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 Glovemaker by Stacia Brown. UK release February 16, 2012.
London, 1649. Oliver Cromwell is running the country, and a law
targeting unmarried mothers threatens the life of glovemaker Rachel
Lockyer. This is her story.
It is 1649. Charles I has been beheaded, Cromwell is running the country, and a new law targeting unwed mothers and lewd women has been passed. A law that presumes that anyone who conceals the death of her illegitimate child is guilty of murder.
When a dead infant is found buried behind the Smithfield slaughterhouse, all fingers point to thirty-nine-year-old glover’s assistant Rachel Lockyer. A fiercely independent woman, Rachel has been carrying on an affair with a married man, a one-time political agitator with a radical group known as The Levelers. Though no one knows for certain that Rachel was even pregnant, she is arrested.
So comes an investigation, public trial, and unforgettable characters: gouty investigator Thomas Bartwain, fiery Elizabeth Lillburne and her revolution-chasing husband, Huguenot glover Mary Du Gard, and others.
Spinning within are Rachel and William, their remarkable love story, and the miracles that come to even the commonest lives.
Tomb of Alexander by Sean Hemingway. UK release March 1, 2012.
An epic new archaeological thriller from the grandson of Ernest Hemingway.
It was the most renowned and respected shrine in the Roman Empire, sought after for generations, the object of veneration by Julius Caesar, Cleopatra, Caligula, Hadrian and the world over. It stood for centuries within a sacred precinct the size of a large town at the heart of the greatest Greek city in the world. Yet at the end of the fourth century AD it disappeared without trace, creating the greatest archaeological enigma of the ancient world. What became of the tomb of Alexander the Great?
In his compelling debut thriller, Sean Hemingway seamlessly weaves together the ancient and the modern as our hero Tom Carr is drawn further and further into one of the greatest mysteries of our time, risking everything to get at the truth...
The Bleeding Land by Giles Kristian. UK release April 26, 2012.
The bestselling historical novelist Giles Kristian begins an epic new trilogy, set against the tumultuous backdrop of the bloody war that divided a nation and tore families apart...
England. 1642. War is coming. The rift between King and Parliament has widened and armies muster, ready to fight for their religious and political ideals. Nothing is so destructive as civil war, and for the Rivers family, the raising of the King’s standard heralds a conflict that threatens to tear them apart.
As a knight and friend of King Charles, Sir Francis Rivers’ loyalty is beyond question, and so should be that of his family. However another Royalist, Lord Henry Denton, imprisons a suspected Catholic priest and in so doing makes an enemy of Sir Francis’s youngest son, Tom. For Tom is betrothed to Martha Green, the imprisoned man’s daughter. In desperation, Martha pleads with Denton to free her father. He agrees, but on one condition: she must give herselft to him. In the event, Denton reneges and Martha watches her father hang. Heartbroken, unable to live with her shame, Martha takes her own life and Tom, burning with hatred for Denton - and his father for not interceding - turns his back on his home and family. In London he falls in with a crowd of men eager to fight for Parliament for, in the prospect of war, Tom sees his chance for vengeance.
But Sir Francis Rivers’ eldest son, Mun, is for the king, and joins a troop of horse commanded by the dashing Prince Rupert. Sir Francis rides in the King’s Lifeguards as the first battle of the war looms. But whilst men fight and die at Edgehill, the Rivers women, Lady Mary and her daughter, Bess, must also fight to survive as the family home, Shear House, is besieged.
A novel of honour, vengeance, courage and love, The Bleeding Land brings England’s civil war to life in all its terrible glory.
The Norman Conquest by Marc Morris. Non-fiction. UK release May 3, 2012.
An epic tale, with violence at its heart, and a triumph of narrative History.
The Norman Conquest starts with the most decisive battle in English history and continues with dramatic rebellions and their ruthless suppression, eventually resulting in the creation of the English nation. The
repercussions of the Conquest are with us still.
The book begins with the Saxon kings, specifically Edward the Confessor, and shows how England was in constant conflict as the English fell prey to both Vikings and Normans. In the north, King Harold destroys his Viking namesake at the battle of Stamford Bridge but immediately has to hurry south to confront William of Normandy at Hastings. His defeat, and the destruction of the Anglo-Saxon warrior caste, leads inexorably to William’s forceful occupation of an unwilling country, and this is the ruthless story Marc Morris tells.
It is a drama crammed with intrigue, bloodshed and betrayal, featuring vivid, almost deranged characters: Edward the Confessor, who spurns his queen in their marriage bed to spite her family, even though it spells the end of his own dynasty; the heroic King Harold, the hero of Stamford Bridge and the last Saxon king, who perjures himself, betrays his brother and puts aside his wife in his bid for the throne; William the Bastard, later known as the Conqueror, who assembles the mightiest invasion fleet in the Middle Ages and after unexpected success almost destroys the country he has won.
Castle by Marc Morris. Non-fiction. UK reissue May 3, 2012.
From the acclaimed author of A Great and Terrible King and The Norman Conquest, a seminal book on the history of Britain’s castles. Castle is a wide-ranging history of some of the most magnificent buildings in Britain. It explores many of the country’s most famous and best-loved castles, as well as some little-known national treasures. The story begins in the 11th century, when castles were introduced to Britain, and ends in the 17th century, when they were largely abandoned. It is, in some respects, an epic tale, driven by characters like William the Conqueror, ‘Bad’ King John and Edward I, who, by building and besieging castles, shaped the fate of the nation. At the same time, however, it is a more homely story, about the
adventures, struggles and ambitions of lesser-known individuals, and how every aspect of their lives was wrapped up in the castles they built. As Marc Morris shows, there is more to castles than drawbridges and
battlements, portcullises and arrow-loops.
Be it ever so grand or ever so humble, a castle is first and foremost a home. It may look tough and defensible on the outside, but on the inside, a castle is all about luxury and creature comforts. Inside real castles, we do not necessarily find cannons and suits of armour, but we do discover great halls, huge kitchens, private chambers and chapels - all rooms which were once luxurious and lavish, and which made these buildings perfect residences for their owners.
To understand castles - who built them, who lived in them, and why - is to understand the forces that shaped medieval Britain.
The Last Caesar by Henry Venmore-Rowland. UK release May 10, 2012.
A remarkable historical fiction debut, telling the story of the brutal and bloody power struggle that followed the suicide of Nero - a period in Roman history that came to be called ‘The Year of the Four Emperors’...
AD 68. The tyrant emperor Nero has no son and no heir. Suddenly there’s the very real possibility that Rome might become a Republic once more. But the ambitions of a few are about to bring corruption, chaos and untold bloodshed to the many.
Among them is a hero of the campaign against Boudicca, Aulus Caecina Severus. Caught up in a conspiracy to overthrow Caesar’s dynasty, he commits treason, raises a rebellion, faces torture and intrigue - all supposedly for the good of Rome. The boundary between the good of Rome and self preservation is far from clear, and keeping to the dangerous path he’s chosen requires all Severus’ skills as a cunning soldier and increasingly deft politician.
And so Severus looks back on the dark and dangerous time history knows as the Year of the Four Emperors, and the part he played - for good or ill - in plunging the mighty Roman empire into anarchy and civil war...
Fourteenth Century England by Mark Ormrod. Non-fiction. UK release May 17, 2012.
This collection represents the fruits of new research, by both established and young scholars, on the politics, society and culture of England and its dependencies in the fourteenth century. Drawing on a diverse range of documentary, literary and material evidence, the studies offer a range of methods, from micro-history and prosopography to the study of institutions, texts and events. The early fourteenth century provides a particular focus of interest, with studies contributing new reflections on the personnel of parliament, the household of Edward II, the politics of Edward III's minority, and reactions to the great famine of 1315-22 and the Black Death of 1348-9. The wars with Scotland and France give the opportunity for significant new assessments of international diplomacy, the role of the mariner in the logistics of war, English loyalties in Gascony and the pious practices of medieval knights. Richly textured with personal and local detail, these new studies provide numerous insights into the lives of great and small in this tumultuous period of medieval history. W. Mark Ormrod is Professor of Medieval History at the University of York. Contributors: Benoît Grévin, Alison K. McHardy, J.S. Hamilton, Guilhem Pépin, Eliza Hartrich, Phil Bradford, J.S. Bothwell, Craig Lambert, Andrew Ayton, Graham St John, Christopher Phillpotts.
The Borgia Mistress by Sara Poole. US release May 22, 2012.
From the author of Poison and The Borgia Betrayal, comes a new historical thriller, featuring the same intriguing and beautiful heroine: Borgia court poisoner, Francesca Giordano. Mistress of death Francesca Giordano—court poisoner to the House of Borgia—returns to confront an ancient atrocity that threatens to extinguish the light of the Renaissance and plunge the world into eternal darkness. As the enemies of Pope Alexander VI close in and the papal court is forced to flee from Rome, Francesca joins forces with her lover, the brilliant and ruthless Cesare Borgia to unravel a conspiracy that strikes at the heart of Christendom. But when a shattering secret from her past imperils her precarious hold on sanity, only Francesca’s own courage and resolve can draw her back from the brink of madness to save all she values most.
The Devil’s Army by James Wilde. UK release May 24, 2012.
1067 - The Battle of Hastings has been lost and the iron gauntlet of William the Bastard slowly throttles the life out of England. The length and breadth of the country, villages are burned and men, women and children put to the sword as the brutal new King attempts to impose his cruel will upon the unruly nation.
One man stands in the way of the Norman duke’s savage campaign: Hereward, warrior, master tactician, and the last hope of the English. As adept at slaughter as the imposter who sits on the throne, he has vowed to meet blood with blood and fire with fire.
In a Fenlands fortress of water and wild wood, his resistance is simmering. His army of outcasts grows by the day - a devil’s army that comes with the mists and the night and leaves only bones in its wake.
But William is not one to be cowed. Under the command of his ruthless deputy, Ivo Taillebois - known and feared as ‘the Butcher’ - the invaders will do whatever it takes to crush these rebels, even if it means burning all England to the ground.
Here then is the tale of the bloodiest rebellion England has ever known...the beginning of an epic battle that will echo down the years...
The Eagle in the Sand: Siege of Malta by Simon Scarrow. UK release May 24, 2012.
1565; In its hour of greatest need, Malta must rely upon the ancient Knights of the Order of St John for survival. Bound by the strongest ties: of valour, of courage and of passion, the Knights must defend their island against ferocious and deadly Ottoman attack.
For Sir Thomas Barrett, summoned by the Order and compelled by loyalty - to the Knights, to his honour and to his Queen - returning to the besieged island means revisiting a past he had long since lain to rest. As the beleaguered Knights grapple to retain control, decade-old feuds will be reawakened, intense passions rekindled and deadly secrets revealed.
A Dangerous Inheritance by Alison Weir. UK release May 24, 2012 (reposted with publisher summary).
The year is 1562. Lady Catherine Grey, cousin of Elizabeth I, has just been arrested along with her husband Edward. Their crime is to have secretly married and produced a child who might threaten the Queen’s title. Alone in her chamber at the Tower of London, Catherine hears ghostly voices, echoes, she thinks, of a crime committed in the same room where she is imprisoned.
The story flashes back to 1483 and another Catherine - Kate Plantaganet - bastard daughter of Richard III. She has heard terrible rumours of the death of the young deposed Edward V and his brother (the Princes in the Tower) but loyalty to her father prevents her believing them. After his death at Bosworth, she is viewed with suspicion by Henry VII’s court, even more so when she becomes pregnant.
Catherine, too, is pregnant, a friendly warder having sneaked Edward into her room. She finds documents relating to Kate’s life and gets swept up both in Kate’s story and the mystery of the Princes, which she realises Kate never solved. Kate dies in childbirth and it is left to Catherine to discover the truth about the Princes.
The Venetian Contract by Marina Fiorato. UK release June 7, 2012 (reposted with cover)
In 1576, five years after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire at the Battle of Lepanto, a ship slips unnoticed into Venice bearing a deadly cargo. A man, more dead than alive, disembarks and staggers twoards the Piazza San Marco. He brings a gift to Venice from the Turkish Sultan. Within days the city will be infected with bubonic plague - and the Turks will have their revenge.
For months the plague wreaks havoc on Venice. In despair, the Doge summons the architect Andrea Palladio and offers him a commission: the greatest church of his career, an offering to God so magnificent that Venice will be saved. Palladio's own life is in danger too, and it will require all the skills of Dr Annibale Cason, the city's finest plague doctor, to keep him alive. But what Dr Cason has not counted on is the other passenger who disembarked from the Turkish ship - a young and beautiful harem doctor whose skills will more than match his own.
Mistress of Empires by Kate Williams. Non-fiction. UK release June 7, 2012.
An account of the extraordinary life of Josephine Bonaparte, the charming and promiscuous socialite who stole Napoleon’s heart. Josephine de Beauharnais began as a kept woman of Paris and became the most powerful woman in France. She was no beauty, her teeth were rotten, and she was six years older than her husband, but one twitch of her skirt could bring running the man who terrorized Europe.
She was born in Martinique in June 1763, and came to France as a young wife. Pretty and flirtatious, she reveled in the Ancient Regime. Then, as France burned, and the Revolution was followed by the Terror, she survived terrible imprisonment. Her husband died and her health was wrecked forever. Afterwards, she and other survivors tried to forget the pain in wild debauchery, clutching at the sensual pleasures that they had come so close to losing forever. Glamorous, stylish and a mistress of erotic arts, she understood that her only asset was her body and she became a mistress and courtesan to rich men.
As she passed thirty, Josephine realized that her star was beginning to wane. She had to secure her future - and the men who kept her were too jaded for love. And so she turned her eye to a small, stocky, Corsican soldier, six years her junior and bursting with rude spirit. Society tolerated him for his bravery but laughed at him behind his back. No one could believe it when the stylish, feted Josephine began encouraging his advances. They were bound together by a scorching erotic fascination. He would gallop home to be with her, burst into her room, toss her into bed, and write long paeans of praise while he was away to her ‘little black forest’. With her, he became the greatest man in Europe, the Supreme Emperor. But her inability to give him a son finally tore them apart.
This is a searing story of sexual obsession, war, heartbreak, affairs, devastating love, plots and murder and politics - in a world that was being altered forever…
The Empress by Meg Clothier. UK release July 19, 2012.
Love and treachery during the Crusaders’ siege of Constantinople in
1204
Spoilt, imperious and proud, Princess Agnes of France is only eight when she is sent to marry the emperor of Constantinople’s son. And by the time she is twelve Agnes is a widow, her husband killed by his cousin, the power hungry Andronikos. Captivated by Agnes’s beauty, Adronikos marries her. He is sixty-five.
For two years, Agnes is at the mercy of a depraved and power-crazed man. But by the time she is fourteen Andronikos too is dead, torn limb from limb by an angry mob. During her years with Andronikos, only one man, Theodore Branas, tried to help save her from the worst of his excesses.
Agnes and Theodore first met on her voyage when she was a young, spoilt princess. Now, as the politics of Constantinople ebb and flow around them, Agnes and Theodore start to make a life together. But once again, she nearly loses everything during one of the most shocking and bloody events of the thirteenth century as the Crusaders lay siege to Constantinople. Separated from Theodore, only Agnes’s French blood saves her from an horrific death. And as the city erupts in flames around her, she goes in search of Theodore, because she will not leave the city without him.
The Wild Princess by Mary Hart Perry. US release July 31, 2012.
The marriage of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert produced nine children—five of them princesses, all trained for the role of marriage to future monarchs. However, the fourth princess, Louise—later the duchess of Argyll—became known by the court as “the wild one.” She fought the constraints placed on her brothers and sisters. She broke with tradition by marrying outside of the elite circle of European royals at a time when no child of the English throne had wed a commoner in 300 years. Some said she married for love. Others whispered of scandal covered up by the Crown.
In fact, many years after Louise’s death, a civil lawsuit claimed that the teenage princess secretly gave birth to a baby boy out of wedlock. One Henry Locock sought to prove through DNA evidence that his grandfather was Louise’s child, delivered by Queen Victoria’s gynecologist then secretly adopted by the doctor’s young son and his wife, thereby avoiding scandal and preserving the line of succession to the throne. But the mysteries and drama involving Louise’s life don’t stop there...This is her story.
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