ITV’s drama, The Great Fire, aired last night at 9pm in the UK. This morning, I was asked by many on Twitter for my opinions about this show, but as I don’t have access to live television in my house, I was unable to watch it last night. I saw this episode just now on the iTV player and,… Read on
Please welcome award-winning novelist Piers Alexander to The Seventeenth Century Lady! Dura lex sed lex: The law is harsh, but it is the law. For Huguenots in the 1600s, royal edicts were instruments of hope and despair, both in France and in England. Slaughtered for their faith in the sixteenth century (the St Bartholomew’s Day Massacre of 1572… Read on
The Darling of Kings is a brilliant historical novel which charts the meteoric rise and fall of one of the most legendary personages in British history. I was intrigued and excited when I was offered the chance to read this novel about George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham and his relationships, first with King James I and then King Charles I. The Duke of Buckingham has been a source… Read on
This is the short story I recently submitted to the Historical Novel Society Conference on Saturday 6th September. The conference was really interesting and it was fun to meet up with fellow writers and great to learn from the most successful in our genre. There’s always so much to learn, and I was grateful to be able to… Read on
A few months ago, I found out about this upcoming release from Charles Spencer. Naturally, given its subject matter, I was excited. I was jumping up and down when I received an advanced copy of “Killers of the King – the Men Who Dared to Execute Charles I”. I’ll be frank, this was the first history book I’ve read by… Read on
(en Espanol abajo) Contains spoilers! Yesterday, I was fortunate to able to go see the 2pm performance of Lope de Vega’s brilliant 17th-century play of forbidden love and terrible revenge, El Castigo Sin Venganza. This play was written by de Vega in 1631. Lope de Vega is one of most celebrated writers from the Spanish Golden Age – a… Read on
Dare Devils: Seventeenth Century Highwaymen by Deborah Swift Though legends of highwaymen are many, there is only one featuring a woman – Lady Katherine Fanshawe. Shadow on the Highway is the first instalment in her story, the real history which over the generations has become embroidered with myth, as have all the other highway stories. Lady Katherine was… Read on
Last Friday, the 1 August, we observed the 300th anniversary of the death of Queen Anne, the end of the Stuart dynasty and the beginning of the Georgian/Hanoverian period. 1714 was a major year in British and European history. In recent days, I have been pleasantly surprised at the number of people wanting to learn more about this… Read on