Why has Anne been given a pet ape, Endy, as a twelfth birthday present by her grasping cousin, Young John? Can she solve the riddle before he does, and use it to stop him accusing their grandmother, the Lady Elizabeth, of witchcraft and of harbouring a priest? Helped by Endy, her friends Lizzie and Robert, and the pirate Captain Heynes, Anne searches the passageways and walls of her family home, Athelhampton, to reveal their secrets and solve the riddle.
You can visit Athelhampton and take a selfie at the door where Anne’s great-great grandfather placed the single rose of Henry VII or warm yourself by the flames in the Great Hall fireplace where she ate her dinner. This has been a family home since the days after Bosworth Field and when I arrived five years ago and learned about Anne, youngest of Sir Nicholas Martyn’s four daughters who lived here in the 1580s, I could almost hear her footsteps echoing from the staircases and secret passages and knew I had to write a book about her.
Athelhampton House
Anne grew up as a Catholic at a time when Queen Elizabeth was tightening religious laws, but the real threat came from other family members. Her cousin ‘Young’ John had a long-running dispute with her father over an inheritance and had no scruples about exposing his closest relatives’ priests to the authorities, or using armed thugs in a pitched battle, if that would get him what he wanted.
Chidiock Tichborne
Anne’s brother-in-law Chidiock Tichborne also drew unwanted attention, though he was influenced by naive fanaticism rather than personal greed when he became a Babington plotter and tried to kill Queen Elizabeth I, writing a famous poem the night before his execution.
These are historical facts from the archives, offering fertile material to be expanded into historical novels – at times, it seems to me that the “Anne of Athelhampton” books almost write themselves! Especially since after he tragically lost all his sons to childhood illness, Sir Nicholas took the bold decision to leave his house and fortune to his surviving daughters. Anne was the only one still unmarried at the time when the books are set and her prospective inheritance was a powerful attraction to suitors – desirable and undesirable.
Of an evening at Athelhampton as the gloaming deepens, I’m reminded of the many ghost stories about the house, which was chosen to be the first location in the TV series “Most Haunted.” In one of these tales, a lovelorn young woman hides in a secret room behind the panelling and is followed by her ape.
They cannot escape and sadly die there, but the pet is said to walk the corridors before disappearing into the wall. Echoing this story, there are still a number of secret rooms at Athelhampton built to hide priests; the ape is the Martyn family symbol and appears on their coat of arms throughout the house; and there was a famous local pirate thriving while Anne was growing up, who used to bring apes home from his voyages to give away as pets. Irresistible material for the books!
The Great Hall
“Anne of Athelhampton and the Riddle of the Apes” came out a couple of years ago and tells how Anne and her ape Endy face down Young John. “Anne of Athelhampton and the Queen’s Pearl’s” appeared last year and focuses on Anne’s dealings with Chidiock which eventually take her all the way from Dorset to London.
The third volume “Anne of Athelhampton and the Tincture of Roses” is in preparation. All are illustrated by local artist Noah Warnes, who I worked with closely as he captured the excitement of Anne and her friends as they unravel the clues that run through each book and the dangers they face from characters like the pugilistic Walter Bearde and the dissembling William Arundel.
Giles Keating
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About the Author
Giles Keating fell in love with Athelhampton when he first arrived at its ancient riverside setting amidst Dorset’s rolling hills, and he became part of the team that welcomes visitors to its Tudor house and classic gardens. Giles worked for several decades as an economist at the University of London and in the City, crunching numbers and meeting people from all over the world, to try and get some insight into where the great events of the time might lead – the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the rise of the internet, the growth in the power of China, the looming climate disaster. Find out more
from https://www.historichouses.org/house/athelhampton-house-gardens/visit/
