My love of history began at the age of 9 with a book given to my older brother: Our Island Story. My history teacher at school introduced me to serious historical biography and studying for a Law degree taught me the value of accuracy. The chance discovery of a notebook detailing one strand of my mother's family tree led to my current project of writing about the imagined lives of my female ancestors beginning in 1299 with my 19 times-great-grandmother Marguerite of France and ending in 1942 with my mother. Twenty-one books mean a lot of history and a mountain of research. A very pleasant way to spend my retirement.
1421. Trouble is brewing in Henry V's England. As the only child and sole heiress of the Earl of Salisbury, young Alice Montagu has been chosen as a bride for Richard, favourite son of the Nevill family. But when her father remarries, Alice faces disinheritance if her stepmother gives birth to a son. In an attempt to avert this catastrophe Alice seeks help from a notorious wise woman, unaware of how much interest the powerful Bishop Beaufort is taking in her activities.
Katherine is one of the first historical novels I read and one I go back to time and again. It tells the story of Katherine de Roet, daughter of a humble herald who captures the heart of a prince and becomes the ancestress of the Tudor kings of England. The love story of Katherine and John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, third son of Edward III, is dramatic, heartbreaking, and beautifully written. It conveys a real sense of time and place and of a woman's position in the medieval world and the difficult choices faced by Katherine. Would I have abandoned everything for love, knowing I would be reviled by almost everyone? Yes, probably—if it meant having the gorgeous John of Gaunt.
"Exhilarating, exuberant, and rich," Katherine is an epic novel of a love affair that changed history—that of Katherine Swynford and John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, the ancestors of most of the British royal family (Austin Chronicle).
Set in the vibrant fourteenth century of Chaucer and the Black Death, the story features knights fighting in battle, serfs struggling in poverty, and the magnificent Plantagenets—Edward III, the Black Prince, and Richard II—who rule despotically over a court rotten with intrigue. Within this era of danger and romance, John of Gaunt, the king’s son, falls passionately in love with the already-married Katherine.…
I came across this book at a bring-and-buy sale in West Wales and it has become one of my firm favourites. It tells the story of Faye Ludlow whose husband is impatient for her to adapt to life in his family's ancient manor house. As the Second World War unfolds and nearby Dover comes under daily bombardment, Faye struggles to save not only her marriage but the family's finances threatened by her husband's increasingly grandiose schemes. Any sense of purpose she acquires from her war work as an ambulance driver is bolstered by an unlikely friendship with an enigmatic London banker. A story for any of us who have ever faced temptation.
My mother was a great reader and she introduced me to this beautifully written take on the love story of the Welsh squire Owen Tudor and Katherine, lonely young widow of Henry V. Very much a tale of love and loss I found the book a great comfort when faced with the pain of losing someone I loved. We follow Katherine from her neglected childhood in France, through her marriage to Henry V, and beyond, to widowhood and the forbidden joy she finds in the arms of Owen Tudor—a relationship which damns her in the eyes of the royal family.
Katherine of Valois, raised amidst the madness and lechery of the French court, wed to a conquering English king, Henry V, and now alone and afraid in a world of treachery and violence. Owen Tudor, incredibly handsome and gifted, a poet and singer by nature, a warrior by necessity, and now a man ready to risk life for love. Theirs was a passion too perilous to reveal and too fiery to be long restrained or concealed...
An exciting, richly layered adventure story of the "long learning of love" set against the backdrop of the rule of the British Raj and the first rumblings of the 1857 Indian Mutiny. I lent the book to a friend and thought I'd lost it forever until I discovered it in her spare bedroom! Our narrator, Laura, has to watch as her cousin marries Charles, the man Laura loves, and is then forced to accompany the young couple on their honeymoon. Not something to be recommended! Their destination is the Kingdom of Oudh and the vast Zemindari estate of Charles's unknown brother, Oliver Erskine. I don't recommend Zemindar because it has won a host of prestigious prizes but because it is a great read.
An international bestseller and winner of the 1981 Georgette Heyer Historical Novel Prize, Zemindar is a magnificent, twisting love story, all unfolding against the tempestuous backdrop of the Indian Rebellion.
Englishwoman Laura Hewitt accompanies her newly engaged cousin to India, first to Calcutta and then to the fabled fiefdom of Oliver Erskine, Zemindar - or hereditary ruler - of a private kingdom with its own army. But India is on the verge of the Mutiny, which will sweep them all up in its chaos...
Praise for Zemindar:
'If you loved The Far Pavilions - and who didn't - this will…
I adore family sagas. This is a wonderful recreation of the story of the loves and rivalry of the 12th century Plantagenet king Henry II, his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine, and their sons. The book is set in the late 19th century and follows the Castallack family who live in a vast Gothic mansion, Penmarric, on the North Cornish coast overlooking the sea. You don't need to know your English history to enjoy the novel but if you finish it wanting more, as I did, you will be delighted to know there are two further books following the story of the Plantagenet kings of England: Cashelmara and The Wheel of Fortune.
From the acclaimed author of Cashelmara: the “grippingly readable” New York Times–bestselling saga of a noble English family torn apart (The Sunday Times).
Overlooking the bleak cliffs of Cornwall is Penmarric, the ancestral home of Mark Castallack. The stunning gothic manor is the picture of English nobility, wealth, and comfort. But as the twentieth century unfolds, those behind Penmarric’s towering walls face nothing short of disaster. As Mark and his children struggle to save their home and their aristocratic way of life, they must engage in a bitter fight against greed, ambition, betrayal, and even murder.
The Road from Belhaven is set in 1880s Scotland. Growing up in the care of her grandparents on Belhaven Farm, Lizzie Craig discovers as a small girl that she can see the future. But she soon realises that she must keep her gift a secret. While she can sometimes glimpse the future, she can never change it.
Nor can Lizzie change the feelings that come when a young man named Louis, visiting Belhaven for the harvest, begins to court her. Why have the adults around her never told her that the touch of a hand can change everything? When she follows Louis to Glasgow, she begins to learn the limits of his devotion and the complexities of her own affections.
From the New York Times best-selling author of The Flight of Gemma Hardy, a novel about a young woman whose gift of second sight complicates her coming of age in late-nineteenth-century Scotland
Growing up in the care of her grandparents on Belhaven Farm, Lizzie Craig discovers as a small child that she can see into the future. But her gift is selective—she doesn’t, for instance, see that she has an older sister who will come to join the family. As her “pictures” foretell various incidents and accidents, she begins to realize a painful truth: she may glimpse the future, but…
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