Today I’m delighted to be shining a spotlight on Tony Riches’s recently released novel, Bess - Tudor Gentlewoman as part of a blog tour hosted by The Coffee Pot Book Club. Bess - Tudor Gentlewoman is book 6 in Tony's The Elizabethans series. Blurb Bess Throckmorton defies her notorious background and lack of education to … Continue reading Spotlight ~ Bess–Tudor Gentlewoman by Tony Riches
Elizabethan England
Excerpt – The Dartington Bride by Rosemary Griggs
Today I’m delighted to be sharing an excerpt from Rosemary Griggs’ newly released novel, The Dartington Bride, as part of a blog tour hosted by The Coffee Pot Book Club. Is the The Dartington Bride is the second book in Rosemary’s Daughters of Devon series telling the stories of the forgotten women of the Tudor … Continue reading Excerpt – The Dartington Bride by Rosemary Griggs
Raleigh – Tudor Adventurer by Tony Riches
Today I’m delighted to be sharing an excerpt from Tony Riches’ most recent novel, Raleigh – Tudor Adventurer, as part of a blog tour hosted by The Coffee Pot Book Club. This is the third book in The Elizabethan Series. Greenwich Palace, 1584 I’d never seen the presence chamber so crowded. The queen sat on … Continue reading Raleigh – Tudor Adventurer by Tony Riches
The Devil’s Dye by Jeni Neill
Today, I’m delighted to be sharing an excerpt from Jeni Neill's debut novel, The Devil's Dye which is set in and around Norwich in the 1560 and 1570s and follows the fortunes of a family of Strangers, Protestant refugees escaping persecution in the Spanish Netherlands. Excerpt Apprenticing the two Wright boys to Jowan has been … Continue reading The Devil’s Dye by Jeni Neill
Book Review – Murder at Westminster Abbey by Amanda Carmack
Londoners are crowding into the streets, celebrating, watching the river procession as Elizabeth Tudor makes her way by barge to the Tower of London in preparation for her coronation. Meanwhile, in the backstreets of Southwark, a kindhearted prostitute with pale skin and red hair is brutally murdered. Nineteen-year-old Kate Haywood is the daughter of a … Continue reading Book Review – Murder at Westminster Abbey by Amanda Carmack
The Elizabethan ‘Suter’
In the 16th century, marriage was not a purely personal affair but rather a group effort involving acquaintances, friends or family members. When a young man or woman or, more often, their parents decided it was time to marry, the first step was to find a suitable spouse. After determining that there was no one … Continue reading The Elizabethan ‘Suter’
Elizabethan Magpie Pickings
I have something of a magpie brain—I like to collect shiny bits of information, not necessarily immediately useful but interesting, to me at least. Over the past few weeks I have been heavily revising my current work in progress, The Bridled Tongue, and checking that I have no glaring anachronisms. These are some of the … Continue reading Elizabethan Magpie Pickings
A Glimpse of Elizabethan Norwich
My novel, The Bridled Tongue, is set partly in Norwich. Although Norwich suffered extensive bombing during World War II, there are numerous areas where Norwich's history is still plain. In 2016 I visited Norwich and so was able to glimpse the streets and sights that would have been familiar to my 16th century characters. While … Continue reading A Glimpse of Elizabethan Norwich
Book Review – Fools and Mortals by Bernard Cornwell
London 1595 and Richard, younger brother of William Shakespeare is a player in the Lord Chamberlain’s Men where William is both playwright and a sharer (a senior member of the company who shared both its expenses and its profits). Richard’s arrival in London a few years earlier was not welcomed by William. He packed Richard … Continue reading Book Review – Fools and Mortals by Bernard Cornwell
One Minute Book Review – Shakespeare’s Restless World by Neil MacGregor
In 2012 Neil MacGregor, then Director of the British Museum, gave a series of fifteen-minute talks on Radio 4 called Shakespeare's Restless World which took twenty objects from the late Elizabethan/early Jacobean period and examined them in detail, setting them not only in their historical setting, but also in that of Shakespeare’s plays. This book, … Continue reading One Minute Book Review – Shakespeare’s Restless World by Neil MacGregor
Catherine Meyrick 