Special Guest Interview with Samantha Grosser, Author of The King James Men

New on Amazon UK and Amazon US

England 1604: Faith, treason, love, betrayal

Two men, once friends, have long since gone their separate ways. But when the new King James commands a fresh translation of the Bible, their paths are fated to cross again.

Today I'm pleased to welcome historical novelist Samantha Grosser to The Writing Desk

Tell us about your latest book

Connected by love, divided by faith. The King James Men is novel of friendship, faith and betrayal during the religious upheavals of 17th Century London. In the turbulent years of the early 17th Century, King James commands a new translation of Bible. For scholar Richard Clarke, the chance to be involved seems like a gift from God, until he discovers there is a price to be paid, and that price is betrayal. Caught between love for a friend and his faith in his Church, he must soon make a choice that could cost him his soul.

Set against the writing of the King James Bible, and inspired by true accounts of the people who became the Mayflower Pilgrims, The King James Men is a vivid portrayal of the religious struggles of the age and the price of being true to your faith.

What is your preferred writing routine?

In an ideal world, I’d get up early and go for a walk somewhere beautiful and inspiring, before returning to my desk for a morning’s writing. I’m usually pretty spent creatively by lunchtime, so I like to spend the afternoon attending to the business aspects of life as an author.

What advice do you have for aspiring writers?

Read, read, read. Write, write, write. Do it because you love it, even when its hard. And learn to take criticism on the chin – it’s something you’re going to have to get used to.

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

I’m still working this one out! Blog tours, obviously. Ads on Amazon. Goodreads. And spreading the word via social media.

Tell us something unexpected you discovered during your research.

Gosh, where to begin? I started off with an idea to write about the translation of the King James Bible. But the challenge was to create a compelling novel within that story, and in the mountains of research I collected about the period, by chance I came across the story of the Separatists, a small community of nonconformists who would later go on to become the Mayflower Pilgrims. The story of The King James Men was born in the conflict between the world of the translation and the world of the Separatists.

What was the hardest scene you remember writing?

The hardest scenes by far were those that involved the moments of bible translation. With zero understanding of biblical Hebrew, it was hard to know where to start. Fortunately I have a very learned friend (thank you, Dr Louise Pryke) who was able to help with the technical aspects of the language. But it was still a challenge to write these scenes in a way that not only added depth to the novel, but was interesting to read.

What are you planning to write next?

Currently, I’m working on another novel set in England in the 17th Century in the lead up to the English Civil War. I’m still rattling out the first draft, and so I don’t want to jinx it by saying too much!

Samantha Grosser

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About the Author

Samantha Grosser is an English graduate and author of historical fiction who spent several years travelling and working as an English teacher in South East Asia, Japan and Australia. She has also worked variously as a bookseller, a secretary, a proofreader and a Registered Nurse. She currently lives on Sydney's Northern Beaches with her Australian husband and son. Find out more at Samantha's website https://samgrosserbooks.com/ and find her on Facebook and Twitter @SamanthaGrosser

Stories of the Tudors Podcast - Arthur Tudor

Prince Arthur was heir to the throne of England and the embodiment of the union between Lancaster and York. His wedding to the young and beautiful Catherine of Aragon was one of the first great events of Henry's reign. Then, at the age of fifteen, 

Arthur's sudden death changed history.  

Book Review: Silk and the Sword: The Women of the Norman Conquest, by Sharon Bennett Connolly

Available for pre-order from Amazon UK and Amazon US

Harold II of England had been with Edith Swanneck for twenty years but in 1066, in order to strengthen his hold on the throne, he married Ealdgyth, sister of two earls. William of Normandy’s Duchess, Matilda of Flanders, had supposedly only agreed to marry the Duke after he’d pulled her pigtails and thrown her in the mud. Harald Hardrada had two wives – apparently at the same time. So, who were these women? What was their real story? And what happened to them after 1066?

One of the many things I learned from Sharon Bennett Connolly’s new book is there are six hundred and twenty six people depicted on the Bayeux Tapestry, but only three are women. One is Edward the Confessor’s queen, Edith of Wessex, one is a woman fleeing from a burning house - and the third is an intriguing ‘mystery woman’, who has been the subject of much debate by historians.

I mention this because it touches in the central theme of Silk and the Sword, which is how little is known about the women involved in the build-up to the Norman Conquest. It has taken much detective work to sort out the few known facts from the many myths. It hasn’t helped that even the names of these women are debated and records of the time (including the famous tapestry) focus on the men.

Sharon Bennett Connolly begins with what she calls ‘the triumvirate’ of remarkable women from before the Norman invasion. I knew about Emma of Normandy – but suspected that most of what I know about Lady Godiva was wrong. Although she is arguably the most famous of the Anglo-Saxon women, her name was probably Godgifu. As for her famous naked ride, it’s no surprise that every retelling becomes more embellished in the fashion of the time.

For me, the most fascinating story is that of Gytha of Wessex, mother of an ill-fated dynasty. (Her father, the wonderfully named Thorgils Sprakaleg, was said to have been descended from the union of a bear and a Swedish maiden.) Gytha's life seems to have been an amazing saga of wealth and war, privilege and tragedy. As with all these women, I have the feeling that Sharon could have written a whole book about each of them. I am certainly inspired to find out more. Highly recommended.

Tony Riches

Disclosure: A review copy of this book was kindly provided by Amberley Publishing

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About the Author

Sharon Bennett Connolly was born in Yorkshire and studied at University in Northampton before working at Disneyland in Paris and Eurostar in London. She has been fascinated by history for over thirty years and has worked as a tour guide at historical sites, including Conisbrough Castle. Best known for her fascinating blog History ... the Interesting Bits she began focusing on medieval women and in 2016 her first non-fiction book, Heroines of the Medieval World was published by Amberley Publishing. Sharon is now writing her second non-fiction book, Silk and the Sword: The Women of the Norman Conquest, which will be published by Amberley in late 2018. Follow Sharon on Facebook and Twitter @Thehistorybits

See also: Heroines of the Medieval World, by Sharon Bennett Connolly

Mary, Queen of Scots: A Study in Failure (Stewart Dynasty in Scotland), by Jenny Wormald

New on Amazon UK and Amazon US

Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, has long been portrayed as one of history’s romantically tragic figures. Devious, naïve, beautiful and sexually voracious, often highly principled, she secured the Scottish throne and bolstered the position of the Catholic Church in Scotland. 

Her plotting, including probable involvement in the murder of her husband Lord Darnley, led to her flight from Scotland and imprisonment by her equally ambitious cousin and fellow queen, Elizabeth of England. 

Yet when Elizabeth ordered Mary’s execution in 1587 it was an act of exasperated frustration rather than political wrath.Unlike biographies of Mary predating this work, this masterly study set out to show Mary as she really was – not a romantic heroine, but the ruler of a European kingdom with far greater economic and political importance than its size or location would indicate. 

Wormald also showed that Mary's downfall was not simply because of the ‘crisis years’ of 1565–7, but because of her way of dealing, or failing to deal, with the problems facing her as a renaissance monarch. 

She was tragic because she was born to supreme power but was wholly incapable of coping with its responsibilities. Her extraordinary story has become one of the most colourful and emotionally searing tales of western history, and it is here fully reconsidered by a leading specialist of the period. Jenny Wormald's beautifully written biography will appeal to students and general readers alike.

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About the Author

Jenny Wormald was one of the most influential Scottish historians of her generation. She taught history at Glasgow University for 20 years, and was then appointed to a fellowship in Modern History at St Hilda's College, Oxford, for a further 20 years. After retirement to Edinburgh she became an Honorary Fellow in Scottish History at the University of Edinburgh and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. She wrote a number of significant books and articles, including Court, Kirk and Community: Scotland 1470-1625 (1981), 'James VI and I: Two Kings or One?' (1983) and 'Gunpowder, Treason and Scots' (1985).

Special Book Launch Guest Post ~ The writing of Miss Marley, by Rebecca Mascull (In Memory of Author Vanessa Lafaye)

New on Amazon UK and Amazon US

Before A Christmas Carol there was… Miss Marley

A seasonal tale of kindness and goodwill

Orphans Clara and Jacob Marley live by their wits, scavenging for scraps in the poorest alleyways of London, in the shadow of the workhouse. Every night, Jake promises his little sister ‘tomorrow will be better’ and when the chance to escape poverty comes their way, he seizes it despite the terrible price.

The writing of Miss Marley

My friend Vanessa Lafaye was an historical novelist who loved Dickens, just like me. We bonded over reading each other’s first novels. We could see instantly that we both had the same feeling about history, that we loved the modern world of decent medical and social care, easy transport and communications, Twitter and Facebook and having hot cross buns all year round. But imaginatively we lived in the past and didn’t want to live anytime else, thanks very much.

We discovered a mutual love of Dickens. I’d read all of his novels when I was pregnant and he became my all-time number one novelist. In one of our first conversations Vanessa suggested (jokingly, kind of) that we begin an A Christmas Carol appreciation society.

Vanessa had cancer the whole time I knew her. It didn’t define her life though and she just got on, writing gorgeous books and making dear friends throughout the writing world. We lived at opposite ends of the country, so didn’t see each other much but we kept in touch regularly via Skype calls and messaging. Her condition became terminal. This year, it became clear that her time was running out and she only had a few months left. She’d just got a new deal with HarperCollins for a prequel to A Christmas Carol called Miss Marley. 

She was writing against the clock. She messaged me from a ship near New Zealand on a trip of a lifetime, asking me questions about Scrooge’s timeline and I sent her pictures of pages from the novel and talked it through. The writing was going really well and she was determined to finish it. In February 2018, we made a date to talk about her next book the following week. She died three days later. Miss Marley was two-thirds completed. Her time had run out. Too soon, too soon, for a thousand reasons.

In March 2018, HarperCollins asked me if I would consider writing the final chapters of Vanessa’s novella. I didn’t have to think about it for a second. Of course I wanted to do it. I was sent the 22,000 words Vanessa had already written and I read it with a pencil in hand, covering it in notes. I was looking for patterns in her style, such as the way she used figurative language, the details she liked to focus on and key phrases or ideas that should be reiterated and developed in the final section I was to write. 

As I read, my mind automatically began projecting forward into how these plot strands might play out and where I, as a reader as much as a writer, wanted these characters to end up. We had very little information on what Vanessa planned for the ending and so, after discussion with the publishers and those close to Vanessa, it was decided that I should write the ending as I felt it should naturally end. I had a clear picture in my head of what should happen and it was agreed by my editor Kate. I was ready to write.

The deadline was tight. It was May 2018 and they wanted the book published in November of this year, in time for Christmas. I sat down at my desk to write. I could have laboured over it and edited manically as I went along and agonised over every word – does this sound like Vanessa? Is this how she would have written it? I decided that way madness lay and also it would have created stilted prose. I realised I just had to get on with it. I had to write it how it came naturally, how it flowed. 

So I started writing, very fast, thousands of words a day. I got the whole thing finished in five days, around twelve thousand words. I didn’t think much as I wrote, I just let it flow. At points, it felt like a kind of channelling. Read into that what you will. That’s just how it felt at the time. It was a strange and beautiful experience. When I read what I’d written, I had no idea if it was similar to Vanessa’s style, if it worked as an ending or if people would approve of it. It’s like when you’ve been cooking a stew all day and you keep tasting it and it starts to taste of nothing. People close to Vanessa read it and they all liked it. 

No changes were called for. I’ve never had so little editing in my whole writing career. It was a lovely thing to do and a sad thing to do. It brought me closer to Vanessa and made me miss her presence even more. I’m so glad I was asked and I hope she would have liked it. I’ll never know, but I did the best I could. I hope Mr Dickens wouldn’t be too outraged with it either. It’s a lovely, touching story, all about goodwill and humanity. I hope you enjoy Vanessa’s last book and I heartily I recommend you read it on Christmas Eve! Thank you.

Rebecca Mascull

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About the Author

Rebecca Mascull is the author of three historical novels, all published by Hodder & Stoughton.

Her first novel, THE VISITORS, tells the story of Adeliza Golding, a deaf-blind child living on her father’s hop farm in Victorian Kent. Her second novel SONG OF THE SEA MAID is set in the C18th and concerns an orphan girl who becomes a scientist and makes a remarkable discovery. Her third novel, THE WILD AIR, is about a shy Edwardian girl who learns to fly and becomes a celebrated aviatrix but the shadow of war is looming. After previously working in education, Rebecca is now a full-time writer. She has a Masters in Writing and lives by the sea in the East of England. Rebecca also writes sagas under the pen-name Mollie Walton. Find out more at Rebecca's website rebeccamascull.co.uk and find her on Facebook and Twitter @rebeccamascull

Vanessa Lafaye

Historical Fiction Spotlight ~ The Road to Newgate by Kate Braithwaite

Available on Amazon UK and Amazon US

London 1678: Titus Oates, an unknown preacher, creates panic with wild stories of a Catholic uprising against Charles II. The murder of a prominent Protestant magistrate appears to confirm that the Popish Plot is real.  Only Nathaniel Thompson, writer and Licenser of the Presses, instinctively doubts Oates’s revelations. Even his young wife, Anne, is not so sure. And neither know that their friend William Smith has personal history with Titus Oates. When Nathaniel takes a public stand, questioning the plot and Oates’s integrity, 

the consequences threaten them all.

The Road to Newgate is my second novel set in the 17th Century - a fascinating time in Europe when society was making great advances in knowledge and literacy but was still fairly 'medieval' in its attitudes and medical understanding. The line between religion and superstition at times was paper-thin.

This is a story about a private marriage and friendships in a time of great public upheaval. Titus Oates rocked London with wild tales of Catholic plots, playing on the intense bigotry against Catholics that was felt by many at the time. The murder of the magistrate, Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey, appeared to prove that Oates' claims were true. The truth about this murder, still unsolved today, is at the heart of Nat Thompson's efforts to undermine Oates and end the terror crisis gripping London. But what will it cost him personally?

I hope the book will appeal in many ways. There's a murder mystery, a love story, an LGBT theme, and a wonderful villain. For those who love historical novels - as I do - I've tried to vividly bring to life the Popish Plot, a dramatic moment in British history, which also resonates with politics and society today.

Kate Braithwaite

“Moved me greatly and brought tears to my eyes. Gripping, moving and brilliantly captures this tense and sometimes brutal episode in late seventeenth-century English history.” - Andrea Zuvich, Author & Historian

“A real pleasure to read,” - Denis Bock, author of The Ash Garden & The Communist’s Daughter

“Meticulously researched, vividly imagined, and deftly plotted. Rich, resonating and relevant.” - Catherine Hokin, author of Blood & Roses, the story of Margaret of Anjou.

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About the Author

Kate Braithwaite grew up in Edinburgh but has lived in various parts of the UK, in Canada and the US. Her first novel, CHARLATAN, was long-listed for the Mslexia New Novel Award and the Historical Novel Society Novel Award in 2015. Kate and her family live in West Chester, Pennsylvania. Find out more at Kate's website kate-braithwaite.com and find her on Twitter @KMBraithwaite  

Book review: Anne Boleyn: Adultery, Heresy, Desire, by Amy Licence

New on Amazon UK and Amazon US

Despite the huge amount written about Anne Boleyn, for me she remains an intriguingly elusive figure. Even the well-known portraits might not be of her, and her many enemies had good reason to darken her reputation, both during her short lifetime and afterwards.

This fascinating new book from Amy Licence is possibly the most comprehensive review of the life of Anne Boleyn to date. Amy opens with the admission that Anne has always been one of her favourite heroines, and sets out to show Anne as defiant, defining and brave, and her 'career' as the culmination of the ambitions of generations of her ancestors. 

Beginning with useful background on the rise of the Boleyn family, this book follows Anne's story from her birth to her sad end. Interestingly, almost everything we know about the last days of Anne Boleyn is filtered through the pen of Sir William Kingston, Constable of the Tower of London, in his detailed reports to Cromwell. He is said to have told her the execution would not hurt, as it was to be 'cleverly' done. (His wife, Lady Mary Kingston, might have been his 'spy' when she attended on Anne Boleyn during the queen's 'doleful'  imprisonment in the Tower.)

I particularly liked the wealth of details of the court of Henry VIII, which show how some other writers might have over-simplified the complexity of Anne's situation. We still hope for answers to the many questions raised throughout this book, yet this epic account of Anne Boleyn's life is a perfect companion to Amy's excellent Catherine of Aragon. Highly recommended.

Tony Riches

  

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About the Author

Amy Licence is an historian of women's lives in the medieval and early modern period, from Queens to commoners. Her particular interest lies in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth century, in gender relations, Queenship and identity, rites of passage, pilgrimage, female orthodoxy and rebellion, superstition, magic, fertility and childbirth. She is also a fan of Modernism and Post-Impressionism, particularly Woolf and the Bloomsbury Group, Picasso and Cubism. Amy has written for The Guardian, the BBC Website, The English Review, The London Magazine, The Times Literary Supplement and is a regular contributor to the New Statesman and The Huffington Post. She is frequently interviewed for BBC radio and made her TV debut in 2013, in a BBC documentary on The White Queen. You can follow Amy on twitter @PrufrocksPeach or like her facebook page In Bed With the Tudors. Her website is www.amylicence.weebly.com