To Defy A King
Synopsis
The privileged daughter of one of the most powerful men in England, Mahelt Marshal’s life changes dramatically when her father is suspected by King John. Her brothers become hostages and Mahelt is married to Hugh Bigod, heir to the earldom of Norfolk. Adapting to her new life is hard, but Mahelt comes to love Hugh deeply; however, defying her father in law brings disgrace and heartbreak. When King John sets out to subdue the Bigods, Mahelt faces her worst fears alone, knowing neither she, nor her marriage are likely to survive the outcome. A story of huge emotional power set against the road to Magna Carta and the fight to bring a tyrant king to heel.
Winner of the 2011 RNA prize for Historical Fiction
Extracts for download
Microsoft Word [click to download]
PDF [click to download]
Links, blog posts and resources
- Mahelt Marshal’s biography
- Hugh Bigod’s biography
- To Defy A King – the Akashic Sessions: this is a blog dedicated to my sessions with Alison King whilst researching this novel
- The biography of Mahelt’s father, William Marshal
- The biography of Hugh’s father, Roger Bigod II
- Clothing the bones – finding Mahelt Marshal (the blog post which has now become Mahelt’s biography)
- A short biography of Hugh Bigod, the hero in To Defy A King (the blog post which has now become Hugh’s biography)
- Framlingham Castle photo gallery
- My other novels which share characters in common with To Defy A King are (in chronological order):
The Greatest Knight, The Scarlet Lion and The Time of Singing - Here is a cross stitch pattern of William Marshal’s scarlet lion device: page 1 | page 2 | page 3
Reviews
- Kathe Robin’s review of To Defy A King for Romantic Times can be found here
- Read Booklist’s review of To Defy A King here
- Sally Zigmond’s review of To Defy A King on her blog The Elephant in the Writing Room
- A review of To Defy A King on Tanzanite’s blog
- A discussion of To Defy A King on the Historical Tapestry website
- To Defy A King reviewed on Epinions.com