When King John died in 1216, he left a wife and 5 children, his heir nine-year-old Henry, his brother Richard, and three girls, Eleanor, Isabelle and Joan. The country was in turmoil and the youngsters grew up in a difficult political situation. Their mother, Isabelle of Angouleme, left the country and married Hugh de Lusignan, […]
Find out moreWhile I do a great deal of background reading when writing my novels, I am a very visual writer in my imagination, and I love to study the art and artefacts of the period I’m writing about and to have a connections with things that involved my characters. Indeed, I find these visual connections a […]
Find out moreWriting a novel for any genre involves research, but is especially rewarding for historical fiction where it becomes a light to illuminate the world the writer and reader are going to occupy for several hundred pages. I love doing the research to create my medieval world. That doesn’t mean it should all be dumped in […]
Find out moreA place featured in several scenes in A MARRIAGE OF LIONS is a chamber in the Palace of Westminster that no longer exists; it was destroyed by fire in the first half of the 19th century, eventually being demolished in 1851. I have set several pivotal scenes in this room, which was King Henry III’s […]
Find out moreI have a couple of scenes in A MARRIAGE OF LIONS that feature animals from King Henry III’s menagerie at the Tower of London – the polar bear and the elephant. The original royal menagerie was kept at the Palace of Woodstock in Oxfordshire, where King Henry I had a lion, a camel and a […]
Find out moreI have to confess that A MARRIAGE OF LIONS did not have a title for a long time, and the first title it acquired is not the one you see on the jacket cover. The novel’s working title for most of its first draft life in private was ‘Joanna de Valence’ because that was the […]
Find out moreBefore I began to write A MARRIAGE OF LIONS I had no idea that this was going to be the title – although it suits the subject matter perfectly. I also had no idea that Joanna de Munchensey and William de Valence were going to be the subjects of the novel but I am so […]
Find out moreScarlet cloth has been on my radar for a while. I learned several years ago that it was a fabric name rather than a colour, but that since it was often dyed red, the two became associated. I think I was writing The Marsh King’s Daughter at the time. When writing my Eleanor of […]
Find out more