The Writing Desk

Special Guest Post by Brenda K. Thompson: The Child Who Was Stolen: Writing A Feed Sack Dress for Sadie

2026-10-17T05:03:43.324+00:00

Available from Amazon UK and Amazon US

Sadie Lockhart grew up on the Lockhart farm, where silence was expected and usefulness passed for affection. Hidden deep in the hills, she was raised far from the world, and the Lockharts made certain no one knew she existed.

Some characters begin with a face. Some with a place. Sadie began with a story my mother carried home from her work with hospice. After my father died, my mother volunteered with hospice. One of the women she cared for had an old black-and-white photograph on her mantel. It showed a barefoot little girl wearing what looked like a feed sack, crudely cut with openings for her head and arms.
The woman told my mother the little girl in the photograph was her.
She said she’d been stolen as a child.

The people who took her dressed her that way, and she grew up never knowing where she’d come from or who her real family was. I never forgot that story. But I kept thinking about the child. What would it mean to remember being taken? What happens to a child when the adults around her give her another name, another family, another version of who she is? And what happens when that child grows up?

Those questions became the beginning of A Feed Sack Dress for Sadie.
Sadie Lockhart is fictional. Her life is not the life of the woman in my mother's care. But once I began writing, Sadie became her own person, with her own childhood, her own choices, and her own way of moving through the world.

In the novel, Sadie is stolen and kept on an isolated farm in rural Appalachia. She grows up in a place where silence and usefulness pass for affection. Her world is small, but Sadie remembers enough to know that once her life was different, better.

Sadie hadn’t forgotten everything. Something inside her remained her own. A memory. A question. The knowledge that before she was Sadie Lockhart, she’d belonged somewhere else. The story is set in the Appalachian world of The Glens, the fictional mountain range where several of my novels take place.

In Sadie’s world, readers walk the roads with her, enter the houses, sit at the tables, and feel how easily a person could disappear into a place where families lived miles apart and much of life remained private. That world also has to belong to its time.

I researched the world around Sadie closely: the work people did, the clothes they wore, the distance between farms and towns, the way news travelled, and the things a family could buy or had to make for themselves. By the time those details reach the page, they are no longer research. They are simply part of Sadie’s life.

The feed sack dress came from the photograph my mother described, and eventually it gave the novel its title. But the dress was never the story. The child wearing it was. As Sadie grows older, the question becomes larger than what was done to her.

If a child’s family, name, and history are taken from her, what remains that is still her own? Sadie survives much of her childhood by being useful. Later, that same instinct becomes part of the woman she grows into. She sees what needs doing. She helps before someone has to ask. People come to know her through the things she does, without knowing the truth of how her life began.

The reader carries that truth. Sadie’s past is always there, even when no one around her can see it. What was done to her shapes her life, but it doesn’t become the whole of who she is.
That’s one of the things I return to often in my writing. People live through circumstances they didn't choose. Families give us names. Communities give us places. Other people may decide what they think we are.

Still, somewhere inside all of that is the person who has to live the life. When I write, I don’t stand outside my characters and watch them. I step inside them. It’s much like an actor taking on a role. While I’m writing, their world becomes the one I live in.

I see what they see. I hear what they hear. I can feel the roughness of wood beneath a hand, the bumps in a road, the cold in a room. The story follows me long after I’ve stopped writing for the day. I lie awake thinking about the character, the place, what’s happened and what comes next. I stay there until the world feels real to me. I cry with them. I cry for them.

That was especially true with Sadie. The stolen child could never remain simply an idea at the beginning of a story. She had to become a whole person whose life I could enter and live beside. The farther I went with Sadie, the question became less about where she’d come from and more about who she would become. What happened to her began the story. It didn’t have to define the rest of her life.

A Feed Sack Dress for Sadie is part of Stories from The Glens, my growing collection of standalone Appalachian novels. Alice Anyway, Ivaleena, and Child H belong to that same imagined world, although each book tells a separate story.

I was grateful when A Feed Sack Dress for Sadie recently received an Honorable Mention in the 34th Annual Writer's Digest Self-Published Book Awards in Mainstream/Literary Fiction.
Awards are wonderful things for an author to receive. But they aren’t where a story begins.

Sadie began with a stolen child and a question I couldn’t put away. What happens to someone when so much of who she was has been taken from her? I followed that question until Sadie became more than the child who was stolen. She became Sadie.

Brenda K. Thompson

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About the Author

Brenda K. Thompson is an award-winning author of historical and literary fiction. Through plain language and the small details of ordinary life, she brings her characters’ worlds close enough for readers to step inside them and remember the people they meet there. Her Appalachian novels are part of Stories from The Glens, a growing collection of standalone books set in an imagined mountain world. Her debut novel, Alice Anyway, received the 2026 Next Generation Indie Book Awards Grand Prize for Fiction and won the First Novel category. Brenda and her husband, Jim, live on the North Carolina coast. Learn more at brendakthompson.com.

Book Launch Spotlight: The Queen's Tears: A Novel of Choices, Courage, and the Cost of Love by Elizabeth St.John

2026-10-15T05:41:39.581+00:00

Available from Amazon UK and Amazon US

A stolen crown jewel and an enigmatic portrait force two women to confront the devastating choices they made for love—and summon the courage to live with the truth.

1619: Barbara, Lady Villiers, at the bidding of her brother-in-law, the Duke of Buckingham, has stolen the dying Queen Anna’s jewels—and kept the greatest prize for herself. The Queen’s Tears, a brooch of extraordinary value, torments her: too dangerous to sell, too priceless to discard, and possibly her only means of securing her children’s future. When the family fortunes are shattered, Barbara faces an impossible choice: remain loyal to Buckingham—or betray him by confessing the theft to King Charles.

Present Day: Julia Darke opens her Cotswolds bookshop to start life over peacefully. Instead, a Van Dyck portrait of Barbara’s daughter, with tantalising signs of the missing Queen’s Tears hidden in plain sight, brings her face-to-face with Oliver Villiers, the Oxford art conservator she once loved and walked away from.

Reluctantly drawn together to uncover Barbara’s secret, Julia and Oliver follow the trail of the Queen’s Tears—and the closer Julia comes to Barbara’s truth, the harder it becomes to hide from her own.

Inspired by the true stories of Queen Anna of Denmark’s stolen jewels and a missing Van Dyck painting, The Queen’s Tears weaves history, fiction, and family research across the centuries. Readers of The Lydiard Chronicles will find old favourites—and a new heroine following in their footsteps.

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About the Author

Elizabeth St.John’s critically acclaimed historical fiction novels tell the stories of her ancestors: extraordinary women whose intriguing kinship with England's kings and queens brings an intimately unique perspective to Medieval, Tudor, and Stuart times. Inspired by family archives and residences from Lydiard Park to the Tower of London, Elizabeth spends much of her time exploring ancestral portraits, diaries, and lost gardens. And encountering the occasional ghost. But that’s another story. Living between California, England, and the past, Elizabeth is the International Ambassador for The Friends of Lydiard Park, an English charity dedicated to conserving and enhancing this beautiful centuries-old country house and park. As a curator for The Lydiard Archives, she is constantly looking for an undiscovered treasure to inspire her next novel. Find out more at Elizabeth's website http://www.elizabethjstjohn.com/ and follow her on Facebook, Twitter @ElizStJohn and Bluesky @elizabethstjohn.bsky.social‬

Special Guest Post by Rosemary Griggs, Author of Queen Elizabeth I's Governess: The Real Kat Ashley

2026-10-10T05:18:50.765+00:00

Available from Amazon UK and Amazon US

The name ‘Kat Ashley’, Queen Elizabeth’s ‘Governess’, is well-known to fans of Tudor history. Katherine Champernowne, later John Astley’s wife, joined Elizabeth’s household before the future queen turned three. Later she became Elizabeth’s ‘governess’, trusted with the upbringing of the King’s younger daughter. Formidably well-educated for a woman of her time, reports suggest Katherine did an excellent job. When Elizabeth came to the throne, one of her first actions was to name Katherine as Chief Gentlewoman of the Privy Chamber, a highly influential position within the court of a female monarch.

Although they served at the court of Henry VIII, the Champernowne family are not well known to those who study Tudor history. However, anyone interested in the early life of Elizabeth I will have come across Katherine Champernowne, later the wife of John Astley. She is widely known as Elizabeth’s childhood governess, Kat Ashley. I prefer to call her Kate, partly because the evidence that Elizabeth actually used the short form ‘Kat’ is not overwhelming, but also to reinforce that I have found a woman who differs from the Kat of popular culture.

Kate appears briefly in many learned biographies of Henry VIII’s younger daughter. It’s often been supposed she came from a minor gentry family. Writers and filmmakers often portray her in fiction and on screen as a rather foolish, gossipy nanny figure, a minor supporting character in the fascinating drama of Elizabeth’s fraught early years. My research tells a different story.

Far from being from a rural gentry background, Kate was close to people at the heart of the Tudor Court. By the early 16th century, the Champernownes of Devon had expanded their lands well beyond the west country, into Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire. Over many generations, through dynastic marriages, they forged alliances with powerful families, including Poyntz, Carew, and, most notably, Courtenay.

Like many women of her time, the historical record remains stubbornly silent about Kate’s early life. She first comes to notice when appointed to the household of three-year-old Elizabeth in 1536. Exploring her family connections and the people she was close to places that appointment in context.

Kate was the eldest daughter of Sir Philip Champernowne, a close relative of Henry Courtenay, Marquess of Exeter, first cousin and companion of the young Henry VIII. The Marquess’s father was Sir Philip’s first cousin. Sir Philip served as squire of the body to the king for a time, mixing with other well-known courtiers, before he retired to the west country, where he often deputised for the Marquess. Kate may have gained her formidable education among her powerful Courtenay relatives.

Through her maternal grandmother, Kate also had connections to the Poyntz family, who held prominent positions in Catherine of Aragon’s household. Kate’s great aunt married Sir Anthony Poyntz. She is likely the Elizabeth Poyntz who had care of Henry VIII’s short-lived son, Henry Duke of Cornwall. Also on the maternal side, Kate’s uncle, Sir Gawen Carew married Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk’s sister.

Brandon was a close friend of the king and married Mary Tudor, the king’s sister, after the death of her first husband, the King of France. Sir Gawen became a prominent courtier, soldier and diplomat. Sir George Carew, ill-fated captain of the Mary Rose, and his brother Sir Peter, were Kate’s cousins.

Kate’s sister, Joan, was one of Catherine Parr’s ladies and shared her interest in the reformed religion. Joan married Sir Anthony Denny, a man so close to King Henry VIII that he was the only one brave enough to tell the dying king that his end was near. Kate’s brother, John, also had a place at court. According to Sir Richard Carew of Anthony, writing in the early years of the seventeenth century, John was popular with King Henry ‘for his pleasant conceits’. So Kate moved in circles close to the royal court. She also knew many Cambridge-educated intellectuals.

Not long after Anne Boleyn’s execution, Kate was one of a group of serving gentlewomen appointed to serve Anne’s three-year-old daughter. Their role was to keep company with the little girl, to entertain her, and at all times to model the behaviour and manners expected of a noblewoman in the sixteenth century. Soon after this appointment, Kate made her first known appearance in the historical record with an extraordinarily bold letter to Thomas Cromwell. That letter, dated 5 October 1536, made me stop and think about the way historians and writers have traditionally portrayed Kate’s character.

To paraphrase the letter — there’s a full transcript in my book — Kate thanks Cromwell for recommending her to the king for her new post. She then asks him if he could speak to the king about payment for her services. Unfortunately, we only have half of this fascinating correspondence. Many of Thomas Cromwell’s papers were destroyed at the time of his downfall, and his response has not survived. In 1536, Cromwell was the most powerful man in the land, after the king. He was not a man who acted without a purpose.

Political considerations influenced his every decision, including Kate’s appointment. I found it very hard to reconcile the author of that letter to the great man with the foolish character traditionally given to Kate. Would a girl, however well educated, from a minor gentry family, really have dared to write to him in those terms? And would Cromwell have even considered appointing someone so lacking in judgement?

n 1536, Lady Margaret Bryan was Elizabeth’s Lady Mistress, having overall oversight of the child’s upbringing and early years education. Lady Troy, working with Lady Bryan, was Elizabeth’s governess, and likely introduced the child to her letters using a hornbook. At that time, no one expected Elizabeth would become queen. Rather, as the king’s daughter, even though declared illegitimate, she was a valuable commodity in the marriage market. In her early years, she must gain all the attributes that would make her attractive as a bride.

Sometime after Lady Bryan took charge of the nursery of Edward VI in 1537, and Lady Troy became Lady Mistress to Elizabeth, Kate was promoted to Elizabeth’s governess. More than ten years later, in a letter to Protector Edward Seymour, dated 31 January 1549, Sir Robert Tyrwhitt, who was questioning Elizabeth about her involvement with Thomas Seymour, confirmed that it was King Henry VIII himself who promoted Kate to be Elizabeth’s Lady Mistress. That means she became Lady Mistress before King Henry died in 1547. It also tells us that Kate not only had the support and trust of Cromwell but also of Elizabeth’s father.

Many assumptions and myths have grown up about Kate Astley, repeated so often that people consider them facts. She’s been called jolly and kind, with unconventional teaching methods, and given credit for single-handedly introducing the little girl to a long list of subjects. These statements are not confirmed in primary sources. As a royal governess, her remit was much broader than that of a Jane Eyre-style Victorian governess. Kate also had to be a mentor, adviser, and protector. She did not deliver all the academic lessons herself but had oversight of input from a range of tutors, music masters, dance teachers, riding instructors and a chaplain, who covered a wide-ranging curriculum.

From nineteenth-century scholars to more recent historians, the focus has been on the events of 1548-49 when Elizabeth was under the roof of her stepmother, the Dowager Queen, Catherine Parr, and her new husband, Thomas Seymour. Kate’s deposition, taken in the Tower of London in January 1549, gives all the salacious details of Seymour’s behaviour towards the fourteen-year-old girl, which appear to modern eyes beyond inappropriate. As a result, Kate has been declared negligent, a gossip, and even considered to have herself been infatuated with the dashing Admiral.

These assessments do not seem to fit with the view of Elizabeth’s tutors, William Grindal and Roger Ascham, who both praised Kate for her care of the young princess. In my book, I explore an alternative scenario, placing Kate’s testimony in a different light as part of a strategy designed to protect the young princess. Interpretations of that difficult period have largely defined what people think about Kate Astley, while her later years have often been overlooked. Closer study reveals Kate as a political actor, staunchly loyal to Elizabeth.

In 1554, after the Wyatt rebellion against Queen Mary’s Spanish marriage, Kate suffered a long period of house arrest. She was suspected because her cousin, Sir Peter Carew, was a prime mover in the failed plot. Mary eventually allowed Kate to rejoin her mistress briefly, but clearly considered Kate a dangerous influence on Elizabeth and a threat. Only a few months later she held Kate in the Fleet Prison on suspicion of involvement in another plot and then banished her from Elizabeth’s service.

After Elizabeth came to the throne, she made Kate her Chief Gentlewoman of the Privy Chamber, a pivotal role with unique, intimate access to the queen. Kate was Elizabeth’s eyes and ears, listening out for damaging gossip and keeping Elizabeth in touch with how her policies were being received at court and beyond. Anyone who wanted to approach Elizabeth talked to Kate. She gave advice on what sort of gifts might be welcome at New Year. An Italian news sheet described her as ‘Patroness of all England’ in 1562. A year after Kate’s death, Hugh Fitzwilliam wrote to the queen saying, ‘Now that Mrs Ashley is gone he has no friend to make his moan to.’

Kate acted as a highly political female courtier at the court of a female monarch. Her death in 1565 left the queen devastated. The two women shared a close bond of mutual love and respect for nearly 30 years. Kate Astley arguably had more influence on the young Elizabeth I than anyone else. She deserves our further consideration.

I hope that Queen Elizabeth’s Governess: The Real Kat Ashley will encourage further debate about a remarkable woman.

Rosemary Griggs

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About the Author

Author and speaker Rosemary Griggs has been researching Devon's sixteenth-century history for years. She has discovered a cast of fascinating characters and an intriguing network of families whose influence stretched far beyond the West Country. She loves telling the stories of the forgotten women of history — the women beyond the royal court; wives, sisters, daughters and mothers who played their part during those tumultuous Tudor years: the Daughters of Devon. Her novel A Woman of Noble Wit tells the story of Katherine Champernowne, Sir Walter Raleigh’s mother, and features many of the county’s well-loved places. The Dartington Bride, published March 2024, is the extraordinary tale of Lady Gabrielle Roberda Montgomery who travelled from France to Elizabethan England to marry into the prominent and well-connected Champernowne family. Rosemary creates and wears sixteenth-century clothing, a passion which complements her love for bringing the past to life through a unique blend of theatre, history and re-enactment. Her appearances and talks for museums and community groups all over the West Country draw on her extensive research into sixteenth-century Devon, Tudor life and Tudor dress, particularly Elizabethan. Out of costume, Rosemary leads heritage tours of the gardens at Dartington Hall, a fourteenth-century manor house and now a a historic visitor destination, events venue and thriving community of businesses, colleges and more. You can find out more on Rosemary’s website: https://rosemarygriggs.co.uk/ and follow her on Bluesky and Twitter @RAGriggsauthor

Prince Henry Stuart: The Best King We Never Had?

2026-10-09T08:09:38.950+00:00

One of the most intriguing characters in my new book, Queen Anna, was the story of her eldest son, Prince Henry Stuart, heir to the crown of three kingdoms. Brave, ambitious and a devout Protestant, Prince Henry Stuart seemed destined to become one of Britain's most remarkable kings. His sudden death at eighteen left a grieving nation wondering what might have been.

Imagine a different beginning to the seventeenth century. Instead of Charles I inheriting the English throne in 1625, it should have been his elder brother Henry who became king. A confident young ruler, devoted to Protestantism, fascinated by military affairs and eager to strengthen the navy, might have taken Britain down a very different path.

It is an intriguing possibility. Henry Frederick Stuart, Prince of Wales, was more than the heir who died too young. During his short life, he became a symbol of national ambition, Protestant hopes and the promise of a new generation of Stuart rule. His death in November 1612, aged just eighteen, deprived his father, James I, of his eldest son and left the future of the monarchy in the hands of a very different young prince.

Henry was born at Stirling Castle in Scotland on 19 February 1594, the eldest surviving son of James VI of Scotland and Anne of Denmark. His birth was celebrated as a moment of great importance for the Stuart dynasty. James had no guarantee that his Scottish crown would pass smoothly to his descendants, and a healthy male heir offered the prospect of continuity.

When Elizabeth I died in March 1603, Henry's father inherited the English throne, becoming James I of England while remaining James VI of Scotland. For the first time, the crowns of England and Scotland rested on the same head. Henry was now heir to a monarchy whose future would eventually encompass both kingdoms, although they remained separate states with their own laws and institutions.

The new royal family attracted enormous interest. Henry represented the future: a young prince who might inherit his father's kingdoms and provide the strong, stable Protestant succession many people desired. His younger brother Charles, born in 1600, stood behind him in the line of succession, with little reason to expect that he would one day become king.

Portrait of Prince Henry Frederick Stuart (the eldest son of King James VI of Scotland and Anne of Denmark) painted around 1596 when he was about two years old,

Henry's childhood was not spent entirely in the company of his parents. He was brought up under the care of tutors and household officers, first in Scotland and later in England. One important figure in his life was Adam Newton, his tutor, who supervised an education intended to prepare him for the responsibilities of kingship.

Henry's education was designed to prepare him for power. He studied Latin, French and Italian, alongside history, geography and the practical knowledge required of a Renaissance prince. He was particularly interested in military matters and seems to have responded more enthusiastically as his lessons became relevant to his future responsibilities.

He was athletic, enjoying tennis, hunting, hawking and other sports. Unlike the rather reserved reputation that later attached to his brother Charles, Henry cultivated an image of energy, discipline and action. His interest in military exercises and elaborate armour helped establish him as a prince who could lead his subjects rather than merely inherit their obedience.

In 1610, aged sixteen, Henry was formally created Prince of Wales in a magnificent ceremony. The occasion confirmed his position as heir to the English throne and provided an opportunity to present him as the embodiment of chivalric virtue.

Portrait miniature of Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales,

painted around 1610–1612 by Isaac Oliver

Yet Henry's public image was not simply the result of court propaganda. He demonstrated a genuine appetite for learning and a remarkable interest in the world beyond his father's court. His contemporaries saw in him a young man with the potential to become an unusually active and capable monarch.

One of the most interesting aspects of Henry's life was the breadth of his ambitions. He was fascinated by the sea, exploration, military strength and the position of Protestant powers in Europe.

Henry supported the development of England's navy and took an interest in navigation and maritime technology. The celebrated shipwright Phineas Pett built a magnificent vessel known as the Prince Royal, launched in 1610. It was among the most ambitious royal naval projects of the period and reflected the prince's enthusiasm for maritime power.

Henry also supported exploration, including an expedition intended to find the Northwest Passage, the hoped-for sea route connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. His name was associated with English colonial ambitions in Virginia, where the settlement of Henricus was named in his honour. He often visited Sir Walter Raleigh in the Tower of London to share ideas on exploration and ship design. These interests were connected. A stronger navy could defend the realm, protect trade, challenge rival powers and support England's expanding overseas ambitions. Henry appeared to understand that England's future would depend partly on its ability to project power beyond its shores.

His religious convictions also shaped his political outlook. Henry was an ardent Protestant, and his views were considerably more hostile towards Catholicism than those of many who favoured religious compromise. In an age when European politics were deeply entangled with religious conflict, this mattered enormously. A future King Henry might have pursued a more assertive Protestant foreign policy, although we cannot know how far his practical decisions would have matched the expectations placed upon him.

For all his military interests, Henry was no narrow-minded soldier. He was an enthusiastic collector, a patron of artists and architects, and an important figure in the cultural life of the Jacobean court. His library contained more than a thousand volumes added to an already impressive collection. He commissioned architectural and garden projects, including a new library and riding school at St James's Palace and ambitious gardens at Richmond Palace. These projects reflected the intellectual curiosity and cultivated tastes expected of a European Renaissance prince.

Court entertainment was another important part of his public identity. In January 1610, Prince Henry's Barriers combined a masque with an elaborate tournament. The performances celebrated princely virtue through allegory, music, dance and spectacular costumes. The architect and designer Inigo Jones helped establish the visual splendour for which Stuart court entertainments became famous.

In the autumn of 1612, the Stuart court was preparing for a major royal celebration. Henry's younger sister, Princess Elizabeth, was to marry Frederick V, Elector Palatine, a prominent German Protestant prince. Their marriage, which took place in February 1613, promised to strengthen Protestant alliances across Europe. Frederick arrived in England in October 1612, and Henry spent time with his future brother-in-law. The atmosphere at court should have been one of excitement and anticipation. Instead, the celebrations were overtaken by a sudden and devastating illness.

Henry had apparently been suffering from periods of lassitude and headaches before becoming seriously ill in October. He continued to take part in physical activities, including tennis, despite his deteriorating health. Contemporary accounts describe fever and the increasingly desperate attempts of his physicians to treat him.

A later account associates his illness with swimming in the Thames after playing tennis, although the precise circumstances and significance of the swim remain less certain than some popular retellings suggest. What is clear is that his condition worsened rapidly, despite the efforts of the royal doctors.

On 6 November 1612, Henry died at St James's Palace. He was only eighteen. The loss was almost impossible to comprehend. The prince who had seemed to embody the future of the Stuart monarchy was gone, leaving his family and country to confront a future nobody had expected to arrive so soon.

The sudden death of a popular heir naturally provoked suspicion. Rumours circulated that Henry had been poisoned, and speculation later attached itself to rivalries at court and to his father's relationship with his heir. There was no evidence that he was murdered. A post-mortem examination was ordered, in part to address fears and rumours surrounding his death. The surviving medical accounts have led historians to regard typhoid fever as the most likely explanation. The diagnosis is not based on modern laboratory testing, of course, but on the recorded symptoms and the historical evidence.

The poisoning stories reveal something important about Henry's place in the public imagination. His death was so unexpected, and his promise so widely celebrated, that many people struggled to accept an ordinary illness as the explanation. For a nation that had invested so much hope in him, it was easier to imagine that the future had been stolen than to accept that it had simply ended.

The grief following Henry's death was extraordinary. His body lay in state at St James's Palace before his funeral at Westminster Abbey on 7 December 1612. The funeral procession was a magnificent and solemn affair, with around two thousand official mourners and crowds lining the streets.

The ceremony reflected not only the importance of the heir to the throne but also the emotional investment people had made in him. Poetry, sermons and music commemorated his life, while writers struggled to express the scale of the loss.

King James was devastated. Accounts of his grief suggest that the death remained a painful preoccupation, even when the king was occupied with affairs of state. Queen Anne of Denmark also lost a son whose position within the dynasty had made him central to the family's future.

Henry's younger brother Charles was now the heir apparent. He had to assume a position for which he had not been expected to prepare so soon, and the shadow of his elder brother's reputation would follow him for the rest of his life.

Henry was buried in the vault of his grandmother, Mary, Queen of Scots, in Henry VII's Chapel at Westminster Abbey. His funeral effigy, once richly dressed, has survived in fragmentary form, a poignant reminder of how the physical traces of even the grandest royal lives can gradually disappear.

It is tempting to imagine Henry ascending the throne in 1625, when James I died. He would have been thirty-one: an experienced prince, familiar with government, military affairs and international politics, with a reputation for energy and strong Protestant convictions.

Would he have avoided the conflicts that engulfed his brother Charles I? Would he have worked more successfully with Parliament? Might he have strengthened the navy, pursued a more forceful Protestant policy in Europe or approached the relationship between Crown and country differently?

Henry had not yet ruled a kingdom. We can't know how he would have responded to financial pressures, religious divisions, parliamentary resistance or the competing demands of his subjects. His apparent confidence as a prince does not prove that he would have been a successful king. Nevertheless, his death changed the course of the Stuart dynasty. Charles inherited the crown in 1625 and eventually faced the crisis that led to the English Civil Wars and his execution in 1649. Henry's life ended before he could encounter any of these challenges.

The contrast between the brothers is striking. Henry was remembered as a vigorous, idealised young prince, while Charles became associated with the bitter divisions of his reign. It is possible that Henry would have faced many of the same problems. It is equally possible that his personality, priorities and political choices might have produced a different outcome.

What matters is that the possibilities disappeared with him. Prince Henry Stuart lived for only eighteen years, yet he left a considerable mark on the culture and politics of his age. He supported the arts, took a serious interest in maritime power, embraced a strongly Protestant identity and inspired hopes that he would become an exceptional king.

His story also reminds us how history can turn on events that seem, at the time, almost unbearably arbitrary. A fever in the autumn of 1612 changed the succession, altered the future of the Stuart family and left the English monarchy to a younger brother whose reign would become one of the most turbulent in British history.

Perhaps that is why Henry continues to fascinate us. He belongs to that small group of historical figures whose lives are inseparable from the future they never lived to shape. We can admire the promise without pretending to know the outcome. We can mourn the loss without turning him into a flawless hero - and we can wonder what might have happened if the young Prince of Wales survived to wear the crown.

Tony Riches

See: Author Anna Belfrage Reviews Queen Anna, Book One of the Stuart Queens Trilogy

Blog Tour Spotlight: The Roll Of the Dice Series: We Who Endure, by J. A. Quarles

2026-10-06T05:29:00.682+00:00

Available from Amazon UK and Amazon US

As the fires of war spread across a divided nation, three brothers from Louisiana are swept into the storm that will decide the fate of the Confederacy-and perhaps the future of America itself.

In the bloody aftermath of Fredericksburg, young Confederate officer Johan Lutze escapes Union captivity through courage, cunning, and sheer determination. Returning to General Robert E. Lee's army just in time for the Battle of Chancellorsville, Johan performs an act of heroism that saves the life of the legendary General Stonewall Jackson and thrusts him into the inner circle of Confederate power.

Now, with Vicksburg under siege and the Confederacy teetering between survival and collapse, Johan's bold strategic ideas begin to influence President Jefferson Davis himself. But in Richmond, ambition and politics can be as deadly as bullets, and not everyone welcomes the rise of the young officer from Louisiana.

While Johan helps shape daring military campaigns alongside Generals Lee, Beauregard, and Johnston, his brothers wage battles of their own. Paul Lutze Jr., maimed at Shiloh and fitted with a prosthetic leg, enters the shadowy world of Confederate espionage, where secrets and sabotage may alter the course of the war. Meanwhile, sixteen-year-old Jacques Lutze marches north with the ferocious Louisiana Tigers, consumed by grief, vengeance, and a burning desire to kill Yankees before they kill him.

From the fields of Pennsylvania to the banks of the Mississippi, from the halls of Richmond to the courts of Europe and the rising empire in Mexico, the war expands into a conflict of global consequence. Armies maneuver. Governments scheme. Brothers bleed.

And as the summer of 1863 approaches its reckoning, the Lutze brothers will stand at the center of history-where triumph and tragedy walk hand in hand.

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About the Author

Born and raised in New Orleans, Justin has always had a passion for storytelling. This writing process has always been important to Justin, a lifelong history nerd, who received a Bachelor’s in History from the University of New Orleans. After he is done with his day job, Justin loves to come home and play with his two wonderful kiddos and watch movies with his wife. Find out more at www.jaquarles.com

Special Guest Post by Anna Belfrage, Author of A Newfound Land (The Graham Saga Book 4)

2026-10-02T06:47:09.663+00:00

Available from Amazon UK and Amazon US

It’s 1672, and Matthew Graham and his family have left Scotland. Having taken the drastic decision to leave their homeland due to religious conflicts, Alexandra and Matthew hope for a simpler, if harsher, life in the wilds of the Colony of Maryland.

The passing of a people – the consequences of colonisation

It would have been very difficult to write A Newfound Land, set in 17th century Maryland, without considering the impact of European colonisation on the native peoples. I’d argue that the single biggest tragedy to befall the native population of the Americas was the arrival of Columbus upon their shores. Over the course of a couple of centuries, a deadly cocktail consisting of slavery, disease and warfare was to reduce the native population with 40-80% (it varies substantially from area to area) and what had been thriving civilizations were reduced to memories and ruins.

In 1607, The Virginia Company of London established its first bridgehead into its charter territories. Jamestown was founded on a marshy island in present day Virginia, and a couple of boatloads of settlers were deposited in the wilds to make a new life for themselves. Things did not go as planned, and the first few years of its existence, the colony teetered on the brink of extinction more than once. Fortunately, the colony had a capable leader in John Smith, adventurer extraordinaire, and this gentleman spent quite some time exploring the Chesapeake area and making contacts with the local people.

Many of the tribes John Smith visited no longer exist. One such lost people is the Susquehannock. Disease and warfare – both with their fierce cousins the Iroquois and the white settlers – caused the extinction of a once flourishing nation. In fact, today we have no idea what these Native Americans may have called themselves, because there is no one around who speaks their language anymore. Once a language dies, the culture that flourished with it dies as well, and so we have no idea as to what beliefs, what myths the Susquehannock held dear. It’s almost as they never existed – well, apart from the odd artefacts that are presently displayed in one or other museum.

A Lenape (Delaware) family or group from the mid-17th century, based on a drawing by Swedish engineer and traveler Peter Mårtensson Lindeström from his time in the New Sweden colony

But the Susquehannock did exist, a power to be reckoned with, masters over a large swathe of land that stretched from Delaware, through parts of Pennsylvania and into Maryland. John Smith was very impressed by the Susquehannock, claiming they went around dressed in wolf and bear pelts and were all of them big and strong, fully capable of beating the brains out of a man. Despite these ferocious qualities, for the first few decades of their co-existence both the Susquehannock and the Maryland colonists prospered – a win-win situation for both.

Things were not quite as peachy-pie in Virginia. The colonists repeatedly broke the treaties they had signed with the Powhatan Confederacy, and when the angered natives retaliated, the colonists screamed ‘murder’ and demanded that the natives be subdued once and for all.

In the 1670’s, the constant skirmishes between the Powhatan and the Virginia colonists escalated into open warfare, and through a series of unfortunate events, the Susquehannock were dragged into the conflict. A decade later, the once so mighty Susquehannock had more or less disappeared. Their wooden forts had been razed to the ground, their men had been slain, their women enslaved, and what few remnants remained had fled due north-west, seeking the protection of the Iroquois, their former enemies.

Some Susquehannock made it over to Pennsylvania and founded a community there, Conestoga Town. There they eeked out a living far removed from their former life, hiring themselves as labourers to adjoining farms. But in 1763, the last three dozen or so of true-blooded Susquehannock were massacred by the Paxton Boys, a militant group of white bad boys that killed whatever Native Americans they could get their hands on in retaliation for the recent French-Indian war. Less than two centuries after their first contact with the European settlers, the Susquehannock had ceased to exist.

The Susquehannock play an important and recurring role in my series The Graham Saga. My male protagonist, Matthew Graham, is a devout Presbyterian, a veteran of the Commonwealth armies and a man who initially at least tends to see the world as black or white. Which is why I gifted him with Alex Lind, an opinionated modern woman who had the misfortune (or not) of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, thereby being dragged three centuries back in time to land concussed and badly singed at an astounded Matthew’s feet.

Due to Matthew’s religious persuasions, the Graham family is forced to leave their homeland behind and immigrate to the Colony of Maryland where they establish cordial relationships with the nearby Susquehannock tribe. But as the tension between colonists and Indians increase, the fragile friendship between Matthew and Qaachow, a Susquehannock chief, is put under severe pressure.

The below excerpt is from A Newfound Land, the fourth book in The Graham Saga, which is when Qaachow first enters Matthew’s and Alex’s lives.

Alex didn’t see him until she had sat down on her normal perch, a fallen log just to the east of the clearing. Qaachow was sitting in absolute stillness a bit further on, his eyes locked on what Alex supposed had been the main house of the settlement but that now reminded her of an elongated tomb. She shivered at the thought; after all, to some extent it was.
“I’m sorry.” She stood up. “I didn’t mean to intrude.”
Qaachow tilted his head to show he’d heard her but otherwise remained where he was.
“You come to think of your daughter,” he said, gesturing at the ‘RACHEL’ she had carved on a nearby tree. “Those thoughts do not intrude on mine.”
Alex sat back down again. Not that there was any possibility of her thinking about Rachel now, with this slim, half-naked Indian some yards away, but it would be rude to walk away and disturb his meditation again. He was gaunter than last time she’d seen him, more careworn. He shifted on his perch and the breechcloth rustled, releasing a fragrance of crushed pine needles.
“I sit here at times and remember the life that was. Before…” His low voice cut through the silence.
“Before we came,” she filled in, following the dancing beams of afternoon sunlight that fell in from the west to pattern the ground with eerily lifelike shades of that long gone existence.
“Yes, before John Smith brought the white man over.” He looked away through the screen of trees towards the river, barely visible from here. “He came to our village once.”
“He did? What was he like?”
“I’m not that old.” He smiled. “I never met him in person, but my grandfather did. We should never have let you land,” he added in a darker voice. “We should have listened to our wary brethren of the north and pushed you back into the sea.”
Alex quietly agreed. Soon nothing would be left of the Indian way of life.
“We still could, we still might.”
“Too late,” Alex said. “We’ll never let this go. Not now.”
Qaachow gave her a look of grim amusement. “We could steal in like shadows in the night, and none of you would notice until you lay dying in your blood.”
Alex huddled together with physical pain at the thought. “But you won’t, will you? You won’t kill my babies.”
“No, my people will not. We owe you lives.”
“Your people? Are there any other Indians we need to worry about?”
Qaachow shrugged. “This is our land. They will not touch you. But, elsewhere, white women and children will be slain, and their men will be killed slowly and in agony. The coming years will be bad, Mrs Graham, very bad.”
Alex nodded and bent to pick up a pine cone from where it lay on the shimmering green of the moss.
“I know. That’s why Matthew’s been called down to Providence.”
Qaachow looked away, saying something in his own language that sounded very sad. For some time he sat sunk in thoughts, eyes lost in the dappled shadow of the surrounding woods.
“I’ve never thanked you or your husband for what you did for my people, in particular for my wife.” Qaachow stood up in one fluid movement. He was an attractive man, Alex reflected, his hairless torso outlined with muscles without becoming too excessive. Long, beautiful hands, and a mouth that, when relaxed, was soft and tender – kissable. Their eyes met. For a couple of heartbeats he held her eyes, the shadow of a smile playing round his mouth.
Alex cleared her throat. “Your wife?”
“Thistledown-in-the-wind; it was her sister that died.”
“She’s very pretty,” Alex said, thinking of the young Indian woman with the thick braids – young enough to be his daughter, but apparently his wife. He seemed to see what she was thinking and smiled crookedly.
“I loved my first wife very much, and it took many moons before I wanted to look at another woman.” He stared off into the distance. “Morning Dream – always first in my heart.”
“Morning Dream, what a beautiful name.”
“As was she.” With a courteous nod in her direction, Qaachow blended into the surrounding trees.

Anna Belfrage

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About the Author

Had Anna been allowed to choose, she’d have become a time-traveller. As this was impossible, she became a financial professional with two absorbing interests: history and writing. Anna has authored the acclaimed time travelling series The Graham Saga, set in 17th century Scotland and Maryland, as well as the equally acclaimed medieval series The King’s Greatest Enemy which is set in 14th century England. Her Castilian Heart is the third in her “Castilian” series, a stand-alone sequel to her September 2020 release, His Castilian Hawk. Set against the complications of Edward I’s invasion of Wales, His Castilian Hawk is a story of loyalty, integrity—and love. In the second instalment, The Castilian Pomegranate, we travel with the protagonists to the complex political world of medieval Spain. This latest release finds our protagonists back in England—not necessarily any safer than the wilds of Spain! Anna has also authored The Whirlpools of Time in which she returns to the world of time travel. Join Duncan and the somewhat reluctant time-traveller Erin on their adventures through the Scottish Highlands just as the first Jacobite rebellion is about to explode! All of Anna’s books have been awarded the IndieBRAG Medallion, she has several Historical Novel Society Editor’s Choices, and one of her books won the HNS Indie Award in 2015. She is also the proud recipient of various Reader’s Favorite medals as well as having won various Gold, Silver and Bronze Coffee Pot Book Club awards. Find out more about Anna, her books and enjoy her eclectic historical blog on her website, www.annabelfrage.com and find her on Facebook, Twitter @abelfrageauthor and Bluesky @abelfrageauthor.bsky.social

Special Guest Post: A Deadly Fall, by Jon Neal

2026-10-01T08:18:00.612+00:00

Available from Amazon UK and Amazon US

What lengths would you go to in order to keep a secret? When private investigator Stanley Messina is called to a secluded Sussex manor house to re-examine an unexplained death, he hopes it might be a straightforward job - a few interviews, a tidy conclusion, and a chance

to catch his breath.

A Deadly Fall: Psychology, Secrets and a Sussex Manor

When a private investigator is called to a secluded Sussex manor house to re-examine an unexplained death, he hopes it might be a straightforward job. Behind the estate’s idyllic façade, however, lies a tangled web of strained loyalties, festering resentments and carefully curated lives. Every inhabitant has something to protect, and every story comes with a shadow…

A Deadly Fall is the third novel in my Stanley Messina Investigates series. Set in a grand house tucked away in the Sussex countryside, it is a mystery driven as much by the psychology and relationships of its characters as by the tragic event at its centre. Readers have described the series as intriguing, and this atmospheric instalment continues that tradition while remaining fully readable as a standalone.

As with my earlier books, the investigation into what happened at Lanthorn Manor provides the spine of the story, complete with clues, suspects and motives. Yet my primary interest as a writer has always been what makes people tick—the quiet tensions, hidden histories and shifting loyalties that shape how they behave under pressure. Along the way, readers also learn a little more about Stanley Messina himself, whose own backstory continues to unfold across the series.

I publish as an independent author exclusively through Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing. The greatest advantage of this is complete creative freedom and control over every aspect of the creative and business processes. I promote the books through social media and will soon launch a website and regular e-newsletter so readers can stay more closely connected.

The publishing landscape has changed markedly in the last five years. While greater opportunities for writers also mean more competition, I remain convinced there is still ample space to build an engaged audience for authentic stories.

I’m always grateful to readers who take the time to leave a rating or review on Amazon. These not only provide real encouragement but also help future readers decide whether a book might be one they would enjoy too.

Jon Neal

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About the Author

Jon Neal is a British author. His first book, A Twin Room, was published in 2022 and reached number 1 in its Amazon category, selling copies around the globe. The Other Path introduced private investigator Stanley Messina and began the series of page-turning mysteries that continues with A Deadly Fall. Jon completed a Master of Arts in Writing while living in Australia and holds a Music & Media Studies degree from the University of Sussex. He was runner-up in the 2010 Sydney Mardi Gras short story competition, has been shortlisted for other prizes, and has had poems published in numerous anthologies. He grew up in Kent and now lives with his partner in East Sussex. To keep up to date with Jon’s news, follow his author page on Facebook and Twitter/X

Blog Tour Interview with Marilee Aufdenkamp, Author of Sparrow’s Song

2026-10-01T05:19:47.796+00:00

Available from Amazon UK and Amazon US

Sparrow’s Song is a sweeping, intimate novel about resilience and belonging, rooted in the real history of wartime federal nursing education and the evolving landscape of modern American nursing. At its heart is a young immigrant woman pushing herself toward the advantages she’s convinced education will unlock, even as that drive pulls her away from the people and heritage she loves.

I'm pleased to welcome author Marilee Aufdenkamp to The Writing Desk:

Tell us about your latest book

Sparrow’s Song spans two world wars and follows one woman’s search for equal advantage in a country that doesn’t always welcome her. Rooted in the early twentieth century German from Russia immigrant experience and set against the federal nursing education programs of World War I and World War II, the novel explores resilience, belonging, and the cost of ambition.

In 1917 Nebraska, Kathryn Scheibel wants what every young woman hopes for: a fair chance at a future. As a German from Russia immigrant, she believes education is the only path to opportunity for herself and her family. When she reaches beyond the cigar making floor, her ambitions unsettle those closest to her. To Kathryn, her hopes are simply the means of gaining the same advantages native born families enjoy.

Joining the Army School of Nursing brings her closer to the life she imagines and farther from the family she loves. At Walter Reed, she faces open hostility from classmates who target her social status and her ancestry. As the years pass, Kathryn must decide whether she gave up too much in her quest to gain equal advantage and what it might take to reclaim the parts she never meant to lose.

What is your preferred writing routine?

I wrote Sparrow’s Song while I was still teaching undergraduate nursing students at a mid sized Midwestern Jesuit university. Evenings were often spent grading papers or preparing lectures, so I wrote when I could, mostly on weekends. I have been retired for the past two years, and now most of my days are devoted to writing and writing adjacent activities.

What advice do you have for aspiring writers?

I learned so much about the writing craft, first by reading craft books. This was well before the internet. By the time the internet was commonplace I started taking advantage of mostly free online webinars as well.

I’ve attended every Historical Novel Society biennial convention since 2015, either in person or virtually. If you can afford it, I recommend attending at least one conference each year. Early in your career, a craft heavy conference that focuses on your genre can be especially helpful.

Critique groups can be valuable if you find the right one, and thanks to the internet, networking with other writers is easier than ever and also recommended.

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

I’ve been doing as much speaking as possible. My protagonist was inspired by members of the community of Germans from Russia who immigrated to Hastings, Nebraska, early in the twentieth century. I’ve been a nurse since 1985 but I first worked as a nurse’s aide in our local hospital beginning in 1979 and cared for some of these individuals as they neared the ends of their lives. My nursing work and my protagonist’s background have influenced my speaking opportunities.

I presented about our local community of Germans from Russia at our county historical society’s annual meeting to an audience of more than one hundred people and tied their story to my novel. I also gave a presentation at our local library during Nurses Week, sharing how Sparrow’s Song highlights important nursing reforms of the early twentieth century. I recently spoke to the class of 1986 at the former hospital affiliated diploma nursing program that operated in our community from 1915 to 1988. And on October 1, I’ll present a program titled “Beyond Florence: The Value of Knowing Our History and How Fiction Can Help” for the Nebraska Nurses Association’s annual convention.

Tell us something unexpected you discovered during your research

Because I’m a nurse, I’m especially drawn to medical and nursing history. Part of my novel takes place in 1943, when my protagonist is teaching in a hospital affiliated school of nursing participating in the Cadet Nurse Corps. At that time, penicillin was beginning to be used by the U.S. military to treat venereal disease, especially syphilis.

Aqueous penicillin has a short duration of action and had to be injected every four hours, which was not practical in wartime. To prolong its effect, it was suspended in peanut oil and beeswax. Because beeswax is solid at room temperature, the mixture had to be heated before injection. I found a detailed description of how this was done and intended to use it in my story, but a computer crash erased my source. I couldn’t relocate it, and I no longer remembered whether the heating was done in a warm water bath or in some type of incubator or warming oven. My memory leaned toward a warm water bath, so in my author note I explained that this was one of the few historical details I wasn’t entirely certain about, but I didn’t want to exclude it because it was too interesting.

What was the hardest scene you remember writing?

No single scene stands out as harder than the others, but I write lean, and reaching standard word count expectations for my genre was difficult.

What are you planning to write next?

My next story, my work in progress, is about ninety seven percent ready to send to my publisher. It’s set in 1927 Omaha. My main character is a young Irish immigrant who came to Nebraska with his parents a few years earlier and now works under the direction of the real jazz musician who led the Boys Town traveling band, Daniel Desdunes. He repairs and maintains the band’s uniforms and brass instruments, and I’ve learned a great deal about dent repair, soldering, and brass instrument maintenance.

To earn extra money and help his father, who is a down and out homeless alcoholic musician, my main character milks for a young widowed neighbor woman on the adjacent farm. He is beginning to have feelings for her. My work in progress is not a romance, but there are some romantic elements. The central conflict is his responsibility to his father set against his hope for a life of his own, a life he doubts he deserves and isn’t sure he has the strength to sustain alongside his father’s needs.

My debut novel Sparrow’s Song took place between 1917 and 1943, so I had plenty of room to stretch events out. My newest story, working title Leo but likely changing to A Measure of Cream and Flux, occurs over the summer of 1927, and much of the action happens on weekends. I needed to make sure I hadn’t inadvertently placed seven Saturdays in July and that I had room for everything I included. There is also a scene I need to rework, and I have two elderly Jewish immigrant men who serve as mentors to my young Irish protagonist. I need to make sure the scenes involving those two men respect their religious traditions for observing Shabbos.

Marilee Aufdenkamp

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About the Author

Marilee Aufdenkamp is a retired nurse educator who taught undergraduate nursing for twenty six years before turning her full time focus to historical fiction. She writes early to mid twentieth century stories grounded in immigrant experience and working class life. Her debut novel, Sparrow’s Song, was inspired by her early nursing career in Nebraska, where she came to admire the Germans from Russia she cared for at the end of their lives. Originally from Southern California, she has spent her adult life in Nebraska. Find out more at her website: https://marileeaufdenkamp.com and find Marilee on Facebook and Instagram

Rogues, Rakes and Robbers: A True Crime History of Georgian Britain by Angela Muir

2026-09-25T14:01:45.542+00:00

Available from Amazon UK and Amazon US

On October 20th, 1799, at Pensieri in the Isle of Anglesey, a fire breaks out, destroying cart house, corn, haystacks, and timber. A young woman is seen running from the scene―but what secrets drove her to set the fire?

Exploring detailed accounts of historical crime is one of the best ways to catch a glimpse of a society and its culture decades and even centuries later. Of course, stories of crime and deviance are intriguing in their own right, but by understanding the context in which they were committed and how communities and officials responded to them, we can gain incredible insight into life at that time and place.

Rogues, Rakes and Robbers uncovers the tales of real-life murders, manslaughters, assaults, and arson in Georgian Wales and its borders that together give us a window into life for ordinary, common people whose lives would otherwise be lost from the historical record. From courtship rituals to the value of horses and Georgian attitudes on sex work and insanity, each chapter uses documents from Wales’s Court of Great Sessions to illuminate the past.

# # #

About the Author

Angela Muir is a social and cultural historian of Britain in the long 18th century (roughly 1680 to 1830) with a focus on gender, crime, deviance, sex and the body in Wales and England. She has worked at the University of Leicester since 2018, and in 2024 became an Associate Professor. Prior to Leicester Angela held a one-year lectureship and fellowship at Cardiff University after completing her PhD at the University of Exeter. Find out more at https://angelajmuir.wordpress.com/ and find Angela on Instagram and Twitter @muirdershewrote

Lady of the Castle: A Medieval Epic of Love, Loyalty, and Betrayal (The Nicola de la Haye Series Book 2) by Rachel Elwiss Joyce

2026-09-22T06:20:48.877+00:00

Available from Amazon UK and Amazon US

For a woman, holding power in a man's world is dangerous;

holding faith in an intolerant one is deadly.

England, 1185. Nicola de la Haye, constable of Lincoln Castle, commands her fortress with hard-won authority. Determined to protect her family from a kingdom fracturing around her, she discovers the hardest battle is the one inside her own walls.

When the king's chancellor marches an army to her gates and her husband stands accused of treason, Nicola must hold her castle against a siege—and hold her family together against something far harder to fight. As her marriage buckles under the weight of loss, jealousy, and the ghosts of their pasts, Nicola must choose between the walls she has built around herself and the man she has never fully let in.

Miles away, Nicola's Jewish childhood friend Bella has built her world on different foundations: a husband she adores, a strong, vibrant community, and a faith and traditions kept alive despite centuries of persecution. When crusading fervour sweeps the nation, Bella's family is stripped of its fortune and forced to flee to York—only to find themselves trapped in a castle tower by a mob demanding baptism or death.

As King Richard the Lionheart departs for the Holy Land, leaving England to turn on itself, both women face the same impossible question: what do you love enough to sacrifice everything for?

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About the Author

After a rewarding career in the sciences, Rachel returned to her first love—history and the art of storytelling. Fascinated by the women history neglected, or tried to forget, she creates meticulously researched, emotionally resonant fiction that brings her characters’ stories vividly to life. Her fascination with the past began early. At six years old, she was already inventing tales about medieval women in castles, inspired by her treasured Ladybird books and other picture-rich stories that transported her to another time. By the time she discovered Katherine by Anya Seton as a teenager, she knew the joy and escape that only great historical fiction can bring. Rachel’s two grown-up children still tease her (fondly) about childhoods spent being “dragged” around castles, archaeological sites, and historical re-enactments. For Rachel, history and imagination have always gone hand in hand.There was, however, a long gap between the stories of her childhood and her decision to write her own novel. The spark came when she discovered the remarkable true story of Nicola de la Haye—the first female sheriff of England, who defended Lincoln Castle against a French invasion and became known as “the woman who saved England.” Rachel knew she had found her heroine, and a story she was destined to tell. Rachel lives in the UK, where she continues to explore the lives of women who shaped history but were left out of its pages. Lady of Lincoln is her debut novel, the first book in her Nicola de la Haye Series, with sequels to follow. Find out more at www.rachelelwissjoyce.com and find Rachel on Facebook and

X/ Twitter: @RachelElwJoyce

Audiobook Narrator and Actor Ruth Urquhart on Narrating ‘Queen Anna’, Book One of the Stuart Queen Trilogy

2026-09-17T04:44:29.201+00:00

Available from Amazon UK and Amazon US

A crown won in the eye of a storm. A queen who refuses to be broken... Princess Anna of Denmark sails for Scotland to marry King James VI, but storms ravage her fleet, igniting a deadly obsession with witchcraft in her new home. Arriving in a strange and paranoid court, Anna finds her new husband’s bed is a treacherous place.

I chose Ruth Urquhart as the perfect narrator while still in the early stages of researching the first book of the Stuart Queens trilogy, so she had quite a wait until I’d written Queen Anna – including delays with my editor. Now the audiobook is released, here are a few thoughts from Ruth:

Tell us a little of your background and how you decided to go into audiobook narration?

My background is as an actor and after many years touring in small scale theatre, my kids came along and it seemed a natural progression to go into voice acting as something I could do from home and still spend time with my family. When I did I was amazed at the scope of work available and I've loved it ever since!

How much did you know about Anna of Denmark before you began the narration?

Very little. I have previously narrated a non-fiction book called 'Scottish Queens' by Rosalind K Marshall which had a section dedicated to Queen Anna. But that was the extent of my knowledge. Tony's book has made it much more personal and made me realise that so little is focused on the queens and consorts of the past

What most surprised you about Anna’s life?

I suppose her resilience even from such a young age, dealing so well with being shipped off to another country and then the seemingly never-ending pregnancies with so much heartache and loss. She also has a surprising amount of agency with James and when he proved disappointing, she carved her own way to benefit both her children and to a lesser degree herself. I admire her greatly.

How did you approach preparing for the narration process?

The first thing I do as with any book is read it cover to cover. Then I go through and make notes. Of course there were lots of tricky Danish pronunciations to unpick as well as the accents of various foreign nobles. I also watched the documentary 'Queen James' although that of course focuses more on James than Anna.

There are plenty of Danish phrases in the book, so how did you deal with them?

With this I had my Danish Sister-ln Law (another Anne) on speed dial! It is quite a tricky language to pronounce for non-natives but I was very lucky to have this resource at hand.

Ruth Urquhart

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About the Narrator

Ruth Urquhart is an award winning, Scottish female voice over artist and character voice actor. Professionally trained as an actor with over 10 years experience as a voiceover artist, she is the voice of multiple characters in global animations, cartoons and video games. Ruth has provided voiceovers for TV commercials, global brands and corporate films as well as e-learning and online courses, medical narration, video explainers, and radio adverts. She has dubbed worldwide cinema released movies and animations as well as providing narration for documentaries and over 200 audiobooks. Ruth says, ‘My sister-in-law Anne is Danish and I have always been picking her brain over the years regarding various jobs that have required a Danish accent!’ Find oiut more at ruthurquhart.com/ and find Ruth on Instagram @tartanchameleon

Dressed to Impress: Queen Elizabeth I and the Art of Fashioning Power by Sylvia Barbara Soberton

2026-09-16T05:23:53.586+00:00

Available from Amazon UK and Amazon US

For Elizabeth I, fashion was never simply about looking beautiful—it was a language of power.

From dazzling jewels and pearls to elaborate gowns, ruffs, and sumptuous fabrics, every detail of the Queen’s appearance helped shape the image she presented to her subjects, courtiers, and foreign ambassadors. Dressed to Impress explores how Elizabeth used clothing, jewellery, and portraiture to communicate authority, wealth, femininity, chastity, and majesty.

Discover the woman behind the spectacular costumes—and the remarkable ways in which England’s Virgin Queen transformed fashion into one of the most powerful tools of her reign.

Elizabeth I did not simply wear fashion. She fashioned power.

# # #

About the Author

Sylvia Barbara Soberton is a writer and researcher specialising in the history of the Tudors. She is best known for The Forgotten Tudor Women book series, which concentrates on shifting the perspective from famous figures like Henry VIII’s six wives to the lesser-known, but no less influential, women of the Tudor court. Sylvia has written ten books to date, and her newest titles include The Forgotten Years of Anne Boleyn: The Habsburg & Valois Courts, Ladies-in-Waiting: Women Who Served Anne Boleyn and Medical Downfall of the Tudors: Sex, Reproduction & Succession. Her ground-breaking paper on Anne Boleyn and the accusation of witchcraft was published in the Royal Studies Journal in 2023. You can find Sylvia on Facebook, Goodreads, Twitter @SylviaBSo and Bluesky @sylviabso.bsky.social

Inigo Jones and the Celestial Costume of Queen Henrietta Maria

2026-09-15T14:29:45.285+00:00

There is something otherworldly about this delicate drawing of Queen Henrietta Maria. At first glance, it appears to be a fanciful court dress: a richly decorated gown, enormous sleeves, a jewelled headdress and a sweeping feather. Yet the design was intended for something far more theatrical.

Inigo Jones

The queen's costume was created by architect and stage designer Inigo Jones for her appearance as 'Divine Beauty' in Tempe Restored, the spectacular court masque performed at the Banqueting House, Whitehall, on 14 February 1632.

Jones’s surviving costume design, now in the Devonshire Collection at Chatsworth, reveals just how carefully the queen’s appearance was conceived. This was not simply fashionable court dress. Every element had to work under theatrical lighting and contribute to the allegorical world of the masque.

The costume was described by a contemporary observer as being made of “watchet satin” – a pale blue – embroidered with silver stars that appeared to rise from the surface of the fabric. On her head was a crown of stars mixed with small falls of white feathers.

The drawing shows how Inigo Jones transformed those ideas into a costume that would catch the light. The bodice is covered with star-like ornaments, while the enormously rounded sleeves give Henrietta Maria a deliberately impressive silhouette.

The full skirt spreads outward from the waist, creating an almost celestial radiance around the Queen. At the throat, a high, pleated collar frames her face, while the elaborate headdress rises above her head like a constellation. (See Historic Royal Palaces video below.)

For Inigo Jones, costume was inseparable from stagecraft. He understood that the audience at Whitehall would not experience the masque as they might an ordinary play. Music, movement, painted scenery, machinery, lighting, costume and architecture were intended to become one extraordinary spectacle. His designs were particularly concerned with the way materials reflected and caught light, turning embroidered stars and jewels into points of brilliance.

The symbolism was unmistakable. Beauty, embodied by the queen, becomes a force capable of restoring order to the enchanted world of Tempe. The masque therefore made Henrietta Maria herself part of its argument: her physical beauty was presented as a reflection of an inner, moral and almost divine beauty.

It is also worth remembering that Tempe Restored was deeply personal to Henrietta Maria. The masque was dedicated to her, and she was closely involved in its creation and performance. It had originally been planned for an earlier date but was postponed because she was suffering from an eye ailment.

Today, Inigo Jones’s fragile pencil design gives us an extraordinary glimpse behind the spectacle. The surviving drawing is quiet and almost unfinished in appearance. Yet from these few lines emerged one of the most dazzling images of Stuart court culture: a young queen transformed, through silk, silver, feathers, stars and theatrical illusion, into Divine Beauty.

Tony Riches

Silks, Crowns & Fairies: Dressing a 17th Century Queen

Historic Royal Palaces

Blog Tour: London Tales (Short Stories) by Tim Walker

2026-09-14T05:02:08.696+00:00

Available from Amazon UK and Amazon US

London Tales is a collection of sixteen tales that offer dramatic pinpricks in the rich tapestry of London’s timeline, a city with two thousand years of history. They are glimpses of imagined lives at key moments, starting with a prologue in verse from the point of view of a native Briton tribeswoman absorbing the shock of Roman invasion.

Then there’s a tale set in Roman Londinium in 60 CE, from the perspective of terrified legionaries and townsfolk facing the vengeful Iceni queen, Boudica, whose army burnt the fledgling city to the ground.

From Roman Londinium there’s a jump to Saxon Lundenwic in the late eighth century, then onward to the medieval city in 1381 at the time of the Peasant’s Revolt. Then a jump to the second significant conflagration, the Great Fire of London, in 1666.

From there the reader is transported to 1814 and the last ice fair on the frozen River Thames in the year before the battle of Waterloo, then onto an unnerving tale of copycat killings based on the 1888 Jack the Ripper murders. This is followed by a fraught romance set during the Blitz in 1941; then the swinging Sixties and wide-flared seventies are remembered in the life story of fictional policeman, Brian Smith.

There’s a series of contemporary stories that reference recent history and current affairs, including the London terrorist bombings of 2005; a literary pub crawl and a daring prison break, building to the imagined death throes of London in a dystopian vision.

These stories are inspired by the author’s love of history, personal experiences and reflections on his time living and working in London in the 1980’s and 90’s. Adaptability, resilience, conformity and resolve are recurring themes in these stories.

For ten years the author was one of thousands of commuters who’d pour in daily from outlying suburbs to feed the insatiable economic appetite of the city. London’s a busy and at times unfriendly place, driven by the productivity of its inhabitants and set against an incredible landscape of history, art, architectural and cultural development. It both inspires and tires in equal measure.

# # #

About the Author

Tim Walker is an independent author living near Windsor in the UK. Born in Hong Kong in the Sixties, Tim grew up in Liverpool where he began his working life as a trainee reporter on a local newspaper. He went on to attain an honours degree in Communication Studies at the University of Glamorgan in South Wales before moving to London where he worked in the newspaper publishing industry for ten years. In addition to short stories, he researched and wrote a five-book history-meets-legend fiction series, A Light in the Dark Ages. This series connects the end of Roman Britain to the story of a possible historical King Arthur based on scant research material. Find out more at Tim's website and follow him on Twitter, Facebook, and Bluesky: @timwalker1666.bsky.social

Special Guest Post by Elena Maria Vidal, Author of Generalissima: A Novel of Henrietta Maria: The Henrietta of France Trilogy, Book Two

2026-09-13T05:36:42.699+00:00

Available from Amazon UK and Amazon US

As the Three Kingdoms totter on the brink of anarchy, Henriette-Marie, queen of Charles I, strives to bring up their lively, growing family. In addition to her own health problems, she worries about the welfare of her mother the Dowager Queen of France, who sought refuge in London only to find herself under attack. As Henriette faces choices which may separate herself from her beloved husband and children, she seeks help from the Pope and the Irish Catholics.

Henrietta Maria and Her Mother, Marie de’ Medici

First of all, I would like to thank Tony Riches for opening his popular blog to other historical writers so that we may share our research. I am the author of a biography of Marie-Antoinette as well as six historical novels. The latest two novels are about Queen Henrietta Maria, wife of Charles I and they are entitled My Queen, My Love and Generalissima. They are part of an unfinished trilogy; the third instalment Avalon will be out sometime in 2027 or 28.

In my readings about Henrietta of France, I have found that her mother Marie de’ Medici played an enormous role not only in her upbringing but in her ongoing political decisions, as well as shaping her faith, her love of the arts, of music, theater, and architecture.

Queen Marie has ended up playing a much larger role in my novels than I originally would ever have imagined, due to the sheer force of her personality as much as to her real adventures, which included leading rebellions against her son, climbing out of windows to escape the royal guards, and hiding with her entourage of dwarves in a German brewery. All of this followed a glittering career of being Queen Mother Regent of France. Most of the Queen’s life is captured in the spectacular series of twenty-four huge paintings by Rubens, now at the Louvre.

Marie de' Medici, Queen of France, painted by the Flemish Baroque artist

Peter Paul Rubens around 1622.

Marie’s life had always been eventful, however. Born in 1575 in Florence, the youngest daughter of Francesco de' Medici, who was to inherit the Duchy of Tuscany, she was reared in the magnificent Pitti Palace. Marie’s mother, a Habsburg Archduchess, fell down the palace steps when expecting her eighth child and died in agony. Some thought she had been murdered.

Marie’s father married his mistress. Marie was well-educated and healthy but lonely. The stepmother found a companion for Marie: a homely dwarf named Dianora, who claimed to possess psychic powers. In spite of the Florentine court’s penchant for fortune-telling and astrology, Marie remained firmly Catholic her entire life. When in her twenties, word came that the King of France was looking for a wealthy wife.

Henri IV or Henri of Navarre (1553-1610) has been celebrated by the French people as the monarch who was the epitome of justice, kindness, and virility. The fact of his many mistresses and bastards never hindered his popularity, so great were his achievements on behalf of the French people in ending the Wars of Religion. His childless first marriage with his cousin Marguerite de Valois was annulled so that he could have legitimate offspring.

He married the much younger Marie de' Medici in 1600. Queen Marie, loving her husband, suffered from his unfaithfulness. She brought with her Dianora, renamed Leonora. Leonora married another Italian, a thug named Concini who later bullied his way into becoming a marshal of France. After the couple had several children, in 1610 Henri had Marie crowned and anointed at Notre Dame de Paris. The day after her coronation, Henri was stabbed to death in his coach in the streets of Paris. Marie became the Regent for their young son, Louis XIII.

As Regent, Queen Marie chose to avoid war by making peace with the other Catholic powers of Spain and the Empire. She believed that Catholic monarchies should unite to keep Protestantism at bay. Too often Queen Marie is dismissed as being "stupid" in histories of the time. But Henri IV would never have designated Marie to be Regent in case of his death if he had thought her hopelessly ignorant and helpless. Queen Marie had great devotion to the Virgin Mary, seeing her role as being like that of the Mother of God, the conduit of power between the king and his people.

As regent for her son Louis XIII she was determined to keep France out of wars, especially wars with other Catholic countries. Her older daughters, Elisabeth, Queen of Spain and Christine, Duchess of Savoy, had been brought up with Marian devotion and saw their roles in their adopted countries as being active rather than passive. As for Louis XIII, he attained his majority in 1614, although Marie kept running the country. Louis overthrew his mother in 1617, and had Leonora and Concini executed. After a brief exile, Marie managed to make her way back to Paris, where she presided in majesty at the new Medici Palace, later known as the Luxembourg. And she had one more daughter left to marry off.

The youngest child, Henriette-Marie de France, born on 25 November, 1609, was perhaps Marie’s favorite as she greatly resembled Henri IV, in coloring and wiry agility, as well as in merriment and a sense of adventure. Marie arranged for her youngest daughter Henriette to marry in England because she believed there was a chance of bringing Charles I into Catholicism. Henrietta Maria, at age fifteen, tackled the insurmountable task of converting the British Isles back to Catholicism.

Marie made Henriette promise never to become a Protestant and if she did, she would be cursed by Marie. Henriette never flagged in the practice of her Catholic faith no matter the cost. While Charles I never converted to Catholicism, his relationship with his devout wife was deeply spiritual, which enhanced the intense physical passion between them. They were happiest together and with their children. Their tragedy is that they were eventually separated by the Civil Wars as their family was scattered. Their two youngest children were captives of the enemy forces. And Charles I was eventually arrested and beheaded in 1649.

In Marie’s later years, another falling-out with her oldest son Louis XIII, and especially with his minister Cardinal de Richelieu, led to her exile in England, where she lived in St. James Palace. Marie was warmly welcomed by Charles I and Henriette, although they were in the throes of a constitutional crisis. Marie saw the coming disasters and, realizing her Catholic presence was causing political complications for Charles and Henriette, went to Germany to seek refuge with her friend the painter Rubens.

The Thirty Years War was raging; Rubens had died but the ailing Queen was able to stay in a brewery in Cologne owned by the Rubens family. She died in the brewery in Cologne on 3 July, 1642 in a state of destitution, abandoned by her son Louis XIII, who would not allow her to die in France, although he later had her buried at Saint Denis. Mercifully, the Queen received the ministrations of the Carmelites of Cologne, to whom she bequeathed a cherished statue of the Blessed Virgin, one of her last possessions.

Elena Maria Vidal

# # #

About the Author

Elena Maria Vidal was born in Florence, Oregon in 1962 but grew up in Frederick County, Maryland. She received her BA in Psychology from Hood College and her MA in Modern European History from SUNY Albany. She has been a member of the Secular Order of Mount Carmel since 1986. Elena enjoys cooking, gardening, opera and working with the elderly. She lives on Maryland’s Eastern Shore with her family. She is currently engaged in writing a historical fiction trilogy about Queen Henrietta Maria. Elena’s Tea at Trianon blog deals with social, religious and political issues as well as history. My Queen, My Love: A Novel of Henrietta Maria is her fifth novel and sixth book. Find out more from her blog, Tea at Trianon and find her on Twitter @emvidal

New Audiobook: Queen Anna, Book One in the Stuart Queens Trilogy, Narrated by Ruth Urquhart

2026-09-12T05:38:05.601+00:00

Available from Amazon UK and Amazon US

After fourteen years researching and writing the twelve books which tell the story of the Tudors, it seemed natural to explore the succession in more detail and understand the rise of the Stuarts.

I discovered Anna’s story while writing about Bess and Walter Raleigh, and like most people, knew little about her life. I’ve enjoyed the year of research behind this book, uncovering primary sources – and even learning a little Danish.

With notable exceptions, Anna is largely overlooked by historians, and I found myself wondering about the image of her as shallow, with little influence. I don’t recall her being mentioned in my history lessons at school, but Anna was the daughter of a king, wife of a king and mother of a king.

I became intrigued by the idea of a fourteen-year-old Danish princess being forced by her parents into a strategic, arranged marriage with King James of Scotland. Anna had to leave her friends, her family, and everything she knew, for a strange country across a dangerous sea where she could barely speak the language.

There is also the question of her relationship with King James, and how they had so many children. As well as her daughter Elizabeth, the ‘Winter Queen’ of Bohemia, Anna was the mother of Henry, possibly the greatest king we never had, and the ill-fated King Charles I.

My research took me from the Danish Court to Holyrood House in Scotland and on to the palaces of Westminster and Anna's beloved Denmark House. Her vibrant personality can be seen in her surviving letters, some of which I had translated from old French, (and include in the book in italics).

I enjoyed following Anna to England after the death of Queen Elizabeth Ist, and making a new life died as queen consort of three kingdoms. She ordered the old queen’s priceless gowns to be used as costumes in her legendary masques, and slept in the same bedchamber as Queen Jane Seymour, her favourite bed.

I found a resilient woman and a devoted mother to her children. Anna was a creative patron of the arts, and did her best to be a loyal queen consort to King James.

Tony Riches

About the Narrator

Special Guest Post by Dr. Eric Jourgensen, Author of The Deadline Plate (The Chronicle Keepers)

2026-09-11T14:55:22.907+00:00

Available from Amazon UK and Amazon US

The Deadline Plate is a student journalism time-travel mystery about four young reporters who discover an old printing plate in their school’s anniversary time capsule. When the plate pulls them into 1887 New York, they must work with Nellie Bly as her groundbreaking asylum investigation is threatened by a mysterious force trying to erase the record. To get home, they have to protect sources, preserve evidence, and learn that telling the truth means more than getting the story first.

Why My Time Travelers Carry Notebooks

When I decided to send four student journalists into 1887 New York, I gave them the obvious modern tools: phones, cameras, audio recorders, and the instinct to document everything. Then I made those tools unreliable.

That choice became one of the engines of The Deadline Plate, the first book in The Chronicle Keepers series.

The novel begins with four students discovering a printing plate buried in their school's time capsule. The plate carries a story about their own disappearance and sends them to New York during Nellie Bly'searly reporting career.

Someone called the Redactor is changing the historical record. The students cannot simply look up what happened, record a confession, or trust that a digital file will survive. They have to interview witnesses, compare accounts, preserve documents, and decide what they can prove.

In other words, they have to do journalism.

I teach high school journalism, newspaper, broadcast journalism, and yearbook. My students live in a world where nearly every moment can be photographed, recorded, copied, reposted, and misunderstood before the bell rings. Their problem is rarely a lack of information. It is figuring out which information deserves trust.

That made time travel an interesting writing problem. If my characters could carry perfect access to the present into the past, the mystery would collapse. A smartphone can become a shortcut disguised as a prop. Search the name. Photograph the document. Record the witness. Check the date. Done.

But journalism is not supposed to be a shortcut.

So the past pushes back. Batteries fail. Recordings cannot be trusted. Context disappears. The students discover that having a copy of something is not the same as understanding it. A document can be authentic and still incomplete. A witness can tell the truth and still be wrong. A newspaper can print accurate facts and create a false impression through what it leaves out.

That last problem matters to me. My nonfiction work uses a framework called the WATER Check: Wait, Ask, Trace, Examine, Respond. It teaches students to slow down before accepting or sharing something. The framework grew from a classroom deception in which every fact I presented was technically true, but the overall conclusion was designed to mislead.

The same idea sits underneath The Deadline Plate. The villain does not always need to invent a lie. Sometimes changing the record means removing a name, shifting a date, preserving one account, or making another impossible to find.

That is why the notebooks matter.

A notebook is limited. It cannot capture everything. The person holding it must choose what to write down, which quotation is exact, what needs verification, and which detail might matter later. Those choices create responsibility. The notebook also leaves evidence of uncertainty: crossed-out words, arrows, questions in the margin, and a blank where the reporter did not hear clearly enough to pretend.

For young reporters, that can be an important lesson. Technology makes documentation easier, but it does not make judgment automatic.

Nellie Bly was the right historical journalist for the first book because she understood both evidence and access. Her reporting mattered because she entered places powerful institutions preferred to keep closed. She observed, remembered, questioned, and wrote for readers who had not seen what she had seen.

Her work also creates difficult questions for a modern writer. How do you introduce a real person without turning her into a marble statue? How do you respect what she accomplished while still allowing fictional characters to occupy the same room?

My answer was to make her active, intelligent, impatient, and human. The students do not arrive to teach Nellie Bly how journalism works. They are the ones trying to keep up.

The research moved between biographies, archival newspapers, timelines, maps, and the practical details of a nineteenth-century pressroom. I kept returning to the physical nature of news. Type had

weight. Ink stained hands. A printing plate could preserve a page, but it could also be altered, hidden, or destroyed. That physicality gave the fantasy rules something solid to push against.

It also changed how I thought about the students' modern newsroom. Their digital stories feel temporary until one incomplete version travels farther than the correction. Suddenly, the old problem and the

new problem look remarkably similar. Once a record begins moving, the reporter cannot control every place it goes.

The students carry notebooks because they need tools that still work when the spectacular tools fail. More importantly, they carry notebooks because the series is about the choices made before publication.

What did you see?

Who told you?

What can you verify?

What is missing?

Who pays the price if you get it wrong?

Those questions matter in 1887. They matter in a high school newsroom.They matter anywhere history is still being written.

Eric Jourgensen

# # #

About the Author

Eric Jourgensen, Ed.D., is a journalism educator, author, and adviser to student newspaper, broadcast, and yearbook programs in South Florida. He is the creator of the WATER Check media-literacy framework and the author of The Deadline Plate, Book One of The Chronicle Keepers. The young adult series follows student journalists who travel through history to protect stories at risk of being changed or erased.Learn more at https:ericjourgensen.com and find Eric on Instagram, Facebook and Bluesky @drdarthgrader.bsky.social

Book Review Finis Britanniae: A Military History of Late Roman Britain and the Saxon Conquest, by Murray Dahm

2026-09-11T04:52:53.925+00:00

Available from Amazon UK and Amazon US

Murray Dahm’s Finis Britanniae is an engaging exploration of one of the most dramatic turning points in British history: the collapse of Roman rule and the emergence of Anglo-Saxon Britain.

What sets this book apart is its military focus, moving beyond the familiar story of the Romans leaving and the Saxons arriving, examining warfare, fortifications, armies and the changing political landscape that shaped Britain’s transformation.

I particularly liked the occasional asides, which show the period as brutal as anything in ‘Game of Thrones’:

Hengist prepared an entertainment, to which he invited the king, the nobles and military officers. He ordered three hundred Saxons to conceal each a knife under his feet, and to mix with the Britons, and when they are sufficiently inebriated, he would cry out, ‘Nimeder Sexa!’ the let each draw his knife and kill his man, by which were slain three hundred nobles of Vortigern. (Save the king, held for ransom.)

Accessible and thought-provoking, Finis Britanniae is recommended to anyone interested in Roman Britain, Anglo-Saxon England or early medieval warfare. It brings a fascinating but often misunderstood period to life.

Tony Riches

(I would like t thank Amberley Publishing for providing a review copy.)

Special Guest Interview with Gabriel Garcia, Author of Decimus: The Wolf Of Rome: (Tales from The Gathering)

2026-09-10T14:17:48.317+00:00

Available from Amazon UK and Amazon US

216 BC, the formidable Carthaginian general Hannibal unleashed a terrifying wave of aggression against Rome following the catastrophic Battle of Cannae, a defeat that sent shockwaves through the Roman Republic. As the dust settled from the chaos of war, the arrival of Mago and Hasdrubal, Hannibal’s brothers commanding forces in Hispania, threatened to cement Rome's fate. Amidst the turmoil, Hannibal delivered a chilling ultimatum to the people of Rome: surrender

or face utter annihilation.

I'm pleased to welcome author Gabriel Garcia to The Writing Desk:

Tell us about your latest book.

Decimus: The Wolf of Rome is an alternative historical fantasy set within The Gathering Universe and is the second book in the Tales from The Gathering spinoff series. The story follows Decimus Aquilla, a survivor of the Battle of Cannae in 216 BC, who must rescue his son, Justinian, from the Carthaginian king Hannibal, now the ruler of Rome, all the while forming a rebellion to fight back against the Carthaginians and retake their home.

What is your preferred writing routine?

I am a night owl when it comes to my writing. I typically write between 9 and 11 pm, focusing on 20-30 minutes of writing per day.

What advice do you have for new writers?

Craft the story that speaks to you. Put it down on paper. Not every tale is destined for the spotlight; some are meant to be cherished privately. Share the narrative that matters to you with the world, and from there, dive into research, build connections, and promote your work whenever you can.

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

So far, in-person events have been great. I've attended two major gatherings this year, and I have another one lined up next week on the 19th called Alpha & Omega Con. Additionally, I’m looking forward to two events in November: one at my local library and another at an indie book fair.

Tell us something unexpected you discovered during your research.

While delving into the historical context of Decimus during the Second Punic Wars, I realized just how crucial this conflict was on a grand scale. If the Romans had truly lost and Carthage somehow emerged as the dominant power in the Mediterranean, the course of Western history would have changed dramatically. Much of Europe could have remained pagan, with Carthage, Sicily, and southern Italy potentially becoming the heart of the Renaissance. Major religions like Christianity and Islam might have followed very different paths in their expansion and trade, leading to a drastically altered development of future continents, such as the Americas.

What was the hardest scene you remember writing?

The most challenging scene I wrote was early in the book, when Decimus faces the loss of his wife, Flavia. It was difficult to capture, as it sets the emotional tone for the rest of the story. The moment was raw and authentic, creating an uncomfortable feeling that oddly felt poetic in its delivery.

What are you planning to write next?

I'm currently working on my first novel titled "The Taino Gladiator." This story follows a young high school senior and amateur boxer from 1990s New York who finds himself magically transported back to ancient Rome, just before the Gladiator rebellion led by Spartacus kicks off.

Gabriel Garcia

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About the Author

Gabriel Garcia is a vibrant storyteller and passionate historian who weaves tales across the realms of fantasy, speculative fiction, historical fiction, and science fiction. Growing up in the sun-soaked expanses of Southern California, Gabriel’s vivid imagination was ignited by his deep-seated love for history and the art of storytelling. Influenced by the literary prowess of masters like Bernard Cornwell, Conn Iggulden, and Brian Jacques, he channels his creative spirit into crafting narratives that captivate and inspire. His literary adventure began with the release of his debut novel, The Gathering. This book was a labor of love, meticulously developed during his pursuit of a Master’s degree in History. That journey not only honed his writing skills but also deepened his appreciation for the intricate historical backdrops that enrich his stories. Building on this foundation, Gabriel has gone on to publish several more compelling books, each one exploring different facets of the human experience. Gabriel’s creativity doesn’t stop with writing novels. He also hosts the engaging podcast "Tales From The Wandering Scribe," available on YouTube. Here, he connects with fellow writers and creatives, diving into meaningful conversations about their unique journeys and inspiring stories. His podcast is more than just a platform for writers; it’s an exploration of fascinating historical topics alongside historians and passionate hobbyists. Gabriel invites listeners to embark on a thrilling journey through history’s many layers, creating a dynamic space for anyone curious about the past. Join him on this remarkable adventure, and discover the exciting paths that lie ahead in the wondrous worlds of literature and history! Find out more at https://wonderingscribe.com/ and find Gabriel on Bluesky, and Instagram

Blog Tour Spotlight: The Irish Ties That Bind, by Michael J. Hopkins

2026-09-08T04:50:54.722+00:00

Available from Amazon UK and Amazon US

From the green hills of southern Ireland to the heartland of America, four families are united by faith, perseverance, and an enduring legacy that spans generations.

As famine and hardship drive Irish immigrants across the Atlantic in the mid-nineteenth century, the Power and Coughlin families plant new roots in the American Midwest. Their daughters answer a higher calling, joining the fledgling Congregation of the Dominican Sisters of Sinsinawa. Through the remarkable leadership of Sister Emily and Sister Samuel, these women help shape a religious community that will educate thousands and leave an indelible mark on the nation.

Their story intertwines with those of the Cullen and Hynes families, whose lives are transformed by the sisters’ influence. Seeking refuge from the unrest of postwar Chicago, they settle in Dixon, Illinois, where friendship, faith, and family bind them to another rising family—the Reagans. As Ronald Reagan grows from a small-town boy into a radio broadcaster, actor, and emerging public figure, the lives of ordinary and extraordinary Americans intersect in unexpected ways.

Set against the backdrop of immigration, the Great Depression, two world wars, and the dawn of the Cold War, The Irish Ties That Bind is a sweeping historical saga of courage, devotion, and the families whose quiet strength shaped generations. It is a powerful testament to the bonds of family, faith, and heritage that endure long after history's tides have turned.

# # #

About the Authir

A lifelong resident of Wisconsin, Michael J. Hopkins earned his undergraduate degree in economics from Beloit College, subsequently obtaining a degree in history from Arizona State University and the University of Wisconsin–Platteville. He furthered his academic pursuits by completing a Master of Arts in the Humanities at California State University, Dominguez Hills. Mr. Hopkins concluded a distinguished forty-year tenure in secondary education, having served as a social studies instructor at Darlington High School for thirty-nine years. In addition to his teaching responsibilities, he dedicated many years to coaching basketball, baseball, and football at the same high school. His contributions to athletics were formally recognized in 2021 with his induction into the Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame. Following his retirement from education, he has transitioned into a career as an author. In 2025, he published his autobiographical memoir, Embracing A Competitive Life: Trials, Triumphs, and 150 Life Lessons in Six Decades of Competition, which chronicles his experiences as both an athlete and a coach. Find out more at https://www.historiumpress.com/hp-authors/michael-hopkins and find Michael on Facebook, Instagram and Bluesk @mjhop.bsky.social

Book Launch Spotlight: What Love E'er Meant (Regina Book 2) by Janet Wertman

2026-09-07T08:00:38.769+00:00

Available from Amazon UK and Amazon U S

A new queen must prove she deserves the throne God gave her, while the path everyone insists will secure it might cost her everything

Against all odds, Elizabeth Tudor has become Queen of England. Determined to fulfill what she sees as a divine responsibility, she sets out to heal a country ravaged by religious discord, war, and debt – and vindicate the legacy of Anne Boleyn, the mother who did not deserve her fate.

But Elizabeth’s crown is not fully secure: to the Catholic world, her cousin Mary Stuart is the rightful Queen of England and there are rumblings to put her there. Shoring up defenses requires that Elizabeth challenge France’s control of Scotland and Spain’s dominance on the seas, as well as calm internal strife. Above the din of menace, one question dominates all others: who will she marry?

William Cecil, her trusted Secretary of State, urges her to secure an alliance through a strategic match. Robert Dudley, the love of her life, pressures her to choose him. And Mary herself presents a cautionary tale. In the end, Elizabeth chooses not as a woman but as a queen, and learns the sobering truth of sovereignty: to rule is to stand alone.

What Love E’er Meant, the searing second volume in the

Regina Trilogy, captures a young queen’s struggle to balance love and power, duty and desire…and the profound cost of

choosing crown over heart.

# # #

About the Author

By day, Janet Wertman is a freelance grantwriter for impactful nonprofits. By night, she writes critically acclaimed, character-driven historical fiction – indulging a passion for the Tudor era she had harbored since she was eight years old and her parents let her stay up late to watch The Six Wives of Henry VIII and Elizabeth R. Her Seymour Saga trilogy (Jane the Quene, The Path to Somerset, The Boy King) took her deep into one of the era’s central families – and now her follow-up Regina series explores Elizabeth’s journey from bastard to icon. Find out more from www.janetwertman.com and follow Janet on Facebook, Instagram and Bluesky @janetwertman.bsky.social

Special Guest Post by Jacquie Rogers, Author of the Quintus Valerius Roman Mysteries

2026-09-06T17:06:47.945+00:00

Available from Amazon UK and Amazon US

224 AD: Imperial Investigator Quintus Valerius is summoned from Rome to Britannia by his old companion-in-arms, Governor Gaius Trebonius. Trebonius wants Quintus to investigate fraud at the silver mines he is overseeing. But on his journey to Somerset in the south-west of the isle, Quintus hears rumours of a Druid uprising. And when he encounters his scorned ex-lover, he suspects she may have something to do with it. When Quintus finally reaches the mines, he finds himself under attack. He realises a dark conspiracy could be behind the fraud. And the stakes are raised when a potential witness is murdered.

Thank you, Tony, for inviting me back to your blog. I was last here in 2023, when I wrote about the history behind my third Roman mystery, The Loyal Centurion. Since then I’ve moved to Sapere Books, who have signed me up with enough relaunches and new books to keep me busy for a long time! Suffice it to say that my Quintus Valerius mysteries are coming out this autumn and winter, with brilliant new covers and add-ons like maps, cast lists (helpful with all those Latin names), place names, glossaries and reader notes. The Governor’s Man is on pre-order now, followed by The Carnelian Phoenix on 20 November. The Loyal Centurion follows in the New Year.

Since last appearing here, I’ve written a new mystery for Quintus and his fellow sleuths set in Aquae Sulis, the Roman spa resort and religious centre of Bath. The Bath Curse came out of my enduring fascination with the famous lead curse tablets found in the Sacred Spring at Bath. They were dedicated to the British-Roman goddess Sulis Minerva, renowned for her healing, wisdom and help in a just war.

Gilt-bronze head of the goddess Sulis Minerva,

a monumental artifact from Roman Britain

Anyone wanting justice, or simply with a major grudge, could come here to make a sacrifice to the goddess, and have their particular beef inscribed by a clerk onto a thin lead sheet. The justice sought would take the form of retribution dealt out by the all-powerful Sulis Minerva. The curse tablets were folded or rolled up, and thrown into the steaming sacred spring.

Roman curse tablet (defixio) discovered at the King's Bath

in Bath, England (Aquae Sulis).

Poor Docilianus – I doubt he ever got his warm wool coat back, despite his fervent prayers. But Aquae Sulis wasn’t just about healing and worship. By the Severan period (AD 220s, when my books are set), it was a popular spa resort not unlike the Bath of Jane Austen’s day. People came to Bath from all over the western Roman Empire, to holiday, relax, gossip, drink the waters, meet a potential partner, even gamble. If you’ve visited Bath yourself, you’ll know how splendid the Great Bath is. It’s unique in Britain both for its grand size and the natural flow of waters, heated by geothermal forces to a steady 46 degrees C, and pumping out over a million litres a day.

We don’t know much about the visitors who travelled here to take the highly-mineralised waters, but I imagine that the steady influx of wealthy visitors to this tiny city might tempt the unscrupulous – and the downright criminal – to prey on them. A sort of Las Vegas-cum-Monte Carlo, perhaps?

As well as The Bath Curse (to be published in 2027), I’ve begun a new companion series. Same time period as the Quintus Valerius books (early third century), still in Roman Britannia, but the Otto Cornelius series has action centred around the wonderful city of Viroconium Cornoviorum. Nowadays Wroxeter Roman city lies under fields around seven miles south-east of Shrewsbury, where English Heritage care for this fourth-largest of Britain’s Roman cities. It was built as the capital for the Cornovii tribe, whose lands stretched from Staffs to the Mersey, and well into modern Wales. That makes it the most north-westerly of Rome’s cities – and what a city it was!

We are very fortunate that Viroconium survived in some form or another long after the end of the Roman period. It is thought that a possible plague drove the remaining inhabitants away to a better defended site – hence mediaeval Shrewsbury. The old city remained untouched, under a cover of soil and grass. Eventually Victorian antiquaries took an interest in the astonishing remains of what we now know to be a large gym hall, or baths basilica. Since then, modern techniques of geophysics and aerial photography have revealed in detail the layout of a wealthy, bustling city of some 15 000 people, spread over 73 hectares.

Even this remote city would have had a mix of people from many parts of the Roman empire. I’ve taken advantage of this, to create as my main character a German-Romano-British officer, Prefect Otto Cornelius, pushed into early retirement from the XXth legion in Chester. Needless to say, these also being mystery novels, he soon stumbles across murder and theft. The Silver Mirror and The Amber Goddess are both written, while The Salt Road is under way. All to be published in 2027/2028.

Artist’s impression of the baths complex at Wroxeter

Last year I finally travelled to Pompeii and Herculaneum. I know, it’s shameful being a Roman historical novelist who’s never been to the best-preserved Roman towns of the lot.

I came, I saw, I was vanquished. It was a very emotional week for me. When I’d finished crying, I wrote my own story of the people found by archaeologists on the beach at Herculaneum, waiting in vain for rescue by Pliny’s navy.

And now that’s been published too. I’ve situated the story as a prequel to the Quintus Valerius series, an introductory novelette featuring a noble ancestor of Quintus. Tribune Flavius Valerius was definitely in the wrong place, at the wrong time. My homage to those left on the beach at Herculaneum is titled after a quote from the only eye-witness account of the Vesuvian eruption of AD 79: A Night Blacker and Darker. It’s available now, in paperback and for Kindle.

Thank you, Tony. I hope you’ll invite me back to your wonderful blog next year, when I’ll have more Roman history to share.

Jacquie Rogers

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About the Author

Jacquie Rogers was a child £10 Pom, moving back to the UK nicely in time for the three-day week. She had careers in advertising and university teaching before turning to writing. Since then, she’s written four novels for her Quintus Valerius Roman mysteries, and another two so far in her forthcoming companion series, the Otto Cornelius Roman mysteries, set in and around Wroxeter Roman city. Her short stories have been published in several countries. In 2020 and 2021 she was Runner Up in the Lincoln Book Festival flash fiction competitions. Jacquie lives in Malvern, where she walks the hills with her husband and their dog, Peggy. Jacquie loves travelling Europe by motorbike, and discussing politics, travel and books. She spends a lot of time in cafés and pubs. Find out more at Jacquie’s Substack, Writing Roman Britain, where you can sign up for free to her monthly newsletters. For social media, book links and author events, go to https://linktr.ee/jacquierogers

Special Guest Post by Anna Belfrage, Author of The Prodigal Son (The Graham Saga Book 3)

2026-09-05T05:27:28.191+00:00

Available from Amazon UK and Amazon US

Safely returned from an involuntary stay in Virginia, Matthew Graham finds the Scottish Lowlands torn asunder by religious strife. His Restored Majesty, Charles II, requires all his subjects to swear fealty to him and the Church of England, riding roughshod over any opposition.

A masked pimpernel – of Alexander Peden, devout preacher and religious rebel

One of the joys of writing historical fiction is making the acquaintance of the somewhat lesser known people who once played important roles in the events of the past. One such person is Alexander Peden, the charismatic Scottish Kirk minister who set large parts of Ayrshire ablaze with his determined refusal to abandon his faith. He plays a pivotal role in my book The Prodigal Son and inspires my male hero Matthew Graham to risk life and limb in his steadfast support of the Covenanter cause.

This does not endear Alexander Peden to Matthew’s time traveller wife, Alex, who spends far too much time with her heart in her mouth while Matthew is off playing the hero. Should he be caught, they’d likely hang him—or sell the entire Graham family into bondage in the new world. Alex does not understand how anyone can risk so much for religion. Matthew cannot comprehend how she cannot see that some things are worth dying for. Let’s just say the Graham family is at an impasse . . .

While Matthew is a purely fictional character, anyone familiar with the history of the Covenanters and their persecution in the late 17th century will, at some point or another, have stumbled over Mr Peden.

To me, Sandy Peden – oops, Alexander Peden (Sandy to friends only, and I’m not quite sure I qualify) – came alive the day I stood in the National Museum of Scotland and peered at his mask.

17th-century disguise mask and wig worn by Alexander Peden,

a Scottish religious rebel, on display at the

National Museum of Scotland

I realise that the purpose of the mask was to disguise him, thereby leading me to assume he didn’t at all look like it. Still, when studying the mask I had my first clear image of Sandy – a slight man who burned with restless energy, whose eyes glowed with passion when he spoke about God. A brave man, a stubborn man – and a man convinced that his faith and his beliefs were the right ones.

“Of course they are,” he says, sounding aggravated.

“You think?” I snort. “All that stuff about predestination, about the relative unimportance of women…”

“Pah! Just shows how little you know! Now, I am willing to take on the task of educating you – however much of a Sisyphus task that might be.”

I ignore the little man. I’m not uneducated, thank you very much.

“Aye you are,” he says. “You have studied such varied subjects but how much of your academic efforts have you expended on God? On the Holy Writ?” He sinks those luminous grey eyes of his into mine. “No, I thought as much,” he says before fading away.

Alexander Peden was born in 1626 and educated at Glasgow University. In 1662 he was ejected from his parish New Luce—the restored king, Charles II, and his advisors were determined to supplant the Scottish Kirk with the Church of England. Peden spent the rest of his life as a religious rebel, holding secret services out on the moors of Ayrshire to fortify his ever-growing flock of die-hard Presbyterians.

The powers that were searched high and low for him, but Sandy knew how to blend into the landscape—ably helped by my Matthew—and to further confuse his pursuers he wore the mask mentioned above. It is said that on several occasions he evaded capture by praying to God for deliverance – which God duly supplied through the opportune appearance of a thick fog or clouds to cover the moon.

“God looks to his own,” Sandy puts in, scratching at his balding head. He smells, his dark coat is frayed around the cuffs and has a long tear down the back. He looks tired and dirty, and he keeps on coughing. He frowns at my inspection. “It’s not a life of comfort to be constantly on the run.”

“So why not give up?”

“Give up?” Sandy raises fair, bushy brows. “I’m outlawed. They’d hang me off the first gallows they could find.”

No matter divine intervention, Sandy’s luck eventually ran out. In 1673 he was captured and spent the coming five years on the Bass Rock. After this, he was to be deported to America and together with 60 others he was set aboard a ship to London where they were to be transferred to another, larger vessel. However, the captain of this vessel was so incensed when Sandy informed him why they were being deported that he released them, leaving them on the London docks.

“A good man,” Sandy laughs. “He would no more carry me off against my will than he would kill his mother.” He scratches at his chest. “Lice,” he mutters. “Courtesy of His Majesty’s tender care, I reckon.”

“Or of living rough.”

“That too.” He purses his lips. “Sometimes…”

“Sometimes what?”

Sandy shakes his head. “Nowt,” he says, smiling ruefully.

“Go on; sometimes…”

“… I long for a bed – a warm home, a family…” He stares off in the distance. “God has ordained and I must obey.”

After the encounter with the godly captain, Sandy and his companions walked all the way home. For the remaining years of his life, Sandy divided his time between Scotland and Ireland, always on the run, always holding to his faith and preaching the word of God as he knew it.

Alexander Peden died in 1685 – in a bed, as he’d prophesised.

“Of course,” Sandy says. “God allowed me one last night of comfortable sleep.”

“That was nice of him.” Seems the least he could do, given Sandy’s unstinting service.

Sandy wags his finger at me. “You sound like Alexandra Graham. That woman is in serious need of guidance, but that husband of hers is too besotted with her to do as he should.”

“He is?” I smile, thinking that if Matthew is besotted with Alex, she definitely returns the favour.

“You know he is.” Sandy smiles. “A marvellous woman, for all that she is wild and half-heathen.”

“Matthew isn’t too bad either,” I say.

Sandy chuckles and gets to his feet. “Well you would say so, wouldn’t you? After all, you’ve made him up.” With that he is gone.

Upon hearing Alexander Peden was dead a company of soldiers chose to disinter his body, intending to hang his corpse from the gallows in Cumnock. Loud objections from the people led to Sandy being reburied at the foot of the gallows. In due course, an impressive monument was erected over his final resting place. Not that Sandy ever wanted a monument – all he wanted was the freedom to worship God according to his beliefs.

If the above has inspired you to want to learn more about Alexander Peden and the religious persecution that plagued the Scottish Lowlands in the aftermath of the Restoration, why not read The Prodigal Son ?

In Ayrshire, people close ranks around their evicted Presbyterian ministers. But disobedience comes at a high price, and Alex becomes increasingly nervous as to what her Matthew is risking by his support of the clandestine ministers – foremost amongst them the charismatic Sandy Peden.

Privately, Alex considers Sandy an enervating fanatic and all this religious fervour is incomprehensible to her. So when Matthew repeatedly sets his faith and ministers before his own safety, he puts their marriage under severe strain.

Things are brought to a head when Matthew places all their lives in the balance to save his dear preacher from the dragoons. How much is Matthew willing to risk? How much will he ultimately lose?

Anna Belfrage

# # #

About the Author

Historical Fiction Spotlight: The Fern Flower, by Kathleen Shoop

2026-09-04T05:04:35.871+00:00

Available from Amazon UK and Amazon US

Russia 1908-1917: Born into privilege as the daughter of the Tsar’s favored vodka maker, Mila appears to have everything: wealth, status, and a household devoted to her happiness. But behind the gilded doors of her family estate, she is trapped by the cruelty of a stepmother whose greatest wish is to give birth to her own child.

Each summer on Ivan Kupala Eve, Russia turns its gaze to river bends and forest floors in search of the legendary Fern Flower—a mythical bloom said to grant fortune, power, and the deepest desires of the heart. Only one person had ever found it.

Until Mila.

Years later, in the fading grandeur of Petrograd, Mila and her friends slip into the fabled Stray Dog Café, once the sanctuary of Russia’s most daring artists and dreamers. Inspired by its ghosts, murals, and memories, Mila's group resurrects the work she'd first imagined as a child. The Fern Flower is a breathtaking ballet drawn from folklore, magic, and the secrets of Mila’s past.

But in the fiercely competitive ranks of the Imperial Ballet School, talent is never enough. Though Mila wrote the ballet and her gifted musician friend composed its score, rivals question whether Mila is worthy of claiming the coveted lead role.

As World War I intensifies and revolution ignites, the Russia Mila knows begins to collapse. Family secrets surface, loyalties are tested, and the people she loves begin to disappear. When her parents flee and her young brother’s life hangs in the balance, Mila is faced with an impossible choice: remain with the found family who helped her chase her dreams or risk everything to save the person who needs her most.

With Russian folklore, imperial grandeur, and the fierce beauty of ballet, The Fern Flower is a sweeping tale of ambition, friendship, sacrifice, and the magic that survives even when the world is falling apart.

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About the Author

Bestselling author, Kathleen Shoop, PhD’s novels have won awards in the Independent Publisher Book Awards (IPPY), Eric Hoffer Book Awards, the Next Generation Indie Book Awards, Readers’ Favorite, and more. Kathleen has more than 20 years of experience in the classroom and has been featured in USA Today and the Writer’s Guide. She co-coordinates Mindful Writers Retreats and co-coordinated the 2023 Pennwriters Conference. She frequently teaches and is a regular presenter at conferences for writers. Find out more at Kathleen's website: http://kshoop.com and find her on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter / X @kathieshoop and Bluesky @kathleenshoop.bsky.social

Book Launch Spotlight: Queens and Kings: An Unusually Personal History, by Lucy Worsley

2026-09-03T05:56:51.114+00:00

Available from Amazon UK and Amazon US

Lucy Worsley has lived and breathed royal history for more than twenty years. As Chief Curator of Historic Royal Palaces, she worked in some of Britain's most famous royal sites, from Hampton Court to the Tower of London, and even lived in one of them herself. Now she takes us behind closed doors to reveal some of the monarchy's best-kept secrets.

In Queens and Kings, Lucy brings to life the rulers who have shaped Britain over the last thousand years, from Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn to Queen Victoria and Elizabeth II. What emerges is a royal world far stranger, funnier and more surprising than we might think: of intimate love letters, phantom pregnancies, unruly pet monkeys and fatal betrayals. Venturing through haunted staircases and into private bedchambers, she finds the details that make history feel gloriously human.

With her trademark warmth and incisive scholarship, Lucy explores the full splendour, scandal and sorrow of royal life. The result is a wildly engaging history of the monarchy from one of our most beloved historians.

'Warm, insightful, and full of heart, Worsley has distilled a lifetime of experience into this crowning achievement of a book.' HALLIE RUBENHOLD

# # #

About the Author

Dr Lucy Worsley was Chief Curator at Historic Royal Palaces, the charity which looks after the Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace, Kensington Palace, and other historic places. Her first paid employment after studying history at Oxford was at a minor stately home called Milton Manor, near Abingdon, where she fed the llamas. After that she became an Inspector of Ancient Monuments at English Heritage, doing historical research at Bolsover Castle in Derbyshire: this led to her first book, 'Cavalier', about a dissolute Royalist duke. Her work as a curator at Kensington Palace led to 'Courtiers', which was followed by 'If Walls Could Talk', 'A Very British Murder', and her first historical novel for young readers, 'Eliza Rose', which is set at the Tudor court.for young readers, 'Eliza Rose', which is set at the Tudor court. For more information visit Lucy's website www.lucyworsley.com and find her on Twitter @Lucy_Worsley and Bluesky @lucyworsley.bsky.social