London, 1608. Three years after the Gunpowder Treason, the King’s enemies prepare to strike again. Daniel Pursglove is tasked by royal command with one final mission: he must infiltrate the Serpents — a secret group of Catholics plotting to kill the King — or risk his own execution. But other conspirators are circling, men who […]
Review: Mary & George
Who better than a novelist who’s also a historian and the latest biographer of Charles I to review Mary & George, the TV drama based on the life of George, Duke of Buckingham, favourite of James VI and I? We asked Mark Turnbull to watch the series. Many of us ask why the Stuarts are […]
Parting fools from their money in the brothels and gaming houses of the 1600s
Innocent new arrivals in London were preyed on by brothel owners and gaming houses, says KJ Maitland, author of Rivers of Treason. Here she looks at the kinds of establishments that reeled so-called pigeons and plump virgins into trugging houses and nunneries (low- and high-class brothels) and rigged gaming tables where fools and their money […]
The Honey and the Sting: the novel that didn’t want to be written
What is it like when your novel just isn’t working? EC (Elizabeth) Fremantle had the perfect ingredients for a historical thriller: murder, sex, secrets, danger – but why did her first draft turn out to be unreadable? The Honey and the Sting is my sixth novel. I had the idea that writing would become easier […]
James I & VI: King or Queen?
E C Fremantle tackles the contentious question of King James I & VI’s sexuality. Under Rubens’ glorious ceiling, depicting the heaven-bound figure of King James I & VI surrounded by the flickering wings and dimpled flesh of a host of cherubs, a six foot six transvestite, wearing a corset, heels, bum-roll and not much else, […]
Are the Stuarts the New Tudors?
It’s quite possible that we have reached peak Tudor. Henry VIII’s stinking, gangrenous leg has been endlessly speculated upon, every layer of Elizabeth I’s petticoats has been lifted and thoroughly searched and Anne Boleyn’s execution has been read, learned and inwardly digested from all possible angles. There are even novels that speculate upon what might […]