I had the pleasure of meeting the author of The Fire Court, Andrew Taylor, a few years ago back in Oxford when we were both participating in an author conference and he was most affable and signed my hardback copy of The Ashes of London, his first book in the series. I wish I had read that book… Read on
Sometimes we need a bit of escapism and, for me, that sometimes means a romance—and this book totally fit the bill. I have to be honest, I wasn’t really interested in the beginning, but that might just be down to me not being in the right frame of mind for it. I even thought about giving up around… Read on
The Gunpowder Plot is one of those major subjects of the early Stuart era (the Jacobean period) that people tend to know about, but, in my experience, very few historical fiction works focus on the period just after that. In John Pilkington’s novel ‘Legacy’, however, we meet Robert Belstrang, a former Justice who leads a quiet life in… Read on
I’ve had The Firefly Witch on my bookshelf since it was published a few years ago and I finally had a chance to read it – and I’m glad I did. Set in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1662, we meet Circe: a red-haired girl with an amazing skill for weaving. Despite her talents, she doesn’t fit in… Read on
‘Royal Mistress’ by Patricia Campbell Horton follows the story of Barbara Villiers from her adolescence, her passionate relationship with her first love, Philip Stanhope, Earl of Chesterfield, through her marriage to Roger Palmer, her notorious reign as Charles II’s long-term mistress, through Charles’s marriage to Catherine of Braganza, her rivalry with Frances Stuart, up to her becoming Duchess… Read on
Acclaimed historical fiction author Anna Belfrage kindly invited me on a blog event entitled, ‘Glory and Gore: The Dichotomy of the Glorious 17th Century’, and I’m honoured to have been the first guest in her line-up! Other authors of works set in the seventeenth-century will be posting in the forthcoming days and I’ll be adding links to them… Read on
I came across a Facebook post by historical fiction author Kate Quinn recently in which she wrote: ‘sometimes we come across books at the wrong time. We’re in the wrong mood for a particular book at a particular time, or we’re at the wrong age for it. But we find it later and –chef’s kiss– perfection’. This quote… Read on
‘Royal Harlot’ by Susan Holloway Scott takes us into the world of Barbara Villiers and her passionate life and great affair with King Charles II.