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

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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

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

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from Amazon UK and Amazon US

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

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

Book Review: The Orphan from Verona, by Siobhan Daiko

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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

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

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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

Blog Tour Interview with Karen Essex, Author of Renaissance Rivals: A novel of Isabella d’Este & Lucrezia Borgia

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The story of the brutal rivalry between two of history’s most fascinating power women: Isabella d’Este, Marchesa of Mantua, celebrated in her own lifetime as “The First Lady of the World,” and Lucrezia Borgia, Duchess of Ferrara, daughter of the infamous Pope Alexander VI and one of the most maligned women in history.

I'm pleased to welcome author Karen Essex to The Writing Desk:

Tell us about your latest book.

Renaissance Rivals is a novel about Isabella d’Este and Lucrezia Borgia, two of the most formidable women of the Italian Renaissance. Isabella was celebrated as the First Lady of the World in her own time, while Lucrezia was vilified as a poisoner, seductress, and dangerous daughter of a corrupt pope. When Lucrezia married Isabella’s brother, Alfonso d’Este, the two women became sisters-in-law and rivals for influence within one of Europe’s most powerful families.

Their struggle unfolds through art, fashion, jewels, letters, political alliances, marriage, motherhood, and the affections of powerful men. Beneath the rivalry lies a deeper story about two women determined to shape their own lives in a world that expected them to serve dynastic ambitions.

The novel is also a standalone sequel to Leonardo’s Swans, which introduces Isabella as a young woman and explores her relationship—and rivalry—with her sister, Beatrice d’Este, Duchess of Milan.

What is your preferred writing routine?

I do not write like a normal human being. When I feel I have truly found a story, I tend to work obsessively until I have completed at least a first draft.

A young writer once asked whether I wrote on weekends. I told her that when I am deeply immersed in a project, I take the work with me everywhere, including the bathroom. That answer was only partly a joke.

I have often wished I could develop a calmer and more orderly method. After publishing steadily and also writing extensively for film and television, I have come to accept that intense periods of concentration are part of my process. Sustaining a long career requires discipline. Obsession occasionally proves useful too.

What advice do you have for aspiring writers?

Write something undeniable and make sure it offers something beyond your own experience. Personal material can be powerful, though it still needs shape, insight, conflict, and relevance for the reader.

Be honest about what you are writing and whom you hope to reach. Studying the conventions of your genre is not selling out. It is part of learning the craft, even when you are writing literary fiction.

Revise rigorously. Seek opinions from trusted readers who understand what you are trying to accomplish. Give the work the time it needs. There is no advantage in rushing toward publication before a manuscript is polished and ready to withstand professional scrutiny.

The publishing world receives an enormous amount of material. A strong first impression matters. It is rare for a rejected manuscript to receive a second chance after a rewrite. It can happen, but do not count on it. 

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

Writers have to be willing to use every reasonable avenue available to them. That may include speaking engagements, interviews, podcasts, newsletters, social media, book clubs, festivals, direct outreach, partnerships, and personal appearances.

Millions of books are competing for attention. Publishing a book and hoping readers simply discover it is rarely enough.

Authors should decide what success means to them and then act accordingly. A writer who wants a wide audience must be prepared to participate actively in building that audience. Promotion can feel uncomfortable, especially for those of us who would rather be writing, though I have learned to regard it as presenting work I believe in and allowing readers to decide whether it is for them.

Finally, invest in yourself. If you do not take your own work seriously, others are unlikely to do so. When you commit time, effort, and resources to your growth, people are far more inclined to support you.

Tell us something unexpected you discovered during your research.

I began the project firmly on Team Isabella. I had researched and written about her for Leonardo’s Swans, admired her brilliance, and remained fascinated by her long after finishing that novel.

What surprised me was the depth of compassion I developed for Lucrezia Borgia. The woman behind the legend endured an extraordinary series of political marriages, family betrayals, public humiliations, and personal losses. She was repeatedly used as an instrument of her father’s and brother’s ambitions, yet she survived and eventually established herself as a respected duchess, administrator, patron, and mother.

The more I learned, the less interested I became in choosing a simple heroine and villain. Both women were intelligent, ambitious, vulnerable, and capable of hurting one another. That complexity became far more compelling than the legends surrounding them.

What was the hardest scene you remember writing?

The scenes involving difficult childbirth and the loss of children were the hardest for me to write. Women of that era faced pregnancy and childbirth with a level of danger that is difficult for modern readers to imagine. A dynastic marriage placed enormous pressure on a woman to produce heirs, yet every pregnancy carried the possibility of death for both mother and child.

As a mother, I found those scenes emotionally devastating. Writing them required me to remain close to the historical reality without exploiting the suffering. They tore me to shreds, which may be why they carry so much emotional weight in the novel.

What are you planning to write next?

My next major project is The Silk Rebellion, a six-book epic dystopian romantasy series set in an alternate world where Kleopatra and Marcus Antonius won at Actium and created an empire that survived for two thousand years.

In that world, fashion is power, beauty is law, and a vast information network called The Loom controls public life. The series follows Elissa Valeria, a celebrated designer to the empress, who gradually discovers that the magnificent society she helps sustain is built upon control, surveillance, and fear.

The first book, The Empress’s Cape, begins with Elissa at the height of her influence. She has millions of followers, dresses the most powerful woman in the empire, and believes she understands the system she serves. Then the system turns upon the people she loves. The series combines political intrigue, romance, rebellion, fashion, family conflict, and the question that drives much of my work: how does a woman claim power in a world determined to define her role? It debuts January 10, 2027, and I am eager to get it into readers’ hands. 

Karen Essex

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About the Author

Karen Essex is the bestselling author of RUN, DARLING, KLEOPATRA, PHARAOH, LEONARDO'S SWANS, STEALING ATHENA, DRACULA IN LOVE, AND BETTIE PAGE: LIFE OF A PINUP LEGEND. All feature iconic women—powerful women that seduced the world and ruled it. She is also an active screenwriter and speaker, and an award-winning journalist. She divides her time between Los Angeles, New Orleans, and Europe. Her novels are published in twenty-nine languages. Find pout more at Karen's website: www.karenessex.com and find her on Facebook and Twitter / X: @KarenEssex

Exploring the Life of Sir Francis Drake - Tudor Corsair

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Amazon CA and Amazon AU

1564: Devon sailor Francis Drake sets out on a journey of adventure. He learns of routes used to transport Spanish silver and gold, and risks his life in an audacious plan to steal a fortune.

I’d been planning an Elizabethan series for some time, as my aim was to tell the stories of the Tudors from Owen Tudor’s first meeting with Queen Catherine of Valois through to the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. I decided to show the fascinating world of the Elizabethan court through the eyes of the queen’s favourite courtiers, starting with Francis Drake. I soon discovered much I thought I knew about Drake was wrong, and have enjoyed tracking down primary sources to uncover his true story. Here are some of the less well know facts of his life:

“Winter’s Bark” – An Early Scurvy Cure

When Drake’s fleet entered the Pacific in 1578, scurvy threatened his crew. Amazingly, they found a cure far from home. While overwintering in Patagonia, Drake’s sailing master William Winter noticed local people eating the bark of an evergreen tree (later named Drimys winteri, “Winter’s bark”). Winter traded for some bark and distributed it as a drink to the men. 

Remarkably, almost no one fell ill, and deaths from scurvy were negligible during the entire three-year circumnavigation. This discovery predated James Lind’s famed lemon juice cure by 160 years. Drake’s voyage provided one of the first well-documented European accounts of a working antidote, often overlooked in popular accounts of his voyages.

Loot from the São Filipe Fouhding the East India Company

In the 1587 raid on Cádiz, Drake captured a Portuguese carrack named São Filipe. Besides gold and silks, this ship carried documents detailing the lucrative Asian spice trade. These seized papers, describing Portuguese routes and trade in the East Indies, proved invaluable to English interests. 

The First Fleet of the East India Company departing from Woolwich in 1601.

(Wikimedia Commons

Years after Drake’s raid, these documents would be used as the basis for the founding of the East India Company. Intelligence won by his 'privateering' helped launch England’s empire in India and beyond. This connection between Drake’s spoil and the East India Company is rarely mentioned but appears in both English and Spanish sources.

Chinese Pilots: Navigators of the Pacific

During the same 1578–80 circumnavigation, Drake’s men entered the Pacific and plundered coastal Mexico (New Spain). In March 1579, one of his smaller boats captured a Spanish vessel. That prize proved extraordinary, as the English found nautical charts and two Chinese pilots on board who knew the Pacific waters. These charts and men offered Drake hard intelligence on Spanish trade with Asia.

Drake Crowned King of New Albion

On 17 June 1579, Drake made landfall on the Pacific coast of present-day Northern California. He called the territory “Nova Albion” (“New Britain”) and laid claim to it for England. What few know is the astonishing moment of formal submission: according to Drake’s own chaplain Francis Fletcher, a large assembly of local Coast Miwok people brought gifts and regalia to Drake. 

They placed a white feathered crown on his head and a sceptre in his hand as if he were being proclaimed king. Drake then anchored an engraved plate in the soil, and took possession “for Her Majesty the Queen” (in Latin) of this new land.

Francis Drake was a self-made man, who took great risks to make his fortune. He was looked down on by the nobility as a commoner, even after he was knighted, yet his story is one of the great adventures of Tudor history.

Tony Riches