Tag: historical fiction

Guest Post: A Queen’s Spy by Sam Burnell

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Today’s guest on What Cathy Read Next is Sam Burnell, author of A Queen’s Spy. As a fan of historical fiction, especially if it’s set in the turbulent Tudor period, I couldn’t resist Sam’s offer to read her book. Unfortunately, that won’t be for a little while yet but, in the meantime, I’m delighted to bring you a guest post from Sam about how her love of history has inspired her writing.

Sam’s next book, A Queen’s Traitor, which involves a plot to steal Princess Elizabeth from England and spirit her away to Holland, is due out towards the end of 2017. The Tudor Heresy, a short 7,000 word introduction to the series as a whole, was published in July 2017.

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AQueensSpyAbout the Book

Richard Fitzwarren is a Tudor nobleman with a dubious past who takes risks for a living. His close friendship with Princess Elizabeth leads to his banishment to France. He returns to England a self styled Tudor soldier of fortune selling his services, and those of his mercenary band, to the highest bidder. But he remains loyal to the lady Elizabeth and soon he is embroiled in Tudor intrigue as he tries to keep her safe.

At his side is Jack, his bastard sibling; their relationship a troubled one. Impatient, impulsive and impetuous, Jack is everything Richard is not. There is a dark family secret Richard had always suspected; the final discovery of it changes the relationship

Format: ebook (406 pp.), paperback (404 pp.) Published: 19th April 2017 Genre: Historical Fiction

Purchase Links*
Amazon.co.uk ǀ Amazon.com
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

Find A Queen’s Spy on Goodreads

 

Guest Post: ‘Why History?’ by Sam Burnell

‘As a little girl, I wanted to live in a castle, one with turrets, a great hall and painted ceilings adorned with lions and unicorns. I was indeed lucky enough to live in a castle whilst at University and spending my days and nights in such a wonderful magical place had a lasting effect. Forever was I wondering what had happened in the rooms, musing on who had walked the corridors before me, and what crimes the inmates had committed, who had been interred in the rooms I now occupied which had once been used as a prison. To live in a place where Princes, Bishops and Kings had once walked was a true privilege.

I’ve always found the life of Elizabeth I to be utterly fascinating. The trauma she experienced as a child must have been terrible, as first her mother and then a succession of other women to whom she became close, perished either in child birth or at the behest of the axe. An incredibly intelligent girl, educated as a Prince, with her father’s iron will, and her mother’s ability to dissemble; it comes as no surprise that she never succumbed to marriage.

In my book, A Queen’s Spy, the character who starts the chain of events is Thomas Seymour. His life story is incredible; extremely charismatic and yet also fatally flawed by own ambition. A man motivated by greed; a man who had nearly everything and yet it was still not quite enough. A man who had risen further than you could imagine was possible, and yet he still wanted to rise further. Thomas Seymour was a man who would be King. He was Uncle, and a beloved Uncle, to a King, he was married to a King’s Widow, and he had custody in his household of a dead King’s daughter. None of it though was enough for Thomas. Incredibly this man eventually persuaded a ten year old boy, Edward VI, to back him in a plot to seize power from his brother. It was highly probable that Edward was a willing participant in Thomas’s plot to steal the young King away from Hampton Court, and name himself as Lord Protector. His manipulation of this young sovereign was a step too far for the Privy Council, and it led it him to the block. His defence that he acted only in the name of the King failed to save him.

There is nothing more offensive that when Hollywood decides to re-write history in the name of entertainment. For many of us we get our historical information from television programmes, films and books. I feel it is very important for the historical context to be correct. My main characters are indeed fictional, but their playground is Tudor England, and the places and dates are ones Elizabeth I would recognise. My bookshelves are stocked with well thumbed dusty historical works bristling with post it notes.’

SamBurnellAbout the Author

Sam Burnell lives in the North East of England and has had a passion for history and archaeology all her adult life. Originally trained as a Solicitor, whilst studying for a law degree at Durham University she discovered a love for legal history. Various jobs followed, including researcher for a local museum, public sector audit work and finally now running her own successful scuba diving business both on-line and in a bricks and mortar store. During a career break a return to University was possible where she studied Archaeology, and Sam is never happier then when she’s stood in a castle wondering what when and why and trying to unlock the secrets in the stones.

Sam Burnell’s passion is the Tudor period, and her fiction is meticulously researched, and her historical fiction has the true flavour of the period. The Tudor period is replete with mystery and intrigue ready to be turned into entertaining fiction that also provides the reader with a greater insight into the history of the period. The Tudor Heresy serves as an introduction to A Queen’s Spy and provides an opener to the series and an introduction to the main characters. The next book in the series, A Queen’s Traitor, will be available in September 2017.  Sam’s favourite reading material would be anything by Phillipa Gregory, C J Sansom or Alison Weir, all Tudor historical fiction, medieval mysteries and medieval fiction.

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Blog Tour: False Lights by K J Whittaker

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False Lights blog tour banner

As regular followers of What Cathy Read Next will know, I’m a huge fan of historical fiction. Add in a ‘What if?’ element and I’m hooked. So I’m thrilled to host today’s stop for False Lights by K J Whittaker which ticks both those boxes.

You can find an extract from False Lights below.

Plus, there’s a chance to win your own copy of False Lights (UK & ROI only). You can enter here. Entries close 15th September 2017.

FalseLightsAbout the Book

What if Napoleon, instead of Wellington, had won the Battle of Waterloo? Wellington is in secret captivity in the Scilly Isles and the Cornish are threatening to join forces with France against the English. Against this tumultuous backdrop, Hester Harewood manages to escape from the French soldiers who have killed her black sea captain father. Her rescuer – Jack ‘Crow’ Crowlas – takes her to shelter with his aristocratic family in London. But soon they are embroiled in a web of treachery and espionage, as plans are laid to free Wellington and lead an uprising against the French occupation. Meanwhile, Crow’s younger brother throws in his lot with the Cornish rebels and threatens to bring Hester and Crow’s elaborate plans crashing down, as this spellbinding story builds towards its violent and gripping endgame.

Format: Hardback (368 pp.)          Publisher: Head of Zeus
Published: 7th September 2017     Genre: Historical Fiction

Purchase Links*
Amazon.co.uk ǀ Publisher
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

Find False Lights on Goodreads

 

Extract: False Lights by K. J. Whittaker

The wind rose again, and dark clouds crept across the sky from the east. Was that small bay Lamorna Cove? Even if these men could be trusted to reach the great stone quay at the western reach of the bay without drowning them all, where might she be safe? The moment she set foot on land, every last scrap of sand, earth and moorland belonged to the Earl of Lamorna. There was a new earl, too – that scandalous boy who had sailed with Papa on the Belle and then left the navy to join Wellington’s staff in Spain.

Hester forced herself to steady her breathing as she weighed up the options: before Buonaparte had escaped his island, prison and set Europe alight with another war, Papa had gone to London on naval business, and she’d spent the winter of ’14 at Nansmornow, the ancient seat of the Earls of Lamorna. She’d never met the new earl – Papa knew him, of course, but he’d run away to sea at such a young age, afterwards joining the army, that she had never chanced to meet him at Nansmornow. The Lamornas were allies – of a sort. For so many reasons, Hester preferred not to recollect those frostbitten mornings, the sidelong glances of the Lamorna servants, ice on the windowpanes, and the Lamornas’ friends – women in fussy silk gowns not quite daring to meet her eye, or staring when they thought she did not attend.

Lord Lamorna – Mark – had died not long after Waterloo, they said, of a fever contracted as he searched the battlefield for the corpse of his estranged eldest son. But by the grace of God, that son had survived what should have been mortal wounds and was now the earl, a little-known quantity.  Hester had seen his name in The Times in the weeks after Waterloo: he was the messenger who had failed to reach Wellington with news that the allies had changed sides. Typical Wellington, Papa had said, frowning down at the newspaper. Always first to lay the blame at someone else’s door. Shabby of him to let it get out that it was Crowlas who didn’t reach him, poor lad. Lady Lamorna herself would be in London at this season, the great house Nansmornow cloaked in dust-sheets, but in any case, the Lamorna estates were far too close to what Hester had left behind. The French would look for her at Nansmornow, surely.

Even if by some miracle she escaped these soldiers, Papa’s manumission papers and the codicil confirming her own freedom were locked in his desk in the library on the top floor of the tower at Castle Bryher. Papa had never once left home without them. The Abolitionists might refuse as much sugar in their tea as they like, Papa used to say. The whole economy is bound up in the iniquity of it. The truth was, she could be kidnapped by anyone from Land’s End to the Highlands, disappearing without trace into a slave trade that had diminished, but survived underground. Hester pressed her hands to her face in a useless attempt to smooth away rising panic: the men simply ignored her.

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K J Whittaker (1)About the Author

K.J. Whittaker is the Carnegie-nominated author of six YA novels published by Walker Books under the name Katy Moran. She works part-time in a bookshop and lives in Shropshire.

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