To mark the publication of a new edition of Kathleen Winsor’s scandalous historical novel, Forever Amber, the publisher Elizabeth Smith argues that this “brilliantly accurate” book is still relevant over 80 years after it first delighted – and challenged – readers around the world. “[Forever Amber] is not only brilliant – once you start, I […]
Historia interview: Claire Hobson
On 29 May, Oak Apple Day, it’ll be 396 years from Charles II’s birth in 1630 and 366 since his restoration. To mark the occasion, Historia spoke to Claire Hobson, whose biography charts those 30 turbulent years that formed the future king. Your book, Charles II: From the Cradle to the Crown, looks self-explanatory from […]
Queen Catherine’s Court by Sophie Shorland
Catherine of Braganza. Boring? Plain? Ineffectual? Think again. Charles II’s wife was a trouser-wearing tastemaker who introduced tea drinking, popularised card games and championed baroque fashion and art. Her salon culture was infamous for its parties, theatricals and frequent trips to the pub. A Catholic queen in a strictly Anglican country, she was the diplomatic […]
The women Prince Rupert loved
The two women Prince Rupert loved are thought of — if they’re thought of at all — as his mistresses. But, says Mark Turnbull, they were much more than the bed partners of Rupert the Devil. As the Prince’s biographer, he believes: “Knowing them is knowing him.” Think of the women linked to Prince Rupert […]
Ravenous: A Life of Barbara Villiers by Andrea Zuvich
Barbara Villiers was a woman so beautiful, so magnetic and so sexually attractive that she captured the hearts of many in Stuart-era Britain. Her beauty is legendary: she became the muse of artists such as Peter Lely, the inspiration of writers such as John Dryden and the lover of John Churchill, the future great military […]
Barbara Villiers, beautiful, powerful… ravenous?
Barbara Villers, Countess of Castlemaine and later Duchess of Cleveland, was one of the most beautiful women of the Restoration period and probably Charles II’s most politically powerful mistress. She had a great appetite for wealth, influence, and handsome men, as Andrea Zuvich, author of Barbara’s biography, Ravenous, explains. The Stuarts, who ruled over Scotland, […]
The Bedlam Cadaver by Robert J Lloyd
It’s 1681, and London cooks in summer heat. Bonfires are lit in protest against the King’s brother, James, heir to the throne but openly Catholic. Rumours abound of a ‘Black Box’, said to conceal proof the King’s illegitimate son is really the rightful heir. When a wealthy merchant’s daughter is kidnapped and murdered — even […]
Bedlam, Robert Hooke and Henry Hunt
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 […]