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Every week Tanzanite features upcoming historical fiction and history related non-fiction books that have come to her attention and may be of interest to others. Since she has an out of control TBR pile, so should everyone else!
The year is 1593. The London of Elizabeth I is in the terrible grip of the Black Death. As thousands die from the plague and the queen hides behind the walls of her palace, English spies are being murdered across the city. The killer's next target: Will Swyfte.
For Swyfte--adventurer, rake, scholar, and spy--this is the darkest time he has known. His mentor, the grand old spymaster Sir Francis Walsingham, is dead. The new head of the secret service is more concerned about his own advancement than defending the nation, and a rival faction at the court has established its own network of spies. Plots are everywhere, and no one can be trusted. Meanwhile,
A dark, bloody scheme, years in the making, is about to be realized. The endgame begins on the night of the first performance of Dr. Faustus, the new play by Swyfte's close friend and fellow spy Christopher Marlowe. A devil is conjured in the middle of the crowded theater, taking the form of Will Swyfte's long-lost love, Jenny--and it has a horrifying message for him alone.
That night Marlowe is murdered, and Swyfte embarks on a personal and brutal crusade for vengeance. Friendless, with enemies on every side and a devil at his back, the spy may find that even his vaunted skills are no match for the supernatural powers arrayed against him.
William the Conqueror's victory in 1066 was the beginning of a period of major transformation for medieval English aristocrats. In this groundbreaking book, David Crouch examines for the first time the fate of the English aristocracy between the reigns of the Conqueror and Edward I. Offering an original explanation of medieval society - one that no longer employs traditional 'feudal' or 'bastard feudal' models - Crouch argues that society remade itself around the emerging principle of nobility in the generations on either side of 1200, marking the beginning of the ancient regime. The book describes the transformation in aristocrats' expectations, conduct, piety, and status; in expressions of social domination; and, in the relationship with the monarchy. Synchronizing English social history with non-English scholarship, Crouch places England England
Agincourt: The Story of a Battle by Rosemary Hawley Jarman. Non-fiction. UK release March 1, 2011.
The story of the battle of Agincourt . A small English expeditionary force in Northern France battling to reach the coast before being cut off by an enemy superior in numbers and equipment; a victory plucked from the jaws of certain-seeming defeat - this story is familiar in the twentieth century. It is also the story of Agincourt in the fifteenth. The distinguished historical novelist Rosemary Hawley Jarman here recreates the whole of the brief, foolhardy expedition mounted by a 28-year-old English king determined to regain the realm across the Channel he believed was his by right. The siege of Harfleur, the ravages of disease, the gradual encirclement, the decision to break out and march through hostile territory to Calais, all lead up to the rainy dawn of 25 October 1415 - St Crispin's Day - when the ragged, hungry English came face to face with a mighty and magnificently accoutred French army and won one of the most overwhelming victories in the chronicles of war. Better known for her bestselling historical fiction, Agincourt is Rosemary Hawley Jarman first work of narrative non-fiction.
Kings and Queens of England and Scotland by Plantagenet Somerset Fry.
UK reissue (just in time for the spring Royal wedding) April 1, 2011.
New edition of the drama and history of Britain England Scotland England Scotland
About the Author: Plantagenet Somerset Fry, a descendent of the Plantagenet dynasty, was an internationally renowned expert on the heraldry and history of British royalty. He was the author of DK's History of the World. Admit it, don't you just love his nname!!
Pompeii: City of Fire by T.L. Higley. US release June 1, 2011. Pompeii, a city that's many things to many people. For Cato, it's the perfect escape from a failed political career in Rome. A place to start again, become a winemaker. But when a corrupt politician wrongfully jails Cato's sister, he must oust the man from power to save her.
For Ariella, Pompeii is a means to an end. As a young Jew, she escaped the fall of Jerusalem only to endure slavery to a cruel Roman general. She ends up in Pompeii, disguised as a young man and sold into a gladiator troupe. Her anger fuels her to fight well, hoping to win the arena crowds and reveal her gender at the perfect time. Perhaps then she will win true freedom.
But evil creeps through the streets of Pompeii. Political corruption, religious persecution, and family peril threaten to destroy Ariella and Cato, who are thrown together in the battle to survive. As Vesuvius churns with deadly intent, the two must bridge their differences to save the lives of those they love, before the fiery ash buries Pompeii, leaving the city lost to the world.
Devil's Charge by Michael Arnold. UK release August 4, 2011.
For Captain Stryker, scarred hero of a dozen wars, the rights and wrongs of the cause mean little. His loyalties are to his own small band of comrades - and to Queen Henrietta Maria’s beautiful and most deadly agent, Lisette Gaillard. So when Prince Rupert
From the bloody rout of Cirencester, to the siege of Lichfield and finally to the killing fields of Hopton Heath, Michael Arnold brings vividly to life all the drama and the passion that lay behind the English Civil War.
I couldn't find that Pompeii book over on goodreads.. but that author seems to write Christian Fiction. Is this Christian fiction too?
December 29, 2010 11:12 PM
Tara - I'm not really sure if it is or not.
December 30, 2010 12:48 PM