The court of young King Henry VIII seethes with secrets and scandals, but every ambition has its price. Elizabeth Boleyn, loyal wife to Thomas Boleyn and devoted mother to Anne, Mary and George, believes she can navigate the shifting tides of court life. But when she catches the eye of the lascivious king, Elizabeth is […]
Elizabeth Boleyn, a woman overshadowed by famous relatives
If we remember Elizabeth Boleyn, Countess of Wiltshire, it’s as the mother of Anne, Mary and George, and the wife of Thomas. Yet, as Alexandra Walsh discovered, she was a significant woman in her own right — but one who has disappeared under the shadows of her more famous relatives. Here Alexandra aims to put […]
Daughter of the Stones by Alexandra Walsh
When Caitlin King’s father collapses on the eve of the summer solstice, she’s drawn back into the tangled web of her already fragile family – and strange visions begin to haunt her. Visions of another life, another time and a woman who looks uncannily like herself. In Iron Age Britain, Cordelia is the third daughter […]
Why do we tell stories? Finding Cordelia
While writing her latest book, a reimagining of the story of Cordelia, Alexandra Walsh was struck by the way some figures reappear in different tales through the ages. Why, she wondered, do we tell and retell these stories? So she set about finding Cordelia. Towards the end of my new novel Daughter of the Stones, my […]
The House of Echoes by Alexandra Walsh
Hampton Court Palace in the 1530s: Anne Brandon has always understood the power of a king’s patronage and, though the court of Henry VIII is a dangerous place for women, as the daughter of the king’s best friend, Anne feels safer than most. But Anne’s husband, Lord Powis, is tiring of her childlessness and when […]
The Secrets of Crestwell Hall by Alexandra Walsh
1605: Bess Throckmorton is well used to cunning plots and intrigues. With her husband Sir Walter Raleigh imprisoned in the Tower of London, and she and her family in a constant battle to outwit Robert Cecil, the most powerful man in the country, who is determined to ruin her, Bess decides to retreat to her […]
Bess Throckmorton and the Gunpowder Plotters’ wives
Bess Throckmorton, Walter Raleigh’s wife, was a formidable character who survived disgrace under Elizabeth I and her husband’s execution under James VI and I. Intrigued by her, Alexandra Walsh found that Bess’s connections to the wives of most of the Gunpowder Plotters would give Bess a central role in her novel, The Secrets of Cresswell […]
Six godmothers of archaeology
Alexandra Walsh pays tribute to six pioneering women who gained respect in the male domain of archaeology in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and who inspired her latest novel. They were the ‘godmothers of archaeology’ who worked in Crete, Egypt, Iran, Iraq and Turkey at sites such as Knossos, Babylon and Troy. The […]