Today I’m delighted to be sharing an excerpt from Elizabeth St.John’s novel The Lady of the Tower as part of a blog tour hosted by The Coffee Pot Book Club. The Lady of the Tower is the first book in Elizabeth’s series The Lydiard Chronicles, a historical family saga which traces the lives of several … Continue reading Excerpt ~ The Lady of the Tower by Elizabeth St.John
England 17th century
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
Redemption by Philip Yorke
Today I’m delighted to be sharing an excerpt from Philip Yorke’s novel Redemption as part of a blog tour hosted by The Coffee Pot Book Club. Redemption is the second book in Philip's series The Hacker Chronicles, set during the First English Civil. Oliver Cromwell breezes into Stathern at four o'clock in the afternoon, galloping … Continue reading Redemption by Philip Yorke
Traitor’s Knot by Cryssa Bazos
Today I’m delighted to be sharing an excerpt from Cryssa Bazos’s novel Traitor's Knot as part of a blog tour hosted by The Coffee Pot Book Club. Traitor's Knot is the first book in Cryssa's Quest for Three Kingdoms series. Elizabeth Seton couldn’t understand the greed of seagulls. The two birds beat their wings and … Continue reading Traitor’s Knot by Cryssa Bazos
Book Review – The Master of Measham Hall by Anna Abney
The Master of Measham Hall by Anna Abney begins in London in 1665 where Great Plague already is taking hold. It is only five years since the restoration of the monarchy and the divisions that brought about the Civil War still exist beneath a thin veneer of conformity. Althea Hawthorne, a young gentlewoman, has been … Continue reading Book Review – The Master of Measham Hall by Anna Abney
Witchcraft Trials in Early Modern England
A far more succinct version of this post was published by The Coffee Pot Book Club on 9 March 2020. ‘The early-modern European witch-hunts were neither orchestrated massacres nor spontaneous pogroms. Alleged witches were not rounded up at night and summarily killed extra-judicially or lynched as the victims of mob justice. They were executed after trial and … Continue reading Witchcraft Trials in Early Modern England
Book Review – Crimen Exceptum: The English Witch Prosecution in Context by Gregory J Durston
Despite years of cool-headed scholarship over several decades, the idea still persists in the popular imagination that during the period known as the 'witch craze' millions of women were rounded up and burned at the stake often for nothing more than their skill with herbal remedies. While thousands of women, and men, believed to be … Continue reading Book Review – Crimen Exceptum: The English Witch Prosecution in Context by Gregory J Durston
Book Review ~ The Lady of the Tower by Elizabeth St.John
The Lady of the Tower imagines the life of Lucy St.John, a descendant of Margaret Beauchamp (maternal grandmother of Henry VII), from 1603 as she emerges from girlhood to 1630 when she was wife of the Keeper of the Tower of London. With the death of Lucy’s mother five years earlier, the family has been dispersed, … Continue reading Book Review ~ The Lady of the Tower by Elizabeth St.John
Book Review – Traitor’s Knot by Cryssa Bazos
Traitor’s Knot begins in 1645 with the Battle of Naseby where the New Model Army commanded by Sir Thomas Fairfax and Oliver Cromwell all but destroyed the Royalist army. James Hart, a Royalist captain, despite the hardening influence of three years at war, is shocked to his core when, in his escape from pursuing Roundheads, … Continue reading Book Review – Traitor’s Knot by Cryssa Bazos
Book Review – The Coffin Path by Katherine Clements
From the very first page The Coffin Path gives off a sense of foreboding and building menace. It begins in the Spring 1674, fourteen years into the reign of Charles II, although people and places still bear the scars of the English Civil War. Mercy Booth lives with her father, Bartram Booth, and an aging … Continue reading Book Review – The Coffin Path by Katherine Clements
Catherine Meyrick 