New Novel out now

THE MINSTREL'S LADY

I thought to write a novel around Anne Boleyn, who I have long regarded as one of the most unfortunate and betrayed women in English history.

From what we know, she did not want to marry the King. She was in love with Harry Percy and wanted to wed him; all they need was the permission of the King. But once that King saw Anne, he was not going to let her have a normal, happy life with the man she loved. He wanted her for himself and what Henry VIII wanted, Henry VIII got.

He was no doubt besotted. He turned the country upside down an divorced his faithful wife of 20 years, declared his daughter a bastard and defied the Pope, earning him an excommunication. All this for the love of his life, yet only a few short years later, he not only lost interest in her, he was happy to have her executed.

It is said that he spent the night before her execution pawing over plans and diagrams for the scaffold where she was to lose her life. By this time, it is rumoured, she was also in love with him.

Of course, we none of us really know the truth and it is popular to believe that she was guilty of all charges, although we do know she could not have committed adultery with Mark Smeaton on the dates and at the times he stated, as she was elsewhere at those times. That didn't stop Cromwell from stating his word as fact. The poor man was terrified and was promised his life if he confessed.

So, since I never use real historical figures as major characters in my books, I decided to write about friends of the unfortunate Mark Smeaton, a fellow minstrel and his lady, called to London by Mark to perform for the Queen. 

This is their story and you can read more and the first chapter on my website here.

FIVE FREE BOOKS FOR NEW SUBSCRIBERS TO MY READERS' GROUP NEWSLETTER

FREE BOOKS

These are the e-books you will receive absolutely free when you sign up for my Readers' Group Newsletter. Three of the books are the first in series and two are exclusive to Readers' Group subscribers and are not on sale to the general public.

All you need do is go to my website to learn more and to sign up.

Conquest - New Book out now

CONQUEST

This is my new novel, set in 1066, the year of the conquest of England by the Duke of Normandy.

It is a time of terror and change, when the way of life of the ordinary people was changed for centuries.

Everyone knows the date 1066, but not everyone knows that we had three kings in that year.

This is the story of two royal sisters, very close and great friends always, until the Normans invaded. When they fell in love with men on different sides in the dispute, they were both forced to choose between their kin and the men they loved.

Read the first chapter here

The Musketeers are back - third series

My UK readers might like to know, if they don't already, that the four gorgeous Musketeers are back on BBC television for a third series.

They have managed to persuade Aramis (Santiago Cabrera) that all that handsome manhood has no place in a monastery and brought him back to his rightful position.

But now we have a married Musketeer - D'Artagnan (Luke Pasqualino) - and really not sure whether Alexander Dumas had that bit in his stories. I really must get round to reading the book, but at 750 pages I haven't managed it. Should have done it when I was younger.

I am longing to know if Milady (Maimie McCoy) is coming into this series. She was just being cured of her wickedness in the last series and nearly won Athos back. If we have one married Musketeer, why not two?

Can't wait!

PESTILENCE: Now available in boxed set!

PESTILENCE

All three books now available in a three book set in digital format.

Individual books available in paperback as well.

The Pestilence: Book Three Once Loved is now available

PESTILENCE: ONCE LOVED

This is the third book in my trilogy concerning some of the people who lived through the devastation of the Black Death.

In 1348, England saw millions of its citizens of all classes, noblemen and peasants alike, dying a horrible and painful death. At the time, people had no concept of germs or bacteria and they believed it was a sign that God was displeased. They thought it was the end of the world, a sign of the Last Days.

It changed the whole social structure of the country with the nobility unable to maintain their status and wealth with no one left to work the land, with the peasants suddenly left without guidance and realising they were no longer tied to the land. The up and coming merchants and tradesmen found themselves suddenly with less competition and able to charge whatever they liked for their services.

It was the total change of everything people had been taught to know.

My characters in this last book are able to leave their familiar towns and areas and some have no choice. Rebecca and her illegitimate son are driven out of their town, blamed for the disease because of her occupation as a prostitute. What they find as they flee the town in which they had spent their lives is a whole new world and a whole new life.

But they also find Rebecca's past waiting to greet them and she is called upon to make the greatest sacrifice of her life.

The first chapter is listed on the right of this blog, along with the first chapters of all my books. 

NEW SERIES - Books one and two of The Pestilence - A tale of the Black Death

PESTILENCE:

Pestilence: The Second Wife

 

This series tells the tale of the people who suffered through the Black Death, the bubonic plague which swept through England in 1348 killing millions and changing the course of social history forever.

 

THE SECOND WIFE is book one. This concerns Charlotte, the daughter of one of the newly wealthy merchants whose father is thwarted in his attempts to build a house as grand as those of the nobility. But when another of those nobles, Lord Robin Eversley, comes to visit, he sees Charlotte playing with her younger siblings and is enchanted. He thinks she would make an excellent stepmother for his damaged daughter, Genevieve. He has annulled his marriage to Genevieve's mother and is looking for a new wife. The differences between their social classes are not easily overcome, but they are just beginning to adapt when the plague creeps closer.

 

When Robin's elder brother, Eric, returns to reclaim his title and property, Robin leaves to attend to his own, smaller estate before moving his family there. But when he finds his own estate almost devoid of life, he is afraid to go home and take the disease with him, leaving Charlotte to believe he is dead.

 

THE SCENT OF ROSES is Book Two, which will be published soon. This is the tale of Lady Felice Sutton, who agrees to marry Lord Christopher Waterford, despite his evil reputation, to save her father from debtors' prison. She is grateful and determined to make him a good wife, but his volatile temper and his distrust of women make that almost impossible.

 

Felice believes she is beginning to find some goodness in him, but when he finds his peasant mistress dead and is convinced Felice has poisoned her, she discovers just how merciless he can be.