available from Amazon UK and Amazon US

A crown won in the eye of a storm. A queen who refuses to be broken... Princess Anna of Denmark sails for Scotland to marry King James VI, but storms ravage her fleet, igniting a deadly obsession with witchcraft in her new home. Arriving in a strange and paranoid court, Anna finds her new husband’s bed is a treacherous place.

Over the last few years, I’ve read my way through Mr Riches books—from the first I picked up about Eleanor Cobham, supposed witch, to this, his most recent release, Queen Anna. It is his first book set in Stuart times, and Anna—or Anne as she is known in English history—is the first Stuart queen, a Danish princess married to James VI of Scotland and I of England. As a Scandinavian, I am rather pleased Mr Riches allows her to keep her real name throughout the book—and I loved the occasional Danish words and sentences.

James is older than Anna. She is a young teenager when they wed in 1589, he is over twenty, well-educated and somewhat paranoid. That’s what happens when you grow up surrounded by regents who have a tendency to die, whether it be murdered, fatally wounded defending James’ crown, or executed. He has also developed a fondness for male favourites, surrounding himself with young, male courtiers.

Mr Riches describes Anna’s first few years in Scotland as difficult. A new language, new customs, a husband she rarely sees and who clearly has no intention of involving her in matters of the state—the latter not entirely surprising, as Anna has seen her mother navigating a similar situation, having been excluded from the regency for her young son when Anna’s father died. However, Anna’s parents had a close relationship, and while Sofia of Mecklenburg had no official say in things, she probably exerted a strong unofficial influences—as queens should. Anna does not.

When Anna realises she is to be excluded from the raising of her children, the relationship with James takes a turn for the worse. At some point, the only thing uniting Anna and James is the final prize: the throne of England.

As always, Mr Riches delivers a well-researched book and presents a female protagonist restricted not only by her gender but also by her role. When her husband lavishes attention on one male favourite after the other, she can do nothing but bear it—or manipulate things so that the favourite he chooses is one in Anna’s debt. In England, they live more or less entirely separate lives. Not even when their eldest son, Henry Frederick, dies, are they united for more than a moment. He reverts to his life, she to hers. It is quite sad, all in all.

Mr Riches gives us a woman who is very much an island unto herself in the bustling court of James I. Yes, she is intensely involved in masques and other entertainments, but other than her loyal female companions, her intimate circle is very small. It includes her surviving daughter and son, but it never includes the man she wed. Not even when she lies on her deathbed does James come to her side. But he did write a pretty poem for her afterwards. Somehow, I think Anna would have preferred a hand to hold on to.

Anna Belfrage

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About the Author

Had Anna been allowed to choose, she’d have become a time-traveller. As this was impossible, she became a financial professional with two absorbing interests: history and writing. Anna has authored the acclaimed time travelling series The Graham Saga, set in 17th century Scotland and Maryland, as well as the equally acclaimed medieval series The King’s Greatest Enemy which is set in 14th century England.  Her Castilian Heart is the third in her “Castilian” series, a stand-alone sequel to her September 2020 release, His Castilian Hawk. Set against the

19 August 2026

Now available for pre-order: Lady of the Castle: A Medieval Epic of Love, Loyalty, and Betrayal (The Nicola de la Haye Series Book 2) by Rachel Elwiss Joyce


Available for pre-order from 

For a woman, holding power in a man's world is dangerous;
holding faith in an intolerant one is deadly.

England, 1185. Nicola de la Haye, constable of Lincoln Castle, commands her fortress with hard-won authority. Determined to protect her family from a kingdom fracturing around her, she discovers the hardest battle is the one inside her own walls.

When the king's chancellor marches an army to her gates and her husband stands accused of treason, Nicola must hold her castle against a siege—and hold her family together against something far harder to fight. As her marriage buckles under the weight of loss, jealousy, and the ghosts of their pasts, Nicola must choose between the walls she has built around herself and the man she has never fully let in.

Miles away, Nicola's Jewish childhood friend Bella has built her world on different foundations: a husband she adores, a strong, vibrant community, and a faith and traditions kept alive despite centuries of persecution. When crusading fervour sweeps the nation, Bella's family is stripped of its fortune and forced to flee to York—only to find themselves trapped in a castle tower by a mob demanding baptism or death.

As King Richard the Lionheart departs for the Holy Land, leaving England to turn on itself, both women face the same impossible question: what do you love enough to sacrifice everything for?

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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

17 August 2026

Special Guest Interview with Nancy Bilyeau, Author of The Heiress of Northanger Abbey


Available for pre-order 

Gloucestershire, 1820: Twenty-two years after the close of Northanger Abbey, Catherine Tilney seems to be living a happily ever after. But her busy life as a clergyman’s wife is shattered by a letter that resurrects her darkest fears. Her daughter Phoebe has fallen under the influence of the unscrupulous Thorpe family—the very figures who once nearly destroyed Catherine’s happiness.

The Heiress of Northanger Abbey, publishing in ebook, paperback, and hardcover on September 1st, Is Nancy Bilyeau’s ninth historical novel. She took the time to answer some questions on her vision for the novel and why Gothic fiction is so important to this story.

Is The Heiress of Northanger Abbey a prequel, a sequel, or a retelling of Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey?

My novel is a sequel to Northanger Abbey. The story takes place from May and August in 1820. The main character is Catherine Tilney—she was Catherine Morland in the original novel, and at the end of the novel she married Henry Tilney—and the novel is written in the first person.

What kind of novel is The Heiress of Northanger Abbey—does it have a plot revolving around a young woman in the marriage market like what Jane Austen focused on? Or is it a murder mystery in which one of the characters is a sleuth?

My novel is not a murder mystery, but the plot is a suspenseful one. And the suspense does come from that Jane Austen preoccupation of marriage motives when it comes to heiresses. Whether it’s Georgiana Darcy in Pride and Prejudice or Miss Grey in Sense and Sensibility, women are targeted by fortune hunters. In Northanger Abbey, a crucial plot point is General Tilney’s mistaken belief that Catherine Morland is an heiress—and what happens when he realizes she is not. 

In my novel, Catherine understands these mercenary hidden motives can cause pain in a young woman’s life, and so when she believes her own daughter, Phoeber, is being targeted, she leaps into action to protect her. Henry, Eleanor, and Frederick Tilney return and so do Isabella and John Thorpe. I also created some new characters, principally Phoebe but also the children of Isabella Thorpe and her mysterious neighbor, Lord Pomeroy, in Dartmoor.

Why did you pick the year 1820 for The Heiress of Northanger Abbey?

Most people believe that the “action” of the original novel took place in 1798. I wanted my story to go forward twenty-two years to a juncture in Catherine’s life when she is about to turn forty and Phoebe is seventeen, the same age Catherine was during Northanger Abbey.

Jane Austen famously wrote during the Regency. Is your book still in the Regency period?
If you want to be technical about it, 1820 was the last year of the Regency, because that was the year George III died and his son became king in his own right instead of ruling the country as a regent. But some people think that the “Regency period,” its culture, fashion, literature, and architecture, lasted until Victoria became queen in 1837.

I found that 1820 was a fascinating year in European history. Countries were recovering from the Napoleonic wars, and the political temperature was quite conservative. It was like a form of reaction going on against the French revolution. In France, Louis XVI’s brother had become king, and Napoleon’s allies were being persecuted. 

Germany and Italy were swinging to the right. In England, the Tory Party had a landslide election. Also, George IV has off to a very bad start. There were hunger and poverty, and yet all he cared about was seeing that his wife, Caroline of Brunswick, didn’t become queen. In my novel, the scandal of the royal marriage is a backdrop running through the plot.

Where does your novel take place? Is Northanger Abbey a real place?

Jane Austen invented Northanger Abbey, the family seat of the Tilney family in Gloucestershire. But , just as with Pemberly in Pride and Prejudice and Mansfield Park, there were real country estates that Jane may have based the places on. She wrote about the physical building of Northanger Abbey in detail, and it was exciting—if a little intimidating—to take that fictional but well rendered place for my novel. 


 2007 British television film adaptation with Felicity Jones and JJ Feild

I took the story to Bath for several important chapters, just as what happens in Northanger Abbey. And the second half of my novel is set in Dartmoor at the fictional home of the husband of Isabella Thorpe. That was one of the most enjoyable things for me—writing the Dartmoor chapters. I tried to make full use of the moors, the mist, the tors, the isolation, and some of the most fascinating local legends. 

What about the Gothic satire part of Northanger Abbey?

Well, that’s why I took the story to Dartmoor! I leaned into the Gothic vibe. Jane Austen was no fan of Gothic fiction, and she created a heroine in Catherine Morland who loved that popular genre and longed to find herself in a Gothic novel like Ann Radcliffe’s Mysteries of Udolpho. Repeatedly Jane Austen made fun of Catherine’s imaginings. And yet…and yet…there are aspects of the plot, like Catherine being put out of Northanger Abbey to fend for herself, that have a Gothic drama flavor to them.

In The Heiress of Northanger Abbey, I have a lot of fun with Gothic atmosphere and the Gothic fiction that was popular in 1820, from Anne Radcliffe’s bestsellers to Matthew Lewis’s The Monk to Dr John Polidori’s The Vampyre.

Is this your first Jane Austen adjacent novel and have you written other sequels or retellings of other writers’ novels?

This is my only foray into the Jane Austen adjacent world, a fascinating place! In my other novels, novellas, and short stories, I create my own characters and worlds. This began as an interesting challenge. Kris Waldherr of Muse Publications asked me if I wanted to be one of the group of authors participating in Once Upon a Gothic. For this special limited collection, each author took a Gothic classic and wrote a retelling from a different point of view or a sequel. For example, Paulette Kennedy wrote The Last Bride, a Dracula adjacent story. 

I thought about it for a long time and decided to write about Northanger Abbey. I’ve been a huge admirer of Jane Austen my whole adult life and her Gothic playfulness in that novel is very interesting. It’s also one of her funniest books. And some scholars say there are strong autobiographical elements in the novel’s treatment of Bath and depiction of Catherine Morland’s family background.

The Heiress of Northanger Abbey was published with the others on Kickstarter in 2025, emphasizing the tactile possibilities of the physical books, producing in tête-bêche format. I received the rights back after the Kickstarter funded and commissioned a new cover. I decided to add a whole new chapter and revise some other parts, and I wrote an “Author’s Note.” I’ve made the novel available for the first time on Amazon, Bookshop.org, Apple, Kobo, and Barnes & Noble, and it can be ordered in ebook, paperback, and hardback.

So far the response pre-publication has been so exciting! Real Simple magazine put it on a list of books “perfect for fall” and BlueInk gave it a star and said, “Bilyeau, an American journalist and editor who has made a career of novels of historically accurate fiction, brings emotional depth and character development to this absorbing narrative.”

Will you continue in the 19th century with your next historical novel?

I may return to it because I enjoyed this process so much, but the novel I am writing right now is Champagne at Midnight, set in 1926 New York City. I wrote the historical mysteries Dreamland and The Orchid Hour as tributes to early 20th century NYC and I continue that direction with the new one, which should be published in 2027.

Nancy Bilyeau

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About the Author

Nancy Bilyeau is the author of the Joanna Stafford trilogy: The Crown, The Chalice, and The Tapestry. The series was published in the UK, North America, Germany, Spain, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Russia, and Denmark. Orion Publishing is re-issuing The Crown and The Chalice in the UK with new covers for the paperback. In North America, the Joanna Stafford trilogy is available in ebook, paperback, hardback and audio formats here.  Nancy lives with her family in the Hudson Valley in New York. Find out more at Nancy's website, NancyBilyeau.com and find her on Facebook, Twitter @Tudorscribe and Bluesky @nancycb.bsky.social

16 August 2026

Special Guest Post By E.L. Ravenheart, Author of The Shadow keeper: Gothic Haunting Tales from Somerset


Available from Amazon UK and Amazon US

In the deep woods of the Great Lakes, skeletal spirits hunt the arrogant. Shapeshifters guard what remains of the wild. Hunger transforms the soul with a single choice. Across the Atlantic, on mist-shrouded moorland where leylines pulse through peat, a barefoot girl walks for two centuries, keeping a covenant her family refused. At standing stones, trickster ravens teach threshold lessons. In dark pools, witnesses become bridges between worlds.

The Inspiration and Research behind the Shadow Keeper

When I moved to North Somerset, I moved into the Old Quarry Master’s house that sits directly across from the old town quarry in Weston-Super-Mare, I remembered standing in the kitchen on that first night, listening to the house settling around me, and thinking that I had never lived somewhere with quite so much silence – and quite so much history pressing in from every direction. I did not know it yet, but that house, and the grounds beneath it, would become the beating heart of The Shadow Keeper.

Inspiration

My mother passed away not long before I began writing this novel, and in the months afterwards, I found myself remembering the stories she used to tell me when I was young. She always seemed to know I was spiritually inclined, and she shared her stories accordingly. My favourties were always the ones about the Bear Walkers – figures she described in a way similar to a grim reaper, shapeshifting presences that moved between worlds. I held onto those stories long after I stopped believing I have ever used them.

Then I had a dream. It was about spirits and generational curses, about the way trauma and legacy can pass silently from one generation to the next, waiting to be acknowledged. When I woke, I knew I wanted to write about the inheritance – and I knew the Bear Walkers needed to be a part of it. But I did not want to simply retell my mothers stories. I wanted to reimagine them, so I decided to give the Bear Walkers a new purpose in The Shadow Keeper. As figures tied to animals and the natural world, rising to honour her stories while making something entirely my own – something inspired by my heritage, rather than a claim to speak for it.

Research and Somerset Discoveries

Once the idea took root, I need to understand the land itself. I spent months visiting museums, haunted tours and libraries, speaking to residents who were generous enough to share their own memories and family lore. That is how I learned that the underground cavern just outside my kitchen was once said to connect to the tunnels leading into the quarry itself- a detail that unsettled and trilled me in equal measures, and once I could not resist weaving into a collection book.

I walked through Weston Woods at dusk more than once, and there’s a particular smell there- iron and damp earth- that I now associate entirely with the mood of this book. I travelled out to Brean Island and Salt bay where the cliffs drop away so steeply that the whole landscape feels like it is holding its breath. I stood on Cheddar Gorge and look toward Glastonbury Tor in the distance, and later returned to watch the sunrise from that same vantage point, the Tor rising through the mist like something out of memory rather than geography.

I visited St. Johns the Baptist church from Frome, wandered through Norton St Philips, and stood at Burrow Mump, thinking about the layers of history resting quietly beneath the grass. I became fascinated with the yew trees found in so many churchyards, with ley lines, with the Moors and marshes that seem to hold their own kind of memory. I went on haunted-history tours, dug through museum archives, and slowly, the land began to feel less like a backdrop and more like a character in its own right.

Turning Research into Fiction

The greatest challenge wan not gathering the history- it was a learning how to let it breathe within the story rather than simply reciting it. St Catherine House in Bath became the model for the fictional house at the centre of the story The Circle of Witham Grange inside the book The Shadow Keeper, I could picture its rooms shifting into something darker, older, and more and more haunted. 

My fictional villages, too, are shaped by real historical periods and unrest, including the later turmoil that followed the execution of King Charles I, a period whose ripple effects are still across Somerset’s landscape and stories. I want to be honest that I am still checking some of the finer historical details before this goes any further, but the emotional truth of the unrest- the sense of a land marked by upheaval- is very much present in the book.

Perhaps the hardest part of writing this novel was bringing together folklore drawn from my own heritage with the folklore and history of England, respectfully and without flattening either. I never wanted to suggest that the Bear Walkers I have written represent all Anishinaabe or Chippewa storytelling- only that they are inspired by the stories passed down to me, reshaped through my own imagination and grief.

An invitation

The Shadow Keeper began as a way to honour my mother, and became something larger: a story about land, memory, and what refuses to stay buried. I hope readers find themselves walking through Somerset’s woods and marshes right along the characters, feeling the same mixture of unease and wonder I felt while researching every page.

Thank you for joining me on this journey.

E.L. Ravenheart

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About the Author

E.L. Ravenheart is a gothic fiction author with roots in the Indigenous Chippewa Nation (USA). Since relocating to the United Kingdom in 2012, Ravenheart has been writing from Weston-Super-Mare, where Somerset haunted landscapes and layered histories intertwine with Indigenous storytelling traditions. Her work blends psychological depth, atmospheric tension, and the supernatural, drawing on cultural inheritance rich in symbolism and reverence for the unseen.  The Shadow Keeper is among her interconnected works exploring liminal spaces where memory, myths, and the past press insistently against the present. Find out more at https://elravenheart.co.uk/ and find the author on Instagram and  Bluesky elravenheart.bsky.social

14 August 2026

Book Review: The Orphan from Verona, by Siobhan Daiko


Available from 

Verona, 1944. When an air raid strikes Elisa's home, she is left with nothing but the clothes on her back, the teddy bear clutched in her arms and her beloved older brother. Traumatised into silence, six-year-old Elisa can no longer speak and relies on Robi to guide her through this war-torn world.

Siobhan Daiko’s The Orphan from Verona balances human drama with an atmospheric sense of a city steeped in history. Set against the lingering shadows of the past, the novel offers an immersive exploration of identity and family secrets.

At the heart of the novel is a cast of compelling, related characters, and their journey through grief and personal awakening. Their relationships are portrayed with sensitivity, capturing the tension between desire and duty.

I particularly liked the details of life in occupied Verona, the counterpoint of past and present storylines and interwoven character arcs. The gradual revelation of secrets keeps readers guessing, as the plot unfolds at an engaging pace, weaving together intimate, character-driven moments with elements of mystery. 

The Orphan from Verona is a well-paced, memorable novel with a sophisticated narrative that explores the complexities of human resilience. Highly recommended.

Tony Riches

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About the Author

Siobhan Daiko is a British historical fiction author. A lover of all things Italian, she lives in the Veneto region of northern Italy with her husband, a Havanese dog and a Siberian cat. Siobhan was born of English parents in Hong Kong, attended boarding school in Australia, and then moved to the UK — where she taught modern foreign languages in a Welsh high school. She now spends her time writing page-turners and living the dolce vita sweet life near Venice. Her novels are compelling, poignant, and deeply moving, with strong characters and evocative settings, but always with romance at their heart. You can find more about her books on her website www.siobhandaiko.org and follow her on Facebook and Twitter @siobhandaiko

13 August 2026

Book Review: Queen Elizabeth I's Governess: The Real Kat Ashley by Rosemary Griggs


Available for pre-order from

Some of the most intriguing people in Tudor history are those who stood outside the spotlight. Katherine 'Kat' or Kate Ashley is one of these. Best known as the governess and confidante of Queen Elizabeth I, she played a pivotal role in the future queen's life, yet is overshadowed by more famous figures around her. 

In Queen Elizabeth I's Governess: The Real Kat Ashley, Rosemary Griggs sets out to change that with a thoroughly researched and engaging biography.

I particularly liked the extracts from letters and contemporary accounts, as researching someone like Kat Ashley is a real challenge. Much of her life has to be inferred from the correspondence of others. It takes persistence and an historian's instinct to piece together fragments into a convincing narrative.

The structure of the book reflects those challenges. The first part sets the scene, exploring on the Tudor world and the Ashley family, providing some context for a woman whose early life remains largely undocumented. Part two picks up the pace as Kate enters Princess Elizabeth's household. 

Rosemary Griggs paints a convincing and nuanced portrait of a woman who was more than a governess. Kate Ashley was a teacher, mentor, protector and trusted companion, remaining loyal through some of the most dangerous years of Elizabeth's life. The chapters covering the Thomas Seymour affair are well handled, presenting the available evidence with balance.

The last part of the book shifts gear again as Elizabeth becomes queen. Kate Ashley appears less frequently in the surviving records, but Rosemary Griggs demonstrates how her influence remained significant.

This biography serves as a reminder of how people behind the scenes often shaped events in ways that are easily overlooked. Rosemary Griggs deserves credit for the painstaking research that underpins this book, as well as for producing a narrative that remains accessible throughout.

Queen Elizabeth I's Governess: The Real Kat Ashley is recommended for anyone interested in Tudor history. More importantly, it allows Kate Ashley the recognition she deserves, transforming her from a familiar name in the footnotes into a remarkable woman whose influence on England's greatest queen must not be underestimated.

Tony Riches

I would like to thank the publishers, Pen and Sword History, for providing a review copy of this book.

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About the Author

Author and speaker Rosemary Griggs has been researching Devon's sixteenth-century history for years. She has discovered a cast of fascinating characters and an intriguing network of families whose influence stretched far beyond the West Country. She loves telling the stories of the forgotten women of history — the women beyond the royal court; wives, sisters, daughters and mothers who played their part during those tumultuous Tudor years: the Daughters of Devon. Her novel A Woman of Noble Wit tells the story of Katherine Champernowne, Sir Walter Raleigh’s mother, and features many of the county’s well-loved places. The Dartington Bride, published March 2024, is the extraordinary tale of Lady Gabrielle Roberda Montgomery who travelled from France to Elizabethan England to marry into the prominent and well-connected Champernowne family. Rosemary creates and wears sixteenth-century clothing, a passion which complements her love for bringing the past to life through a unique blend of theatre, history and re-enactment. Her appearances and talks for museums and community groups all over the West Country draw on her extensive research into sixteenth-century Devon, Tudor life and Tudor dress, particularly Elizabethan. Out of costume, Rosemary leads heritage tours of the gardens at Dartington Hall, a fourteenth-century manor house and now a a historic visitor destination, events venue and thriving community of businesses, colleges and more. You can find out more on Rosemary’s website:  https://rosemarygriggs.co.uk/ and follow her on Bluesky and Twitter @RAGriggsauthor