George Villiers is rich, powerful and has the King’s ear. Doctor’s daughter Hester is a mere servant – to be cast aside when he has done with her, especially since she is pregnant. Returning to her family, Hester vows that Villiers will never lay eyes on their son. She and her sisters Melis and Hope […]
The Smallest Man by Frances Quinn
My name is Nat Davy. Perhaps you’ve heard of me? There was a time when people up and down the land knew my name, though they only ever knew half the story. The year of 1625, it was, when a single shilling changed my life. That shilling got me taken off to London, where they […]
Henrietta Maria, a forgotten queen?
Frances Quinn’s novel The Smallest Man is inspired by the life of Jeffrey Hudson, the ‘court dwarf’ of Henrietta Maria, Charles I’s French wife. But who was this spirited woman who was both dearly loved and deeply unpopular? Frances looks at the friendship between a courtier and a queen who has been all but forgotten […]
The Master of Measham Hall by Anna Abney
1665. It is five years since King Charles II returned from exile, the scars of the English Civil Wars are yet to heal and now the Great Plague engulfs the land. Alethea Hawthorne is safe inside the walls of the Calverton household as a companion to their daughter. She waits in anticipation of her brother […]
The Silkworm Keeper by Deborah Swift
Giulia Tofana never wanted to be a nun, but she is determined to atone for her past misdeeds by making her new monastery a success. When an unexpected disaster closes the convent, Giulia is forced to turn to her old friend Fabio Pasello for help. Giulia still has intense feelings for Fabio, and Fabio’s passion for […]
Slashing the face: punishing unfaithful women in Italy
Deborah Swift writes about the background to a scene in her latest book, The Silkworm Keeper: a cruel punishment carried out on women in 17th-century Italy. In my new novel, The Silkworm Keeper, there is a scene in which the sculptor Gianlorenzo Bernini sends a servant to slash the face of his unfaithful lover, Costanza […]
The Poison Keeper by Deborah Swift
Giulia Tofana longs for more responsibility in her mother’s apothecary business, but Mamma has always been secretive and refuses to tell her the hidden keys to her success. But the day Mamma is arrested for the poisoning of the powerful Duke de Verdi, Giulia is shocked to uncover the darker side of her trade. Giulia […]
Historical fiction’s role in giving a voice to women
Flora Johnston reveals how a shabby old gown led her to uncover the stories of two women from 17th-century Scotland – and to give them back their voices through her first novel. What is the role of historical fiction in giving a voice to the women who lived before us? When it comes to revealing […]