London 1671, and the damage caused by the Great Fire still overshadows the capital. The disfigured body of a man is unearthed in the ruins of the old almshouse, forcing architect Cat Hakesby to stop restoration work. It is clear he has been murdered, and Whitehall secretary James Marwood is ordered to investigate. When the […]
Entertaining Mr Pepys by Deborah Swift
London, 1666. Elizabeth ‘Bird’ Carpenter has a wonderful singing voice, and music is her chief passion. When her father persuades her to marry horse-dealer Christopher Knepp, she suspects she is marrying beneath her station, but nothing prepares her for the reality of life with Knepp. Her father has betrayed her trust, for Knepp cares only for […]
In search of the animals in the Great Fire of London
Deborah Swift came across an intriguing area of research when working on her latest novel based on the lives of the women who appear in Samuel Pepys’s Diary, Entertaining Mr Pepys, set in 1666. Among the records we have on the Great Fire of London, there’s one topic which was something of a beast to […]
Review: The Fire Court by Andrew Taylor
“All lines converged on the Dragon Yard case and the Fire Court at Clifford’s Inn.” But in Andrew Taylor’s second book in the James Marwood and Cat Lovett series, set in London just after the Great Fire, those lines tangle and twist fiendishly before coming together, writes Frances Owen. It’s 1667. James Marwood, son of […]
Fire! Fire!
On the 350th anniversary of the Great Fire, Imogen Robertson visits the Museum of London’s dedicated exhibition. London is thick with the memory of flames this month. As you might have noticed given the flurry of events, programmes, talks and books currently available, it’s 350 years since the Great Fire tore through the city destroying […]
The Ashes of London by Andrew Taylor
Andrew Taylor is the award-winning and best-selling crime fiction author of, perhaps most notably, the Lydmouth series, but he has proved equally skilful at finely wrought, and solidly researched historical fiction, including the 2003 bestseller The American Boy, an unforgettable mystery set in London during the childhood of Edgar Allan Poe. In The Ashes of […]