Middle Ages

• 
  14 September 2010
  About Middle Ages

  What the critics say …

  Media and Amazon comment on my latest novel.

• 
  14 July 2010
  About Middle Ages

  What else to read

  … or how to become an expert on the fourteenth century

• 
  14 July 2010
  About Middle Ages

  The Wheel of Fortune

  One spin of Fortune’s wheel will take you up, but you’ll be plunging down to the abyss soon enough if you don’t know when to get off …
  

• 
  14 July 2010
  About Middle Ages

  Credit crunches of the 14th and 21st centuries

  The downturn we’re experiencing today is only a shadow of the one that engulfed England in the late 1300s

• 
  14 July 2010
  About Literary life, London life, Middle Ages

  Geoffrey Chaucer, father of English literature

  Geoffrey Chaucer, remembered with love as a literary genius, was seen more as a humdrum mid-ranking civil servant in his own lifetime.

• 
  14 July 2010
  About Middle Ages

  Introducing Alice Perrers

  Cherchez la femme: when it turned out there was nothing left in England’s coffers, who better to blame than the King’s minxy mistress?

• 
  14 July 2010
  About London life, Middle Ages

  Where the idea for the book came from

  … a footnote … a tabloid sting? … and the discovery of one of history’s most engaging rogues

• 
  24 June 2010
  About Middle Ages, The Tudors

  Portrait of an Unknown Woman | Critical acclaim for this book

  ‘A brilliant study of passion, politics, religion and art.’ and plenty more praise

• 
  23 June 2010
  About Middle Ages, The Tudors

  Portrait of an Unknown Woman | Where the idea for this book came from…

  How a set of drawings gave rise to an entire historical novel

• 
  22 June 2010
  About Middle Ages, The Tudors

  Portrait of an Unknown Woman | How much of the story is true?

  This story is based on more historical fact than might be expected

• 
  21 June 2010
  About Middle Ages, The Tudors

  Portrait of an Unknown Woman | Important dates

  A detailed timeline of the key events during the period when the book is set

• 
  20 June 2010
  About Middle Ages, The Tudors

  Portrait of an Unknown Woman | Religion in the 16th century

  Christianity at the crossroads… challenges to the hegemony of the Catholic church and their repercussions

• 
  19 June 2010
  About London life, Middle Ages, The Tudors

  Portrait of an Unknown Woman | Medicine in the 16th century

  Three types of medic; four humours – a look into the curious medical industry at the time of the book

• 
  18 June 2010
  About Middle Ages, The Tudors

  Portrait of an Unknown Woman | Common illnesses and treatments

  Mistletoe – the cure for epilepsy? A list of ailments and supposed cures in the sixteenth century

• 
  17 June 2010
  About Middle Ages, The Tudors

  Portrait of an Unknown Woman | Sources and bibliography

  Background reading and important source texts

• 
  10 June 2010
  About Middle Ages

  Blood Royal (aka The Queen’s Lover) | Where the idea came from

  At the start, I think I just felt sorry for my heroine

• 
  9 June 2010
  About Middle Ages

  Blood Royal (aka The Queen’s Lover) | The Hundred Years’ War

  More about the war between France and the Kings of England, who claimed they should be Kings of France too

• 
  9 June 2010
  About Middle Ages

  Blood Royal (aka The Queen’s Lover) | French civilisation

  Information and images about French culture, arts, Paris, and the University

• 
  8 June 2010
  About Middle Ages

  Blood Royal (aka The Queen’s Lover) | Art objects

  Pictures of some art objects found in Paris and Dijon, the Burgundian capital

• 
  7 June 2010
  About Middle Ages

  Blood Royal (aka The Queen’s Lover) | Christine de Pizan, Europe’s first feminist

  … who managed not just to earn a living and support, but to become an influential poet and writer in the court

• 
  6 June 2010
  About Middle Ages

  Blood Royal (aka The Queen’s Lover) | Critical acclaim

  “One of the best historical novelists around has conjured up a fascinating portrait of this forgotten queen” and plenty more praise

• 
  5 June 2010
  About Middle Ages

  Blood Royal (aka The Queen’s Lover) | Sources and background reading

  Books relating to the various historical subjects covered in my story

• 
  4 June 2010
  About Middle Ages

  Blood Royal (aka The Queen’s Lover) | Some discussion points

  Questions that readers of this story might wish to consider

• 
  20 May 2010
  About Middle Ages

  Figures in Silk (aka Queen of Silks) | Where the idea came from

  Richard III and his niece, Elizabeth, the sister of the Princes in the Tower…

• 
  19 May 2010
  About Middle Ages

  Figures in Silk (aka Queen of Silks) | Fifteenth-century England

  ‘Elaborate manners’ of a feudal society: background to England in the time of the book

• 
  18 May 2010
  About London life, Middle Ages

  Figures in Silk (aka Queen of Silks) | How the City of London was organised

  Where Londoners lived showed their calling

• 
  17 May 2010
  About Middle Ages

  Figures in Silk (aka Queen of Silks) | Silk

  Once Europe’s greatest luxury trade

• 
  16 May 2010
  About London life, Middle Ages

  Figures in Silk (aka Queen of Silks) | Silkwomen

  All about the women who made the delicate small goods of silk

• 
  15 May 2010
  About London life, Middle Ages

  Figures in Silk (aka Queen of Silks) | London and the Wars of the Roses

  The role the capital played in the wars

• 
  14 May 2010
  About Middle Ages

  Figures in Silk (aka Queen of Silks) | Was King Edward IV illegitimate?

  Truth or propaganda?

• 
  13 May 2010
  About Middle Ages

  Figures in Silk (aka Queen of Silks) | Jane Shore

  All about King Edward IV’s ‘merry’ mistress Jane Shore

• 
  12 May 2010
  About Middle Ages

  Figures in Silk (aka Queen of Silks) | The new chess and the power of medieval queens

  In the late fifteenth century, the ancient game of chess, an import from the East, suddenly changed its rules

• 
  11 May 2010
  About Middle Ages

  Figures in Silk (aka Queen of Silks) | Important dates in the medieval calendar

  Key festivals, holidays, and hours of prayer

• 
  9 May 2010
  About Middle Ages

  Figures in Silk (aka Queen of Silks) | Sources and bibliography

  On the silk trade The London Silkwomen of the Fifteenth Century, by Marian K Dale. The Economic History Review, Vol

• Published in The Times
  9 May 2009
  About Literary life, Middle Ages

  Do women need a book prize?

  Every year there’s the same debate around the Orange Prize for women writers, which is due to be given out