Behind The Scenes

6 Jan 2026

It started with a battered trunk in the attic. My great-aunt Maud had passed away, and among the boxes and dust was this old tin box tied with twine, filled… Continue reading Discovering Family History: How a Forgotten Trunk Unlocked Generations of Hidden Stories

5 Jan 2026

The urn with an inscription describing the murder of the missing princes, in front of Elizabeth I’s tomb in Westminster Abbey The inspiration for The King’s Intelligencer grew from my… Continue reading A Hidden History of Secrets, Spies and Intelligencers Investigating the Missing Princes

2 Jan 2026

Frances Apsley and Mary Stuart, and a letter from Mary to Frances, calling her “my dear dear dear Aurelia” The relationship between Frances “Franny” Apsley and Mary Stuart, the future… Continue reading A Royal Favourite: The Love Letters Between Queen Mary and Franny Apsley that Inspired “The King’s Intelligencer”

1 Oct 2025

Researching for my novels gives me an opportunity to reflect on the hidden stories of history – “herstory” – that we are discovering more and more frequently in archives and… Continue reading Women as Healers of Conflict: Keeping Families Together in a Divided World

8 Sep 2025

Small children scamper through the half-ruined walls of Nottingham Castle, gathering up still-warm cannonballs and rolling them about like toys. Their mother, Lucy Hutchinson, watches anxiously, while her own widowed… Continue reading A Family at War: Cannonballs, Children, and Courage within Nottingham Castle

1 Sep 2025

Did Richard III murder the Princes in the Tower, or was there another reason for their disappearance? When I got up close and personal with Richard’s portrait in York, and… Continue reading Lost and Found: On the Trail of the Missing Princes in the Tower

22 Aug 2025

The site of Lady Lucy Apsley’s medicinal garden, outside the Bloody Tower, looking towards the White Tower. Now commemorated as Sir Walter Raleigh’s garden. In the shadow of impenetrable stone… Continue reading Lady Apsley’s Medicinal Garden in the Tower of London | A Healer in the Heart of Power

16 Aug 2025

Three extraordinary women—cousins and best friends—shaped the destiny of the St.John family during the English Civil War, and in “Written in Their Stars” I bring them all together. Writing these… Continue reading The Rebel, The Courtier, The Spymistress: Women and England’s Civil War

23 Jul 2025

In medieval hunting, the stalking horse was a clever tool used by hunters to get close to their quarry without being noticed. It could be a real horse trained to… Continue reading The Stalking Horse and the Missing Princes: What if the Greatest Mystery in English History Was the Perfect Decoy?

19 Jun 2025

William Catesby’s tombstone, with the gouged slash across his neck In the spring of 1483, a twelve-year-old boy became king of England—but never wore the crown. Edward V, eldest son… Continue reading The King Who Never Was: Edward V, William Catesby, and the Disappearance That Inspired The Godmother’s Secret

3 Jun 2025

The mystery of the missing princes—Edward V and his brother Richard, Duke of York—captured the imagination of Victorians like no era before. Fuelled by Gothic revivalism, romanticism, and a growing… Continue reading A Victorian Obsession: The Princes in the Tower

30 Apr 2025

In The Godmother’s Secret, the journey of Prince Edward in April 1483 portrays the frightening conflict of a kingdom teetering on the edge of chaos. Following the sudden death of… Continue reading 1483: The Road to the Tower | The Fateful Last Journey of the Missing Prince, Edward V

27 Apr 2025

In 1674, workmen demolishing dilapidated wooden structures in the Tower of London made a shocking discovery. Two small skeletons were unearthed by a staircase at foot of the White Tower,… Continue reading Lost Princes Found in the Tower of London: King Charles Orders National Mourning

26 Apr 2025

Lucy, Barbara, Eleanor, Jane, Anne, Katherine (L to R), the “Six Lady St.Johns” On July 20th, 1615, the six St.John sisters stood proudly commemorated in the lifesize polyptych portrait at… Continue reading The Shadow Wives: Power and Patronage in the 17th Century Marriage Game

19 Apr 2025

As I stepped beyond the well-documented 17th century into the fragmented past of the 1400s to write The Godmother’s Secret, the document trail grew sparse, and the voices of women—who… Continue reading The Fate of the Princes in the Tower from a Medieval Woman’s Perspective

3 Apr 2025

There are moments in an author’s life when you just have to stare into space and shake your head, and whisper to yourself, “I did it.” I had one of… Continue reading Outstanding…superbly written…deliciously intriguing | The Ricardian Bulletin’s review of The King’s Intelligencer

18 Feb 2025

Lady Johanna St.John, Lydiard Park In Stuart England, women were the primary caregivers in their households, responsible for much of their family’s wellbeing. They diagnosed illnesses, prepared treatments, and administered… Continue reading Women Clinicians in Stuart England: Nursing Through War, Pestilence, and Plague

27 Jan 2025

Genealogy offers a unique lens through which we can explore history, bringing to life not just the names and dates in our family trees but the places where those stories… Continue reading Family Footsteps: Exploring Locations Through Genealogy

20 Jan 2025

Lydiard House and St. Mary’s Church, Lydiard Tregoze Growing up in England, where the weather often invited long hours of reading and the countryside is scattered with castles and ancient… Continue reading Family Footsteps: How Genealogy Inspired The Lydiard Chronicles

13 Jan 2025

Have you ever wondered about the stories hidden in your family’s past? The tales of courage, love, betrayal, and survival that shaped who you are today? Genealogy offers a powerful… Continue reading Family Footsteps: Exploring Your Ancestors’ Hidden Stories