'History is another land.' I learned that at an early age as Errol Flynn swashed many bucklers and flew across our TV screens on a rope, dagger clenched between his teeth. Yet somehow, teachers in school managed to drain the life from history. It became a list of dates, and kings, and laws that had no relevance to my life and was as boring as watching paint dry. Still, I had a certain fascination for our ancestors. How different their lives were to ours. If only it were not all so tedious!
Then I discovered a writer called Jean Plaidy, with books like 'Light on Lucrezia' and 'Madonna of the Seven Hills' about the Borgias. This was history about real people. Her stories of the six wives of Henry VIII brought history out of the past, and made it 'live'. I was enthralled and fascinated. History was about real people. I had discovered a whole new world - another country! I wanted to write those kind of stories.
While much historical fiction is about fictional people, and I certainly was not one to miss out on those tales, I wanted to know about actual people. Just who were these pirates? Murdering cutthroats or conquering heroes? Why did the people on the Mayflower decide to go to America? We'd all heard about them, but what made them do what they did? I wanted to know. And I wanted to write about them.
Writing was my other passion. I'd been writing since I learned to read, but, you know how it is, life gets in the way. When the kids finally flew the nest, I settled down to write GENTLEMAN OF FORTUNE, quickly followed by ONE SMALL CANDLE. They are both based on true stories with a little writer's licence. FOR THE KING Roger L'Estrange and the Siege of King's Lynn, a story of the English Civil War, is the beginning of the Adventures of Roger L'Estrange. The second in the series REBELLION, Roger L'Estrange and the Kent Petition, is out now.
I hope you enjoy reading my books as much as I enjoyed writing them.
