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
Last Saturday, I took a brief sojourn from our beloved 17th-century and travelled into the future – to a Regency event in Bath, England. I attended the Jane Austen Festival Grand Regency Promenade on the 13th of September, 2014. With only my early 19th-century clothing and my mobile conveniently smuggled into my reticule, I journeyed via public transportation… 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
It’s not often one is able to see one’s favourite actor in a play set in the 17th century, so when I saw the poster below on the Tube recently, I immediately scrambled to get seats for this production of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. By the time I was looking for tickets, there were very few seats available,… 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