Guest post by Hester Velmans, author of Slipper. He is the man who wrote some of the most famous stories of our time, but his name doesn’t ring a bell. He lived a full century before the Brothers Grimm and two hundred years before Hans Christian Anderson. And yet if you ask around if anyone has heard of “Charles Perrault”,… Read more »
A big welcome from Historical-Fiction.com to UK author Tony Morgan as he introduces his novels set in early Seventeenth Century England. It all started with the Gunpowder Plot… Religious tensions, terrorists on the streets of London, conflict with Europe and concerns over increasing levels of government surveillance – does this sound familiar? 1605 was a time more like our own… Read more »
John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester (1647-1680) appears in all four of my royal mistress books. To some of these ladies, he was an annoying gadfly, and to others, a devoted, amusing friend. To Katherine Sedley, the heroine of The Countess and the King, he was the kind, droll friend of her father. Either way, he was undeniably one of the… Read more »
“This is the last night of the year and I have sat here alone by the fire while my dear husband is out and about, and in thinking over how much has happened in the last twelve months I have resolved to keep a journal, and it will be private.” THE JOURNAL OF MRS PEPYS: Portrait of a Marriage by… Read more »
Watch the Lady by Elizabeth Fremantle Penelope Devereux, daughter of Lettice Knollys, the woman Queen Elizabeth I called the “She-Wolf” for marrying the royal favorite, is pitted against the Essex faction’s rival, Robert Cecil, in this panoramic Tudor narrative. Penelope, beautiful, level-headed and witty, makes a perfect waiting lady and voice for the out-of-favor Devereux family, though it is her… Read more »
The Murder in the Tower by Jean Plaidy Set in the court of James I of England, this is the story of Frances, Countess of Essex, and the path she took to rid herself of her husband so that she could marry the king’s favorite, Robert Carr, Earl of Somerset. Written in classic Plaidy style, many would not enjoy this… Read more »
The Merry Monarch’s Wife previously titled The Pleasures of Love by Jean Plaidy ‘But when I consider the truth of her heart Such an innocent passion, so kind, without art I fear I have wronged her, and hope she may be So full of true love to be jealous of me O, then ’tis I think no joys are above… Read more »
Mistress of the Sun by Sandra Gulland Louise de la Valliere, nicknamed Petite for her small stature, is just a child of six when she delves into the black arts to calm a wild horse. Not knowing the repercussions of such an act, her life takes a downward turn as her beloved father dies a mysterious death and her hopes… Read more »
The French Blue by Richard W. Wise A narrative of the adventures of the French traveler and gem merchant, Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, The French Blue starts off with an exciting sea journey and meeting with the Aborigines of Australia as related by a visiting sea captain. Jean, already an excitable young boy, sets his heart on an enterprising future. After attempting… Read more »
Forever Amber by Kathleen Winsor Forever Amber is a staple of classic historical fiction, along with Katherine by Anya Seton, Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier and Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell—yet is set apart by its brow-raising protagonist. While Amber was not by any means a great, admirable woman, the background of this story and its amazingly accurate… Read more »
The Countess and the King by Susan Holloway Scott Katherine Sedley is not a well-known name even among history lovers, but a closer look reveals a lady of wit who had the ironic position of being the Catholic King James II’s Protestant mistress. Because her mother was emotionally unstable, Katherine was raised by servants and began accompanying her father, Sir… Read more »
The Secret of the Glass by Donna Russo Morin With elegant prose and alluring style, Donna Russo Morin brings 17th century Venice gloriously to life! Based on a glassmaker’s daughter and the invention of the telescope by Galileo Galilei, the story is both a tale of a young woman’s plight when faced with an arranged marriage and a retelling of… Read more »