A Different View: JANE THE QUENE by Janet Wertman ~ A review by Linda Root

The author has very kindly offered a reader's choice giveaway with this book; the winner gets to choose between an e-book copy or a paperback. Simply leave a comment on this post, or on our Facebook Page, to be in with a chance of winning. Good luck!
The winner will be drawn on Thursday 29th June

From early childhood, I was committed to Elizabeth, Queen of England, not the current one, but the one who brought England it's Golden Age.  To know Elizabeth as, in my youth, I endeavored to do, required me to take a brief look at each of her serial step-mothers.  My adolescent view of research went little farther than the cinematic version Young Bess, which, as I recall, begins with Thomas Seymour crashing into teenage Elizabeth Tudor's bedchamber to announce Katherine Howard's ascension to the throne. Even Young Bess left Tom's sister Jane on the cutting room floor, along with Anne of Cleves.  As I passed into young adulthood, my obsession grew, but by then I was capable of scholarly research, and it was in that phase that I met Quene Jane. I was a feminist before there was such a thing, a mental transvestite, so to speak, the result of having grown up in a neighborhood of Roman Catholics who through prayers and incantations gave birth to only boys. The historical Jane Seymour was far too insipid for my taste.  Even Joely Richardson's portrayal of her in the Tudors did not elevate Henry Tudor's third wife to the list of someone I might have liked had I known her.  And then, comes Janet Wertman to the rescue in her captivating novel, Jane the Quene, and I took a second look.

Janet Wertman's Jane enters the Tudor drama in 1525 as an eighteen-year-old girl making her first appearance at the court of Catherine of Aragon.  The Queen extends a gracious welcome, but soon places Jane's indoctrination in the care of two others of the queen's maids-of-honor, Jane's distant cousins Mary and Anne Boleyn.  The Boleyn Girls are obviously less than impressed to assume the burden of her care. On her part, Jane finds them frivolous, intimidating, and of uncertain virtue. During Jane's girlhood, her parents often measured her against the Boleyn girls and consistently found her wanting. Even her own brothers expected her arrival at court to be overlooked by the eligible men. Left to her own faltering devices, she would not have chosen her extroverted cousins as her mentors, but she was determined to make the best of things.The alternative was the much-dreaded spinsterhood her parents had predicted.

In the nine years from the end of the prologue to the commencement of Chapter One, Jane has fulfilled her family's expectations and become a lackluster presence at a court no longer graced by Catherine of Aragon. Jane's flamboyant cousin, Anne Boleyn, has become Henry's consort. For her part, Jane failed to attract a suitable husband, and her devotion to the displaced and ailing Catherine of Aragon has hardly endeared her to King Henry's unpopular new queen. The affections of the king for his much-pursued ladylove Anne Boleyn have cooled.  Like the wife she had displaced, Anne, too, failed to deliver the anticipated son. Although Henry and Anne maintain appearances in public, King Henry's eyes were wandering, and his queen was growing shrewish.

The family threatens to remove Jane from the court and replace her with her much younger sister Dorothy, whom they considered a more promising player in the game of sexual politics commonly played at the English court. When her brother Edward announced the decision as if it were a fait accompli, Jane startles everyone present by refusing to go willingly into obscurity.  Sweet-natured, shy Jane Seymour has learned to say no to her brother Edward. However, situations arise prompting Jane to negotiate a compromise. When the Royals announce plans to include the Seymour home at Wolf Hall in their summer progress, Jane's home in the county suddenly becomes her residence of choice. Her mother lacks the talent and stamina to play hostess to a royal hunting party. Jane is suited to the task. Armed with something she can barter, she returns to the country home in exchange for her brother Edward's promise to find her a proper suitor when she returns to court in September.

From the time of his arrival at Wolf Hall for a five-day hunt, the king is a different Henry.  He is captured by the pastoral setting and the manners of the young woman who oversees it. While theirs is not a love story for the ages in the classic sense, it is indeed history with a romantic flair.  Wertman's Henry Tudor is likable, and Jane Seymour is not the insipid creature of her brothers' construct.  Try as I might, I cannot dispose of Wertman's Jane as unlikely. The author paints her as a very different woman from Anne Boleyn, but not a mouse. While she is not the flirtatious but unyielding Anne Boleyn or the devoutly religious and adoring wife, Queen Catherine, she is not a pawn.  When her brother Edward and his friend Sir Nicholas Carey trained her as Anne's replacement, she was an apt and eager pupil.

The prospective Quene Jane, who emerges in Part Two: Schemer, is not a courtesan. She has no aspiration to play the part of a Mary Boleyn. It did not take Jane to dispose of Anne Boleyn. That honor goes to Cromwell and the English people. But Jane is not the innocent, although she assumes the role.At one point, she reflects upon her part in Anne's demise. At first, her objective was to unseat the queen the way Anne had unseated Catherine. But what was planned for Anne Boleyn was not banishment to a continental nunnery. For  Anne  Boleyn, there is a talk of a burning or beheading. I prayed for this, but not like this, Jane lamented. She had anticipated a more humane end for her cousin and suffers bouts of guilt. But by the time Anne climbs the scaffold, Jane has learned to rationalize.

Other members of the Seymour family grace the pages of the book. Edward is a perfect image of the historical Hertford , who so ruthlessly pursued the Scots.  Thomas is the likable opportunist who lost his head to an axe man for the crime of overreaching. Wertman's portrayal of  Edward 's wife Anne Stanhope is almost empathetic, a refreshing change from the way she is usually hammered by historical novelists, myself included. Wertman's Cromwell is versatile and compelling. Her judicious selection of a limited number of minor characters avoids over-populating the story.  Some verbal exchanges have a forgivable but apparent contemporary flavor, but the settings and time frame are well researched. The result is a well-paced page turner likely to appeal to a divers readership, including young adults. Janet Wertman meets the challenge of writing a story with a pre-determined end, yet maintaining a hold on her audience until the last page is turned.

 I am also saving space on my bookshelf for the remaining books in the Seymour trilogy.

                                                             Linda Root

About the Author:

By day,  Janet Wertman is a freelance grant writer for great non-profits. By night, she writes historical fiction.  She has harbored a passion for the Tudor era since she was eight years old and her parents let her stay up late to watch The Six Wives of Henry VIII, and Elizabeth R. Janet lives in Pacific Palisades, California with one husband, two dogs, and three children. Jane the Quene can be found on Amazon. Her website can be found here.
Janet has generously offered those who leave a comment below or on the Facebook page a chance to win either an ebook of a paperback of Jane the Quene, winner's choice.








Linda Root is the author of six novels set in Mary Stuart's Scotland and early in the reign of James I of England, as well as a Scottish Fantasy, the Green Woman, written under the pseudonym J.D.Root. Root is a former prosecutor who lives in the hi desert near Joshua Tree National Park. Her books are available from Amazon.

Anna Reviews: The Light in the Labyrinth

The Light in the Labyrinth
by Wendy J Dunn

If there is one period in English history that has been depicted, over and over again, it is Tudor England. There seems to be something utterly irresistible about Henry VIII and his glorious daughter Elizabeth I, some sort of fascination that attracts readers like flies to a honeypot. Personally, I am not a Tudor fan – I feel a certain fatigue when yet another book detailing the intrigues at the royal court makes an appearance. Don’t get me wrong; I enjoy books set in the period – but I’ve had my fill, I think, of Henry and his hapless wives.

This is not to say that the sad end to the passionate affair between Henry and Anne Boleyn leaves me cold – beyond a doubt, this is one of the more scorching love stories in history – but it is a story where fiery passion turns to bitter ash, a spiteful, ageing king wreaking his revenge on his proud and wilful wife. Still: it is a tale all of us have heard, in one way or the other, so is it at all possible to set these sad events to a new, entrancing tune?

When The Light in the Labyrinth landed on my desk, I was therefore somewhat hesitant. Yet another book about Anne Boleyn, this enigmatic lady who so enthralled the king that he broke with the Holy Church for her sake – what new insights could possibly be offered? One chapter into the book, I no longer cared about new insights. I cared about prickly, confused Kate, Anne Boleyn’s fourteen-year-old niece.

Katherine Carey is a resentful, angry young girl. She considers her mother a fool for marrying beneath her, she is jealous of her new half siblings, condescending of her commoner stepfather and the only thing little Kate wants is to go to court and serve her adored aunt, Queen Anne. In Kate’s book, Anne is everything her own mother is not: fashionable, witty, powerful – and of course, extraordinarily happy, now that she has achieved her ambitions and become queen.

Kate’s mother, Mary, does not want her to go to court, but at long last she relents, even if her demeanour clearly shows Kate just how much her mother hates letting her go – or is it fear that causes her mother’s face to pale? Kate doesn’t care. She is going to London to live with the queen and to finally see her brother, Harry, who for the last few years has lived at court, despite being younger than Kate. She vaguely recalls her mother’s distress when Harry was taken from her – several years ago – to be brought up elsewhere, and she doesn’t quite understand why her brother was so brutally separated from his family, but conveniently blames her mother for it. In Kate’s opinion, everything is her mother’s fault – a typical adolescent reaction.

It is rather fitting that Kate enters London via London Bridge, having to ride below the garish display of the rotting heads of the king’s executed enemies. She is entering a dark world, a labyrinth of conspiracies and undercurrents, and very soon Kate’s entire universe will be severely rocked as she uncovers secrets about herself – and about the court. Even worse, it does not take Kate long to understand that her beloved aunt is far from happy. In fact, Queen Anne is distraught, living her days on a knife-edge of fear and hope – hope that she might yet give the king a son, fear of what he’ll do if she doesn’t.

While it is Anne Boleyn’s subsequent fall from grace that is the main theme of the book, this is really the story of how Kate grows from a truculent difficult child to a very young woman of integrity and courage – brave enough to confront the king, mature enough to see in him a confused and angry man who no longer knows who to trust.

In Kate, Ms. Dunn gives us a complex and credible character, one it is easy to love and care for, despite her initial despicable behaviour towards her mother and stepfather. Forced by circumstances to take on far more responsibility than she is ready for, Kate more than rises to the challenge, even in those moments when all she experiences is suffocating fear. The story is told in third person, consistently from Kate’s perspective, but here and there the author has inserted Kate’s own thoughts, taken from her secret journal, and these first-person passages add depth to Kate’s personality.

Had The Light in the Labyrinth only dealt with Queen Anne’s unhappy end, it would have made for quite the dreary read, no matter how much life Ms. Dunn blows into her cast of characters. Fortunately, she has added a sweet and innocent romance between Kate and her future husband Francis. All that teenager angst that goes in hand in hand with first love is excellently depicted – and quite, quite timeless, causing this reader to smile in recognition.

Ms. Dunn has obviously expended a lot of effort on her research. It shines through every casual description of rooms and gardens, clothes and pastimes. A myriad of characters populate these pages, but Ms. Dunn does a good job of only properly introducing the truly important, while the rest blend into the colourful background of scheming courtiers and invisible servants. Even more important – and especially in a book aimed at a young adult audience – all this information is expertly woven into the fabric of the tale, thereby avoiding any heavy-handed “info-dumps”.

All in all, The Light in the Labyrinth is quite the read – no matter the age of the reader. And yes, thanks to Kate, a new voice has been added to the well-known haunting melody – a voice that mellows and matures as the story evolves and yet retains a touch of bittersweet innocence right to the bloody, inevitable end. It is with regret I close the covers on Kate’s story, and I can but doff my cap and applaud Ms. Dunn for a work most well done!

About the author 
Wendy J. Dunn is an Australian author quite obsessed with all things Tudor, as evidenced by her previous novel Dear Heart, How Like You This, which is about Sir Thomas Wyatt, a close confidante to Anne Boleyn. Recently, she has uncovered facts that give an indirect explanation to her fascination with the Wyatt and Boleyn families – it seems Ms. Dunn’s ancestors had business dealings with these two families and may well have known both Anne and Thomas. Somewhat creepy, but quite intriguing…

Ms. Dunn can be found on her website, and The Light of the Labyrinth is available both on Amazon and Amazon UK.

Anna Belfrage is the author of six published books, all part of The Graham Saga. Set in the 17th century, the books tell the story of Matthew Graham and his time-travelling wife, Alex Lind. Anna can be found on Amazon, Twitter, Facebook and her website. If you would like Anna to review your book, please see our submissions tab above.

Louise E. Rule Interviews Australian Author Wendy J. Dunn

From the cover of _The Light in the Labyrinth_

Wendy J. Dunn is an Australian writer who has been obsessed by Anne Boleyn and Tudor History since she was ten-years-old. She is the author of two Tudor novels: Dear Heart, How Like You This?, the winner of the 2003 Glyph Fiction Award and 2004 runner up in the Eric Hoffer Award for Commercial Fiction, and The Light in the Labyrinth, her first young adult novel.

In the winter of 1535, fourteen-year-old Kate Carey wants her family home. She thinks her life will be so much better with Anne Boleyn. Henry VIII's second wife and the aunt she idolises. Little does Kate know that by going to attend Anne Boleyn she will discover love and a secret that will shake the very foundations of her identity. An attendant to Anne Boleyn, Kate is also swept up in events that see her witness her aunt's darkest days. By the time winter ends, Kate will be changed forever.

Wendy J. Dunn

While she [Wendy J. Dunn] has a very close and spooky relationship with Sir Thomas Wyatt, the elder, serendipity of life now leaves her no longer wondering if she has been channelling Anne Boleyn and Sir Tom for years in her writing, but considering the possibility of ancestral memory. Her own family tree reveals the intriguing fact that her ancestors - possibly over three generations - had purchased land from both the Boleyn and the Wyatt families to build up their own holdings. it seems very likely Wendy's ancestors knew the Wyatts and Boleyns personally.

Born in Melbourne, Australia, Wendy is married and the mother of three sons and one daughter - named after a certain Tudor queen, surprisingly, not Anne.

Welcome Wendy to The Review Author's Interview. Thank you for taking the time to chat with me today.

I would like to start by talking about your book cover.

Your book cover is impressive. Did you have any input into its design Wendy?

Close up detail of the picture from the cover

Thank you, Louise. Smile, I think the cover is impressive, too. The figure of the girl is taken from a painting called “The head of a Tudor Girl”, painted by Eleanor Fortescue Brickdale in 1899.  I first saw and fell in love with this painting about two years ago. Ever since, I yearned to use the girl to represent Kate Carey on the cover of The Light in the Labyrinth. The other images on the cover are a symbolic peacock feather and, of course, the famous Anne Boleyn necklace. Can you see the blood on the necklace? That's the end result of trying to imagine how it would have looked after Anne Boleyn’s execution.

So, yes, I did have a lot of input into the design of the cover for my novel. But that’s also because Metropolis Ink is an extremely supportive publisher, made up of a wonderful partnership: Kurt Florman and David Major. David does the book layout and cover designs.  He, just like Kurt, always listens to his authors and works with them until they are completely happy with the look of their books. 

The title written in lower case ‘the light in the labyrinth’

The sub title written in upper case ‘THE LAST DAYS OF ANNE BOLEYN’

The colours of the lettering match the colours of Anne Boleyn’s English Gable Hood, making for a dramatic impact.

The main title colour matches the gold in her English Gable Hood, and the subtitle matches the red insert of her hood. This has a truly striking impact.

Background black with the symbolic peacock feather, which traditionally are linked to immortality and resurrection, and for this reason can be used in decorating a church at Easter.

There have been quite a few novels written about Anne Boleyn. She has proven to be a very enigmatic figure to many. What drew you to write about her Wendy?

Anne Boleyn has been part of my life since I was ten-years-old. As a very shy child, I was always drawn to Anne’s courage, her determination, her sharp intelligence and her strength of character that refused to wilt before strong men like Henry VIII. Her story, and that of her daughter, Elizabeth, lit a light of inspiration during all my growing up years.  But I never quite understood why her story spoke to me so deeply, or so loudly, until I started the journey of my PhD in 2010. Now I clearly see that I am drawn to historical feminist narratives, like that provided by the story of Anne Boleyn, because these stories connect deeply to my own experience of being a woman in a patriarchal society. Tudor women were educated that a virtuous woman was a silent woman. If they didn’t toe the line, they suffered the consequences. Sometimes, as in Anne’s case, the consequence was death.  I really believe Anne died because she refused to be silent.

The Light in the Labyrinth is my second novel that imagines Anne Boleyn’s story. Both this novel and my first, Dear Heart, How Like You This?, have left me questioning how much things have changed for women over the centuries. Women today are still punished because they refuse to be silent. In Australia, every week one woman dies through domestic violence. The story of Anne Boleyn has become a tool for me to critique my own society, and also opened my eyes to why the narratives of our world need to be rewritten so men and women walk side by side as equals. Until that happens, I don’t think the world will be able to find true healing.

It’s extremely interesting how you bring the reader into the story in media res, with Mary and Kate, and Kate angrily thinking:

 ‘Tis my mother’s fault. She’s the one who has brought shame on us. A sister of the Queen of England should know better than to wed a commoner.”

Thus achieving in one thought, just where we are in history. So, Wendy, would you like to tell our readers what gave you the inspiration to write this novel?

I wrote an essay about this very subject, which is included in The Light in the Labyrinth, Louise! A shorter version of the answer is that I believe writers grow by continually pushing themselves out of their comfort zones. 

Late in 2009, I went to a ten-minute play competition with a friend. The competition left both of us very inspired – and we challenged ourselves to write a play to enter in the 2010 competition. I really wanted to write a comedy – but I found all my ideas just went nowhere. Finally, with time disappearing on me and a new school term about to start, I picked up a copy of my first novel and found myself thinking about “Anne Boleyn in the Tower”, the painting used for its cover. Next thing I knew, I found myself writing a play that imagined the last night of Anne Boleyn’s life.

Remembering the hints from history that Katherine Carey may have been with her aunt, Anne Boleyn, during the lead up to her execution and also a witness to her death, I decided to include Kate Carey as one of my characters. After writing that play, I kept returning to the thought that Kate would make a great subject for the young adult novel I planned to write for my next major work. But before I could commit to writing another novel, I first had to do a lot of research to reassure myself that there was enough evidence to suggest Kate Carey was fourteen-years-old when her aunt was executed. Like Anne Boleyn, Kate is another woman from history with her birth year shrouded in uncertainty. For years, I believed she was most likely only twelve at the time of Anne Boleyn’s execution – too young, I thought, to be included as a witness to her aunt’s death, and one of the women responsible for ensuring that Anne Boleyn’s body was interned with all proper respect. But my research showed it was possible that Katherine Carey was fourteen in 1536 – a far more interesting age than that of a girl of twelve. Once I could believe that, I could begin my novel, which also became my PhD artefact, in earnest. 

You say that you have been obsessed by Anne Boleyn and Tudor history since being a child of ten-years-old. What drew you to this point in history Wendy?

I received a child's book of English history for my 10th birthday. In that book was a chapter about Elizabeth I. As Elizabeth Tudor was wont to do in her own lifetime, she hooked me - and I have stayed hooked ever since. From that point of time, I started to read and seek out everything I could find that would help me learn more about Elizabeth. That quest led to her mother, Anne Boleyn. Both these two remarkable women have been responsible for my lifelong study of the Tudors. 

As the history of Anne Boleyn is known by many, even if it’s only the fact that she was one of Henry VIII’s wives, what was your inspiration to making this novel new and fresh for your readers?

There are three parts to this answer. The first part has to do with Kate Carey. Very little is known about Kate Carey’s early life – and that offered a gap for my imagination to use to create a new fictional character, a character also based on a real person from history. The second part of this answer concerns the fictional construction of the last months of Anne Boleyn’s life. I think most people interested in Anne Boleyn wonder about the reasons for her tragic death. For myself, writing this story was my way to try to understand the real reasons Henry VIII murdered, yes, I see it as murder, a woman who he had turned his kingdom upside down to marry. I had mulled over this question for years, ever since I finished my first Tudor novel, Dear Heart, How Like You This? It seemed far too simple to blame the events of 1536 on Anne Boleyn’s failure in the birthing chamber. The third involves my imagined Anne. She is not the Anne of The Other Boleyn Girl or Wolf Hall. My Anne is not perfect. She makes mistakes, like all of us, and says things out of anger, jealousy and heartbreak. But my Anne is also an extremely intelligent, very human woman who deserves love and respect. I have researched Anne for decades now. The more I study her, the more I respect her, and recognise that Elizabeth I is very much her mother’s daughter. 

I thought I would concentrate here a little on Kate, the daughter of Mary, their relationship of which is palpable in its intensity. How much of their relationship comes from perceived knowledge, and how much is from your inspired imagination?

From both: perceived knowledge and imagination. I constructed my imagined Kate through my knowledge of her mother and her aunt. But as I have already mentioned, very little is known of Kate’s early life. So the relationship of mother and daughter was very much a product of my imagination.

Kate is a very strong character in your book. It’s quite revealing of her thoughts to show her writing in a journal. Given this aspect, what gave you the idea to have Kate writing in this way, or was it a well know aspect of life in that time?

This also came from my knowledge of both Anne and Mary Boleyn. We have in existence a letter written by the young Anne Boleyn to her father when she was in service to Margaret of Austria. We also know Anne Boleyn wrote poetry – and then there is that heart wrenching letter from “the Lady from the Tower”. Whilst it is debated whether this letter is indeed from Anne, I believe it rings with too much truth and bewilderment for it not to be from Anne’s own pen.

We also have a letter to Thomas Cromwell by Mary Boleyn, then Mary Stafford. So, in a time when many in nobility struggled to put pen on paper (reading was a far easier skill to learn), we have physical evidence that Anne and Mary wrote letters. It is such a shame we have lost Anne Boleyn’s letters to Henry VIII, but the very fact we have his love letters indicates a correspondence between them. It was this simple fact that Anne and Mary wrote letters, added to my knowledge of the Devonshire Manuscript, a shared book passed around a group of men and women at Henry VIII’s court, many of them also Kate’s kin, that gave the idea of that Kate would likely know how write as a teenager. That helped me decide on using the device of the journal to help to tell Kate’s story.

As the reader scans the page, it is evident when Kate is writing in her journal by the change in the font, which is an extremely effective device for the reader to recognise that moment. I read her journaling almost as though it were a soliloquy, an aside to the reader. Was this your intention?

Thank you, Louise – that was my exact intention, and I’m utterly delighted that you, as a reader, connected to the journal in this way. I saw the journal as a device to deepen the connection between Kate and the reader – and a way to include sections of first person narration, which research suggest is more appealing to the young adult reader.

Many readers are keen to know the routines of writers. So to that end, may I ask you if you have a set routine to your writing day? If so, could you tell us how your day runs please Wendy?

At the moment, I’m taking a break between The Light in the Labyrinth and submitting my PhD before starting in earnest my next novel. My family is the centre of my existence, so it is lovely to have more time available for them. But I also need to write. For big novel projects, I make a habit of going away to writing retreats so I can focus utterly on my work. Varuna, The Writers’ House in the Blue Mountains in Australia is perfect for this. Writers write in their rooms from 9 am to 6 pm. There is no phone in the house, and all mobiles have to be switched to silent. After 6 pm, everyone emerges from their rooms and eat a wonderful Varuna dinner together, cooked by a very special woman. (I miss you, Shelia!) Writers share their daily triumphs or frustrations, and sometimes read from their work-in-progress.

At home, I generally work when my family are not around– between 9 am to 3 pm. When I am deeply in a project, I will often return to my study around 7.30 and work until 9.30. 

   

The editing and proofreading process is a very meticulous task, as I’m sure you will agree, Wendy, so it would be interesting to know how you tackle your proofreading/editing process?

Writers of fiction need passion to dig out the clay to make the bricks of narrative. Passion gives writers drive and purpose – the reason to write. Second, third and fourth drafts call for more and more objectivity until your creation is ready for the eyes of publishers.

I always write the first drafts of my work for myself. That’s my time to experiment, and play around with ideas. It is when I arrive at later drafts I turn my thoughts to what needs to be done to ensure I engage readers other than myself.

When I arrive at second or third drafts, the task of writing begins to feel more like a collaborative project. I don’t believe writers can do their best work in the vacuum of isolation. I am fortunate to have critical friends who I can go to for feedback about my work. For The Light in the Labyrinth, I not only had my PhD supervisors as critical friends, but a group of fellow writers and dear friends who also critiqued my work through its various stages. Of course, the writer of the work is always in the driver’s seat. I take full responsibility for all the decisions made in writing this novel.

One thing I have found very useful to help proofread my work is to read it out loud. My brain has a terrible habit of seeing words in sentences I’ve really left out, but reading it aloud helps me catch those missing words. Another useful technique is to put your work away for a time and then come back to it to read it with fresh eyes. When we have just been working on something, it is difficult to see it clearly and objectively. I also think that every new draft pushes a work to the next stage because the writer becomes more and more certain of the direction of their story.

Writing fiction is all about surrender. To arrive at that point needs discipline, and the mental space to dream stories onto the page. My creative habits continually change. Nowadays, I need a fair amount of silence to write a first draft. I need to hear my thoughts and take them to a place where I can turn them into words on a page. My whole body is involved in the creative process. I am forever testing out my text, tasting, savouring words, to see if they make me vibrate. I put myself in the same space as my characters, to feel their pain, their joy – their experience of being. 

Finally, Wendy, is there anything else that you would like to tell our readers about your writing process?

Probably not so much about the process, but a final word about why I write. Writing has taught me that I use historical fiction as a way to tell my own story, as a woman who has lived the experience of being shaped by her culture, who also has known oppression and – in her growing up years – being deemed to have less value than the males in her world.  A woman who believes in writing as a space that creates and builds empathy – not only for the reader, but for the writer, too. 

Wendy, it has been an absolute pleasure chatting with you, and extremely interesting and very informative too. Thank you so much for joining me at The Review today, and may I wish you all success with your new book, _The Light in the Labyrinth_

Wendy's book is published by Metropolis Ink

Wendy J. Dunn is also author of _Dear Heart, How Like You This?_ 

Wendy can be found on Facebook,  and Twitter and on her blog and Goodreads

Louise E. Rule is the author of Future Confronted

Louise can be found on Facebook and Twitter,

and on her blog and Goodreads

Louise E. Rule

Louise E. Rule Interviews Judith Arnopp for The Review Author Interviews

From Judith Arnopp's Author Page on amazon.co.uk

Judith Arnopp

I live on a smallholding in West Wales with my husband, John, and two of our grown-up children. We used to do the whole self-sufficiency thing but the fox ate all the chickens, the slugs ate all the lettuce and ill health forced us to give up the battle. Now we care for our daughter's elderly pony and enjoy our Jack Russell, Bryn.

My greatest loves have always been writing and history. Since I was very small I have had a book in one hand and a pen in the other. These days, I have progressed to this wonderful machine which allows me to write the sort of books I love to read. Historical settings with a good strong lead female.

One of the great tragedies of history is that monastic chroniclers didn't think women sufficiently important enough to give them space on the record. This has caused women to be under-represented and, in my opinion, also often incorrectly categorised. Of course, the male section of medieval society tried to suppress their women; it still happens today but that doesn't mean that every one of them bowed down to male authority.

There were women like Aethelflaed, who ruled Mercia for thirty four years, led armies against the Vikings, refortified the Roman towns of Chester and Tamworth, founded Shrewsbury, Bridgnorth, Warwick and Stafford. Eleanor of Aquitaine who, among other things, ruled England on behalf of her son, King Richard the Lionheart's behalf until he could come to claim his throne. Margaret of Anjou who fought unsuccessfully for her son's rights and Margaret Beaufort whose campaign to put her son, Henry VII, on the throne, was rather more successful. Mary Banks who, along with her daughters and a handful of servants, withstood a siege at Corfe Castle on behalf of King Charles during the civil war. These are just a few examples of women who 'displayed a courage far above their sex as to surprise and disconcert their men' and they are the type of women you will find in my novels.

Welcome Judith Arnopp to The Review Author Interview, and thank you for taking the time to chat with me today.

Apart from your poetry book Waving at Trains, a personal account of your life, Judith, you have written and co-written many books. Can you tell the readers what gave you the inspiration to write about the Tudors?

The Winchester Goose

I have always loved the Tudors but when I started to write professionally I thought they'd been 'done to death' so I set my first novel in the Anglo Saxon period, which is another era I love. it was quite well received but, three novels later, I'd had so many people ask me if I had written anything 'Tudor' I thought I should oblige. That is when The Winchester Goose came into being and after that things really took off for me. I am very grateful, both to Henry VIII for having so many wives and to the people who suggested them.

Given that many books have been written about the Tudors, and in particular, Anne Boleyn, what was the catalyst that drove you to write The Kiss of the Concubine: A Story of Anne Boleyn?

I have both studied and read novels about Anne Boleyn since I was a young girl but never been entirely satisfied with any of them. She has been sadly maligned for years. I don't believe she was perfect but certainly most of the accusations against her were false. Most of the authors I've read embrace the legends of incest and witchcraft that emerged after her death. In my opinion Anne's story is dramatic enough and doesn't need embellishing too much. The Kiss of the Concubine doesn't concentrate on the pomp and ceremony of being queen, it hones in on the woman beneath and what marriage to a man like Henry might have been like.

I found it very interesting that you wrote it in the first person, and in particular at the beginning of the book, when Anne is a ghost talking to Henry on his deathbed. It lends an air of the sinister, matching the life of the king. With this in mind, can you tell the readers why you decided to write it from Anne's point of view?

The Kiss of the Concubine

I enjoy writing in the first person narrative and wanted to tell the story from her perspective. As I mentioned in the previous question she was subjected to false accusations and posthumously demonised further by her enemies. By stepping directly into her shoes, the reader experiences only the things that Anne would have been aware of. Henry and Anne's marriage was full of argument and reconciliation but there is very little to suggest any untoward break-up in their relationship right up to the time of her arrest. In The Kiss of the Concubine, when she is in the Tower, Anne is not fully aware of the real danger in which she stands and clings to the belief that Henry will free and forgive her. She knows nothing of the plots against her, or that the swordsman is summoned from France before her trial has taken place.

It is really intriguing seeing what life was like with Henry VII. Even though there is much to read regarding Henry and Anne, how did you go about making it different from all the other books written about them?

I didn't really give it much thought at the time but in retrospect I think it is different from other books because of the perspective it is written from, and also because I have stripped away the glitz and glamour to show the man and woman beneath. In the excerpt below their son has just been still-born, instead of having Henry angry and resentful, I paint them as grieving parents.

Exhausted after hours of travail, I slump on my pillows as they hand me my child. My son is swaddled in linen, his little blue face closed as in sleep, his purple lips like a bow. I cast back the covering to examine his perfectly formed limbs, his minute nail-less fingers, the tiny proof of his manhood. Apart from the fact he does not breathe, our little prince is perfect.

They take him from me, creeping away, and I roll over and wish I could die. I can find no comfort. I have lost our son, the prince that we have fought for all these years. What has it all been for? The tears don't fall, they wash down my face, no sobbing, no thrashing. I am saturated in grief. My attendants don't know what to say to me. They avoid my eye, speak in whispers and creep from my presence. When Henry finally deigns to come and face me I am quite alone, with only the terror of my thoughts for company.

He is deflated, like a child's bladder ball, his royal brilliance destroyed, his confidence quashed. I raise sore, wet eyes to him and for a long while we stare at each other, my throat working painfully, my breast burning. His face is flaccid and I can detect no anger, just unquenchable sorrow. In the end I hold out a hand, and after a long time of just looking at it, he eventually takes it and falls onto the bed beside me.

I curl myself around him, cling to the strong trunk of his body, my arms choking, my legs wrapped about his hips. If I could climb inside him I would, for there is nowhere and no one safe in this world but him; nowhere I can escape to and no way to put things right.

 As we lie there together, his torso begins to quiver and then shakes as great heaving sobs begin to tear him apart. I weep with him; useless, wrenching tears that have no end and do not heal. Henry and I are the most powerful couple in all of England and yet, in the face of death, we are powerless.

Writing historical fiction allows an author carte blanche to mix fact with fiction with alacrity. So how do you go about creating a balance between the two?

There is a very fine balance needed to create a believable world. By sticking too closely to facts and events the resulting book an be colourless. I research the Tudor world until I feel I can walk through the streets and houses quite comfortably. When it comes to writing it down I try not to describe it so much that I distract the reader from the story. I try to add just enough to provide an authentic backdrop. I keep a timeline of recorded events to hand, pictures and short bios of the historical characters and then I just begin to write. It sort of just happens. During the edits I sometimes have to take things out or add a little more to get the best mix. It is a bit like cooking; sometimes the recipe needs more spice, sometimes less. Whenever I do stray from fact or accepted opinion I always clarify it in an author's note. The past has gone and we can never really know what happened or how it was, so I never claim my version of events is 'history' or 'truth.' My stories are just ideas or speculation of how it might have been.

You are a prolific writer, Judith. Could you tell our readers what you next book will be about?

It is called A Song of Sixpence and is about Elizabeth of York and Perkin Warbeck - a dual narrative meshing their stories together until the time they meet. I have taken the idea that Perkin was in fact one of the princes in the Tower and Elizabeth's younger brother. It is going very well. I am just writing about the infancy of Elizabeth's second son, the young Henry (later the eighth of that name) and as you might imagine he is a proper handful. Elizabeth's life is quite well recorded so her side of the story follows history quite closely but we know virtually nothing of Perkin's life overseas so I am able to give my creative side fuller rein. This book is proving to be fun to write and I usually find that the more I enjoy writing a book the better it turns out. I have high hopes for this one.

Do you find writing becomes easier the more books that you write?

In some ways it does. Structure and formatting becomes second nature but it is quite difficult to ensure all the books don't end up the same. I have read lots of very successful authors who start off really fresh and gripping but after a while their books become formulaic. I hope I can avoid that but only time will tell. I think it is traditionally published authors who suffer this the most; they have the pressure of deadlines and publisher demands. As an independent author I can take as long as I want over a book and I put a lot of thought into how I want to structure it. If I want to take a risk and write first person, present tense I can, because I am my own boss. If it doesn't work I have only myself to blame. So, for me, keeping fresh is the greatest challenge.

When you co-write a book, how do you go about dividing the writing, or does it just evolve?

The only books I've co-written are anthologies with the writing group Cwrtnewydd Scribblers of which I am a member. We do one most years. We just get all our favourite different pieces together and decide which should go in and which should not. We then have to agree on covers and fonts etc. We give a percentage of the royalties to Air Ambulance Wales. Publishing our anthologies has improved our writing and publishing skills and added to the cohesion of the group and I would recommend it to all writing groups. You might not sell many but it is another string to your bow.

Judging by your posts on Facebook, your writing day starts quite early. Do you have a set working ethic, or is it flexible Judith?

It is entirely flexible; it has to be but I try to write and promote every day and aim to write four out of seven days. I write quite quickly so this works well for me. I also do a lot of blogging and networking, usually early in the morning while I am having breakfast and then I settle down to work on the WIP. I try to get a set amount of words done each day and sometimes I reach my goal, sometimes not. I often have to take a break to research some detail. There are also periods when my head gets so clogged up with the events in my novel that I am in danger of forgetting who I really am. Then I have to force myself to turn it off and re-enter the real world for a while.

I love making notes, and lists to do with my writing. How do you keep your story-lines on track?

I make a time-line and pin it up to keep a track of where I am supposed to be going. It is like the backbone of my novel and everything else is the flesh and muscle. When I research I scrawl notes on a notebook but my handwriting is so terrible I really struggle when it comes to reading them back. If I were to take all the sticky Post-It notes I have used so far in my career I could probably paper the walls of the house.

Many authors have beta readers for their manuscripts, so do you have beta readers for yours?

When I meet with the writing group they listen to the work so far and critique it as I go along. My husband also reads it. Then I have two other beta readers who are not related to me in any way. They look for continuity errors, things that trip them up, typos etc., by this time I have usually read it through so many times I am sick and tired of it and begin to not really 'see' it anymore. That is the time to lay it aside and step away.

After that I give it a final read through and edit before it goes off to my professional editor who does a wonderful job on it. Every writer really needs beta readers and editors - it is really not a good idea to publish without. It is asking for trouble.

Finally, Judith, could you tell our readers how you go about choosing a cover for your books?

In the early days I made many mistakes with covers and, once I had gained more experience, I had to repackage all three of my early novels. The cover is a big decision, something I didn't realise at first. These days I am lucky to have made friends with the designer Covergirl, and she now does all my covers. We work together to find a photograph we both like. I have simple tastes and prefer just a figure or a symbol that says something about the era the book is written in. For my last book, Intractable Heart, I was lucky enough to work with Darren Wilkins of The Tudor Roses fame, and purchased the use of his wonderful photograph. My cover designer then worked her magic on it. I am currently looking for a photograph or a contemporary painting that is available for use. Ideas are always welcome.

Thank you so much Judith, it's been really so interesting chatting with you.

Judith Arnopp is also author of:

Intractable Heart: A Story of Katheryn Parr
Peaceweaver
The Forest Dwellers, and so many more. 
To see all of Judith's books, please visit her amazon.co.uk page here.

Judith can also be found on Facebook, Twitter and on her blog and website

Louise E. Rule

Louise E. Rule is author of Future Confronted
And can be found on Facebook, Twitter and on her blog.

Interview: Judith Arnopp interviewed by Linda Root

Meet the Incredible Judith Arnopp

An interview by Linda Root

We are honored to have with us today a writer whose creative energies seem boundless, Judith Arnopp, who is just as comfortable weaving portions of two ninth century epic poems into her fine novel Songs of Heledd as she is invading Henry VIII's death watch to listen in while the ghost of Queen Anne Boleyn intimidates him with her whispers. Join me as we explore Judith's past endeavors, share her present successes and glimpse a bit of what her future offers.

                           

Researching The Song of Heledd required you to do an exhaustive critical analysis of a collection of ninth century Welsh poetry entitled Canu Heledd, and your novel is based upon fragments of the poems. How did you approach such a demanding task?  What drew you to it?

I studied early medieval literature as part of my Master’s degree and became familiar with Heledd that way. Only a tiny fragment of the poem, the beginning and end, are extant, but it is quite clear that Heledd held herself responsible for the loss of not just her family, but the entire dynasty. I found myself constantly wondering what she had done. It was the sort of question that keeps you awake nights even though there is no way we will ever discover the real truth.
The poem tells us that she loved her brother Cyndylan, King of Pengwern, but although she also loved her sister, Ffreur, she doesn’t mourn her. Why on earth not?
There could be a number of reasons but the more I thought about it, the more real Heledd and Ffreur became. In the end the only way to put my ‘historian’ mind to sleep was to let my creative side take over and make up the middle part. Because so little is known about the people involved in the events I was able to give my imagination full rein. We have the names, we have the places, we know of the wars they were involved in, we know the way it ended. The only questions left were how and why. So I made it up.
I didn’t rely on my own critical analysis; I am not skilled enough or confident enough for that but a lot of academic study has been done on the subject and I am lucky enough to have the University of Wales practically on my doorstep. I owe particular thanks to Jenny Rowlands and her book Early Welsh Saga Poetry.
                                                                               

Although I love all periods of history, I am not drawn to any particular era but rather to particular characters. I am interested in what made them tick, how they might have felt, their motivations. If a situation or historical personage sticks their head up and waves at me, I read around them and see if and how I can take it further. I have always been a bit ‘nerdy’ and love research so it is not a chore for me, especially if I have chocolate and a good supply of coffee.

If you were to expand one of your novels into a series, which would you find the most tempting?

I haven’t ever thought of doing a series. I think I might get bored with the characters and if I was bored with them, think how bored the reader would be! I did consider doing a follow up to Peaceweaver, tracing the lives of the sons she bore Grufydd ap Llewelyn. The historical record tells us they returned to Wales and attempted to win back the lands their father governed but the records are sketchy so it would be pure fiction. Most of my novels have such a complete ending that I don’t see how I could take the others further. I suppose the closest I’ve come to a series is with my Tudor novels; I tackle Anne of Cleves and Katherine Howard in The Winchester Goose, and Anne Boleyn in The Kiss of the Concubine.

According to my review of your career, you began contributing short pieces to anthologies or writing short stories and snippets.  What made you decide that it was time for Judith Arnopp to move on to a full length novel?

It was the other way round actually. Although I have written short stories since I was a child I never let anyone read anything until I was well into my adulthood. Around 2004 I wrote a very bad historical novel set in medieval England that will never see light of day, then I progressed to Peaceweaver. Once I decided it was good enough to publish I began to write short pieces and blogs to draw attention to my work. On occasion I have plucked something very old from the archives and reinvented it but on the whole the novels came first, the short pieces second. When I first began to blog I adapted old university material but now I try to stick to whichever period I am writing in and link it in some way to one of my books.

Are you ever tempted to try out a different genre?  If so, which would it be?

I’ve written a bit of romance but my heart isn’t in it. I am too bloodthirsty for contemporary stories. I like to make my characters suffer and often kill them off so it doesn’t really suit the romance genre. My heart is in historical, I am more comfortable in a medieval setting and since my personal life is so rural I have no idea what it is really like to live in the modern world. I am in a beautiful time bubble here in West Wales with only sheep and the windswept landscape for company.

It strikes me that the tone and setting of your first three novels is unmistakably Welsh.  And then, you take another leap, this time hundreds of years forward to Tudor England. Did some particular interest, challenge or event cause you to move from pre-invasion Saxon Britain all the way to Tudor England in your recent offerings, The Winchester Goose and finally, The Kiss of the Concubine?

As a teenager when I first became interested in history I was a huge Tudor fan. The Tudor period formed part of my university degree but by that time I was far more taken up with the Anglo-Saxons and early medieval period. It seemed natural to start there with a world that was fresh in my mind and Peaceweaver, The Forest Dwellers, and The Song of Heledd were born from that.
I published a very short lighthearted pamphlet of six stories called Dear Henry: Confessions of the Queens. It wasn’t a serious academic study; I did it in a workshop with no research material to hand. Readers who demand accuracy slammed it but I also had some positive reviews and loads of emails from other readers asking if I’d written any other Tudor books.

I had so many readers asking that I thought seriously about it and the result was The Winchester Goose. I found the transition very smooth and am comfortable in Tudor England. The difference between Dear Henry and The Winchester Goose is the months of research that went into the latter. It is about a prostitute from Southwark and contrasts the life of a whore with that of Henry’s queens. The glittering royal court is juxtaposed with the stews across the river. During the course of researching The Winchester Goose I conceived the idea of writing a novel about Anne Boleyn without embellishing her story or taking defamatory material too literally. The result was The Kiss of the Concubine and the response from readers has been astounding. I am so very touched by all the letters and reviews that are flooding in.

Kiss of the Concubine is populated by actual persons--Anne Boleyn,  her early lovers Wyatt and Percy, and the colorful member of her  own family, especially her brother George and her sister-in-law Lady Rochford, and of course, the king.  How did you deal with the immense amount of conflicting data available about them, and especially, how did you approach the controversy that surrounds the trial and execution of Queen Anne and her parade of alleged lovers?

You have to take every historical record with a pinch of salt. Every writer, especially one recording history as it happens, has an agenda. You have to ask yourself;, why was he writing it? Who was he writing it for? What was his motive? After Anne’s death many of her possessions and papers were destroyed. There are very few letters remaining in her hand, so much of what we learn is gleaned from sources that were ‘allowed’ to survive to the present day. Some were written by her enemies and some of the more complimentary stuff penned later, in her daughter Elizabeth’s reign. It is a case of reading between the lines. Many of the dates of her alleged offences can be dismissed as records show she elsewhere at the time; on one occasion when she was accused of committing adultery she was still in childbed with Elizabeth. It is quite clear the charges were trumped up.
Anne is a very popular figure and there is a large following who believe she has been maligned by Spanish and Tudor propaganda. To find the real woman, or to come as close to her as we can ever can, one has to remain objective. Of course secondary sources on Anne Boleyn are readily available and Eric Ives, Susannah Lipscombe and Claire Ridgway were invaluable when it came to sources and theories. I read the more critical stuff too so as to form my own opinion but I have to agree Anne was innocent, a victim of state politics.

Did your personal attitude toward Anne and Henry change as your book progressed, and if so, in what way?  Do you see Anne and Henry's story as a love affair?

My opinion of Anne was vindicated by my studies of her and remained unaltered, but my research into Henry changed my opinion immensely. I always assumed he was a brute, a wife murderer, a psychopath in fact, but the more I read about him, the more I came to understand, or at least to acknowledge, his psychological flaws. He was a man with immense power, a man in search of the unobtainable and this, together with his belief that he was second only to God, determined the monstrous behavior that he is famous for today.
My personal belief is that he did love Anne, and she him. Henry was a selfish and demanding man yet he courted her for seven years. If he didn’t truly love her he would have given up, yet it seems he scarcely looked at another woman in all this time.
His disappointment when she failed to conceive a son made him vulnerable to the political attack that took her down. I think he believed the lies that were told about her. Henry was a jealous and possessive man and I think the realisation that Anne had died innocent didn’t come until it was too late. Henry and Anne’s relationship was always stormy; they had frequent and public disagreements but their reconciliations were just as public. There are no contemporary reports that the marriage was failing; just a few weeks before her arrest even the Spanish ambassador Chapuys reported that the king and queen were as much in love as ever. In The Kiss of the Concubine, after her arrest, Anne believes it is just another misunderstanding; she is sure Henry will soon cool down and save her.

Without asking you to pick a favorite amongst your novels, can you tell us which of them was the most enjoyable writing experience for you?  And of course, on the flip side, which novel or part of a novel was the most difficult?  How did you overcome the obstacles?

I think the novel that was the most fun to write was The Winchester Goose. There is usually some humour in my novels because I believe that even in the most trying of human predicaments, we find the time for irony or foolery. Joanie Toogood, the main character in The Winchester Goose is a good humoured, big hearted woman and taking on her life as a prostitute enabled me to fully explore the pestilent, filthy, cut-throat underworld of Tudor London. I discovered a variety of people there from the generous to the downright nasty. Amid all the squalor Joanie emerges as funny, compassionate and loud – her mind is probably the one I’ve most enjoyed inhabiting during my writing career so far.
The most difficult was a scene in The Song of Heledd when Heledd’s actions destroy the person she loves most. I wrote the scene several times but it wasn’t right. The situation she was in was so horrible; it was way beyond my own life experience. In the end I imagined it was happening to one of my own sisters (I have three, all of whom are very precious to me). Once I had made the scene personal it came easily, as did the tears I shed while I wrote it. I don’t want to be guilty of spoilers but that particular chapter is the hardest I’ve had to write. It still makes me shudder when I read through it.

Of the heroines in your novels, which one do you most consider ‘a Woman for All Seasons'?

Oh dear, there is a difficult question. Not many of my female characters win in the end. It is more about the journey than the destination; in fact a lot of my women don’t survive beyond the last chapter. I can think of one that would fit the bill in The Forest Dwellers but that would involve a huge spoiler so I will stick with Alys from the same book.
After the Norman invasion the people of the New Forest are treated so harshly by the new regime that life becomes impossible. Alys, an extraordinarily pretty girl, uses a variety of ways to hold her own in a rapidly changing world. Once she discovers her most effective weapon is her own physical beauty, she fights and scrambles her way up the ladder. She survives, she gets what she wants (or needs to survive) but not without the greatest sacrifice of all. Love.
Alys is not easy to love but she is impossible to ignore. She is flawed, her mistakes are legion but at the end of her struggle when she lives on beyond the closing of the book, you will have come to understand her and forgive her failings.

Were you writing regularly when your children were preschoolers? How did your writing mesh with your family life?  Has that changed now that your children are older?  What advice would you give to new writers with young families?

I was too busy being mum and running a smallholding to write seriously until my children were grown up. I used to scribble stories as a hobby but never dreamed of publishing them. I have a clutch of stories I wrote about them when they were little. I’d put them into scenarios and take them through excellent adventures to read at bedtime. When I was expecting my daughter I wrote about the forthcoming event so as to help her brother, Simon, who was just about two years old, to look forward to her arrival as much as we were. I was worried he would feel displaced but I didn’t need to worry, he adored her from day one and they are all still really close.
Now they are all grown up they are proud of my achievements and bore all their friends about their ‘fabulous mum.’

Was there ever a time after your first book was published when you thought of giving it all up?

No. I’d never give up writing. Even if nobody bought my books I would still have to write. Initially I sought the traditional publishing route but I soon got fed up with that malarkey. I was taken on by an agent but she really didn’t ‘get’ what I was about. She wanted me to write more like Philippa Gregory but I didn’t want to; I wanted to write like me.
I have had my share of despondency, bad reviews, negative feedback. I encourage constructive criticism but downright nastiness is upsetting and damaging. One of my writer friends was so hurt by personal criticism that she gave up writing altogether. I can’t see me doing that. I wouldn’t know what else to do.
Once I decided to go it alone I found myself on a huge learning curve. I had to be self-critical, discover a good editor (I have an excellent one now after two or three failures.) I learned to develop new skills, typesetting, layout, formatting, cover design, marketing skills and I had to learn how to be receptive to readers even if I was having a bad day and feeling a bit grumpy. Facebook and Twitter are invaluable for making connections with readers. I have a lovely little band of friends now and it is those people that make all the hard work worthwhile.
It is tough sometimes. A very solitary existence. You have to be happy in your own company, you have to be tough and develop the skin of a rhinoceros. Most of all I think you need to have conviction in your own way of doing things.

I have seen you describe your writing as coming from a feminine perspective.  Do you consider yourself a feminist?  How does your empathy for the plight of women affect your presentation of the principal male characters in your story?   Of all of the males in your several books, which one of them, if any,  would you consider a feminist or the most sympathetic to the needs of women?  And of course, who is the insensitive bad guy in the mix?

I believe in equality for women in the modern world. I know it didn’t exist in the period I write in and I try very hard not to make my female characters act and speak as we do today. Their expectations were entirely different to ours. That is not to say that women didn’t have an impact on history. There are plenty of incidences where the actions of women have had a huge influence; very often they were unrecorded or glossed over in favour of male achievements.
The male characters that empathise most with women are probably Peter the Costermonger in The Winchester Goose, and George Boleyn in The Kiss of the Concubine.
I don’t think any of my male characters are absolute brutes. They might be insensitive, unschooled in the art of love, and they tend to shout a lot but they are not evil, just human. There are no black/white, evil/nice characters; I try to present multi-faceted people. I don’t know anyone who is wholly good or wholly bad so why should they appear in fiction? Gruffyd ap Llewelyn in Peaceweaver is the nastiest of my characters. He was the leader of the Welsh and, by most accounts, a powerful man in a harsh and brutal world. When Eadgyth finds herself married to him we see him from her perspective which isn’t a pretty one, but I do manage to give him the chance to explain his behavior and explore what made him the man he was. I had a quandary with Gruffydd because the records we have of him were written by those who defeated him and so can’t be wholly relied on. But since it was his own men who betrayed him to King Edward I could only surmise that if the Welsh turned against their own leader in favour of the English he must have been a real ‘baddie.’

Now that the Kiss of the Concubine is a completed project, what’s next for Judith Arnopp?  Please tell us a little about your current work in progress, but also give us an idea of where you would like to be ten years down the line, both as a writer and as a woman who has a deep commitment to her family and her heritage.

I am still with the Tudors. This time I am writing the life of Katherine Parr, Henry’s last wife. She comes across as a strong woman. She married four times, the first three occasions for political rather than personal reasons. She withstood a siege at Snape Castle during her second marriage to Lord Latimer and, when the king targeted her as his next wife, she put aside her own desire to marry Thomas Seymour until after Henry’s death. She was a good consort to Henry and, although long thought of as a dull little nursemaid, she emerges a fascinating woman. She was in fact very scholarly and a published author. She stood as regent for England while Henry was warmongering in France and was a strong role model and mother to his children. Her eventual marriage to Thomas Seymour was not an altogether wise choice as it turns out; their short marriage was fraught with suspicion and infidelity until she died shortly after childbirth scarcely a year after the king’s death.
The novel is to be called Intractable Heart, which is a phrase taken from her book The Lamentation of a Sinner in which she acknowledges her ‘obstinate, strong and intractable heart.’
It is told via four narrators: Katherine’s step daughter, Margaret Neville; Katherine herself; Thomas Seymour and Elizabeth Tudor. I am about three quarters of the way through the story now, just beginning Elizabeth’s part and am hugely excited to be tackling such a huge figure.
The future is a dark uncomfortable place to contemplate, I am much happier in the past but in ten years' time I would like to be healthy, fit and happy, doing much as I am doing now only with more confidence and success. I should also like my husband to have finally given in to my demands and retired so he can become my ‘kept man.’ Some more grandchildren would be nice too.

I hope you have enjoyed spending time with Judith Arnopp as much as I have.  My next task is to clear some space on my ‘to be read’ shelf for Judith’s earlier works, and of course, with a special reserved space for Intractable Heart. Visit Judith’s author pages at  Amazon and Amazon UK. 

Linda Root is the author of the novels in the Queen of Scots Suite. If you would like Linda to review your book or conduct an interview, please see our submissions tab above.