The latest in Robert J Lloyd’s Hunt and Hooke crime novels takes Robert Hooke and Henry Hunt to Bedlam, the recently-rebuilt Bethlehem Hospital — which Hooke himself designed. Rob looks at the extraordinarily wide range of interests these two 17th-century scientists had in real life. The two main characters in my Hunt & Hooke series […]
Courting the Sun by Peggy Joque Williams
France, 1670. On her 16th birthday, Sylvienne d’Aubert thinks her dream has come true. She holds in her hands an invitation from King Louis XIV to attend his royal court. However, her mother harbours a long-time secret she’s kept from both her daughter and the monarch, a secret that could upend Sylvienne’s life. In Paris, […]
The Other Gwyn Girl by Nicola Cornick
1671 in London: the Civil War is over and Charles II, the ‘Merry Monarch’, is revelling in the throne of his murdered father and all the privileges and power that comes with it. Sharing the spoils is his favourite companion, the celebrated beauty, actress Nell Gwyn. Beloved of the English people, Nell has come a […]
The Messenger of Measham Hall
For Nicholas Hawthorne, the Catholic heir to Measham Hall in Derbyshire, subterfuge is part of everyday life. But there are deeper and darker secrets even than his family’s outlawed religion: why is his father, Sir William, so reclusive? What became of his mother, and his aunt Alethea? And who fatally betrayed his cousin Matthew? Nicholas […]
Fake news, or the Horrid Popish Plot
The ‘Horrid Popish Plot’, as it was called, was an anti-Catholic conspiracy that flared up in the 1670s; a classic example of fake news infecting the public imagination. Anna Abney examines the bizarre and sometimes shocking events. ‘Since Hell is broke loose, and the Press set a work,By Jesuit, by Jew, by Christian, and Turk; […]