In early May, I visited Grey’s Court near Maidenhead in Berkshire, which like Wolf Hall, is a Tudor house with many additions from later centuries. It possesses a series of courtyards, outbuildings, medieval towers, magnificent gardens and a bluebell wood. As I walked around Grey’s Court I thought of how Wolf Hall could have appeared to the eye during the … Read More
Medieval Women and the Merchant Class
I have a new novel that has just this past month been published in paperback. The Betrothed Sister is about the marriage between Gita, King Harold of England’s daughter and a Prince of Kiev during the latter half of the eleventh century. I am writing a new book. My work in progress will be concerned with a woman from the … Read More
Cathedrals and Abbeys in The Handfasted Wife and The Swan-Daughter
As well as castles, Cathedrals and Abbeys feature as locations in The Swan-Daughter, The Handfasted Wife and the shortly to be published The Betrothed Sister. Westminster Abbey features in The Handfasted Wife. King Edward the Confessor, called so because he was so pious, was responsible for the rebuilding of St Peter’s Church on the site of today’s Westminster Abbey. This … Read More
March 2014
We are half way through March, almost. So far, I have had a busy month researching medieval Kiev in The Slavonic Studies Department in Oxford. I was fortunate enough to be able to read The Russian Primary Chronicle which is the best primary source relevant to this period. I have tweeted about it, enthused about this subject on facebook and … Read More