The past is never dead, it isn’t even past
What prompted you to choose the period that you wrote your first book in? I studied history at University and fell in love with the period before 1066 in Britain and the wider Scandinavian world. But I discovered my first historical character, Ealdorman Leofwine (from...
What prompted you to choose the period that you wrote your first book in? My first book was a short detective novel set in England during the time of Edward II. I had always wanted to write a historical novel and had been reading quite a lot of medieval crime fiction,...
What prompted you to choose the period that you wrote your first book in? My first book, The Lady’s Slipper’is set in the 17th century, which remains a period I find endlessly fascinating. The novel explores the fate of a wild orchid, which is also functions in the...
What prompted you to choose the period that you wrote your first book in? I think that it rather chose me, though nothing is that simple in life. Nor do I think that I am, as it were, wedded to one period. Although my chief interest lies in the so-called ‘long...
What prompted you to choose the period that you wrote your first book in? I’d always had a love of history, but my fascination with the Wars of the Three Kingdoms (or British Civil Wars) was sparked when I was 10 years old and my parents took me to Helmsley Castle,...
What prompted you to choose the period that you wrote your first book in? I have a longstanding interest in late medieval history – especially the Wars of the Roses period which I have studied and researched a great deal over the years. It was an obvious choice when...
The common phrase is that history is written by the victors. Do you think this is true? Yes it is true, and it is one reason why a subject is worth returning to again and again. Each generation brings new insights to the past – or at least they should! It amazes me...
What first attracted you to the period or periods you work in? I’m careful not to get too trapped in any one period! My particular interest is in individuals – often quite ordinary people - who find themselves cast into an extraordinary situation. I use their story to...
What prompted you to choose the period that you wrote your first book in? In a previous existence I taught history and so have always had an interest in the motivations that stirred men and women in the past. Why would I choose to write about medieval England? It...
What first attracted you to the period or periods you work in? I gravitate to stories and people from the past who, I believe, have been wrongly lost to the shadows of History. Period is not such a driver for me – although my previous four books were from the Stuart...
