Queen by Right Anne Easter Smith includes giveaway

From the award-winning author of A Rose for the Crown, Daughter of York, and The King’s Grace comes another masterful historical novel—the story of Cecily of York, mother of two kings and the heroine of one of history’s greatest love stories.


Anne Easter Smith’s novels are beloved by readers for their ability “to grab you, sweep you along with the story, and make you fall in love with the characters.”


In Cecily Neville, duchess of York and ancestor of every English monarch to the present day, she has found her most engrossing character yet. History remembers Cecily of York standing on the steps of the Market Cross at Ludlow, facing an attacking army while holding the hands of her two young sons. Queen by Right reveals how she came to step into her destiny, beginning with her marriage to Richard, duke of York, whom she meets when she is nine and he is thirteen. Raised together in her father’s household, they become a true love match and together face personal tragedies, pivotal events of history, and deadly political intrigue. All of England knows that Richard has a clear claim to the throne, and when King Henry VI becomes unfit to rule, Cecily must put aside her hopes and fears and help her husband decide what is right for their family and their country. Queen by Right marks Anne Easter Smith’s greatest achievement, a book that every fan of sweeping, exquisitely detailed historical fiction will devour.

Back in my pre blogging days I read and loved Sharon Kay Penman's Sunne in Splendour which was predominantly about Richard III. Reading that book sent me on a journey through lots of Ricardian fiction and one of my favourite reads at that time was Anne Easter Smith's debut novel A Rose for the Crown. In the nearly five years since I read that book, I had intended to read more from this author. With this new book, Queen by Right, I finally got around to actually doing so.

There can be no doubting whether Anne Easter Smith is for York or Lancaster when it comes to deciding which side she would have backed had she had to pick side in the war of the Roses, or at least there isn't much doubt based on the two books I have read so far. That should be sufficient warning to expect that York is good and Lancastrian is pretty much not!

Having now read most of this book, I must say I am a little amazed that we haven't heard more about Cicely's life before now. She has always been mentioned in books about Edward and Richard, her two sons who both ruled England, but Anne Easter Smith manages to give Cicely's story depth and interest all of it's own.

The novel opens with the woman who has been known as the Rose of Raby due to her beauty and also as Proud Cis for her bearing, grace and dignity. Now though, she is deep in mourning. Her beloved husband is dead, as are several of her other family members, and now she must find a way to carry on and support her remaining children.

Looking back retrospectively we see her meet and fall in love with her husband Richard and follow their lives together through their time in France and Ireland, parenting their many children and then to the conflict that pitted the Yorks against the formidable and nasty Margaret of Anjou, known through history as a she-wolf. Whilst battling for the rewards due to a man of his stature, Richard walks a fine line between loyalty and treachery against King Henry.

Of Cicely personally we meet a devout woman who believes passionately in the Virgin Mary. Her spiritual development is affected pretty early on as a result of the interactions that the book suggests she had with Jeanne de Arc. I am not sure that there is much historical basis, but with the timing all fitting, this part of the narrative has made it possible for the reader to view some of the most famous events of the time through the eyes of Cicely. Coincidentally, today is the anniversary of the death of the saint known to most of us as Joan of Arc.

As much as I have enjoyed reading this book, there are a couple of small things that I feel that I should mention. The first relates to Cicely and Richard's sex life. Whilst the scenes are not overly graphic in nature, I am not sure that we needed to be present for the conception of practically every child she had (and there were a lot!).  The second thing was that there appeared to be times where the author lost track of some of the characters, particularly the children, and keeping all of the key players straight in the conflicts later in the book was some times a little difficult. These are minor complaints though.

For the most part, we are given a fascinating glimpse into the life of a woman who is ancestor to nearly every king or queen of England since her death, was mother to two kings, and who seems to have left more of an imprint in the pages of historical fiction than a lot of other women of her time.

Luckily for me, I have two more of Anne Easter Smith's books sitting on my shelf that I can go back and read!


Thanks to Amy from Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours for organising the blog tour that this post is part of and for arranging for me to receive an e ARC.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thanks to HF Virtual Blog Tours and  the publishers we have a copy of Queen by Right to give away! 



- open to US residents
- leave a comment and don't forget your email address
- the contest closes June12 at midnight GMT

Why I Love Life in a Medieval Nunnery by Margaret Frazer

There is a quiet there. A silence made of small sounds too familiar to be heard: the hush of soft-soled shoes on stone floors; the whisper of long skirts as women move, wordless, about their well-practiced duties.

Then the slow striking of a bell that brings them from all their varied work to the single, central purpose of their lives, their voices raised now, blending together in the daily-changing, yearly-returning garland of psalms and prayers in the church that is the heart of this small grouping of rooms around the green cloister garth.

A meal then, eaten in quiet under the low voice of one of them reading aloud; and a return to work or perhaps to study now. Then prayers again. And again. The hours for prayer coming all through a day, separating the daily from the divine, an endless reminding of the eternal that lies beyond the passing needs of everyday.
Then supper, with afterward an hour when all the women’s voices are set free and flow into talk, into chatter perhaps, into ease from the day’s duties done, before last prayers, and silence again, and bed.

Ore et labore.

Prayer and work.

I remember in my early days in St. Frideswide’s, the nunnery I created for The Novice’s Tale, the first novel in my Dame Frevisse series, a morning when I had to leave off my writing for the day, dress in “office clothes”, and go to stand on a corner waiting for a bus to take me to yet another temp job. The day was February at its most bleak: grim, gray, cold, and slush-ridden. Traffic roared past, and all the buses were full or, when one paused with at least standing room left, I failed to scale the dirty snowbank faster than others eager to crowd into the fusty heat beyond the hissing doors. As one bus after another came and went – with nothing to be won by actually getting on one except a day in a cubicle under merciless fluorescent lights -- I thought (quite pathetically, as I recall), “I want to go back to my nunnery!”

Not, of course, that any nunnery was as forever-peaceful as the one imagined above. But neither does it seem that medieval English nunneries were full of Naughty Nuns – disobedient, slovenly, lustful, renegade, fodder-for-cheap-novels nuns, desperately unhappy with their lot and letting the world know it. Very early in my reading of such works as Eileen Powers’ Medieval English Nunneries, I caught on to the fact that – just as with modern news – it’s the troublemakers who get into the records, the troublemakers who get noticed and noted, not the far larger number of people who live quiet, orderly lives. Yes, there were nunneries where scandalous things happened, but given the number of nunneries there were in medieval England, and the span of centuries covered by contemporary reports, such outbreaks look more like temporary, isolated aberrations than a constant thing. Reflection suggests that the majority of nuns lived their lives quietly, within acceptable parameters, even if not always in strict accordance with the Rule. They were, after all, only human.

But what of all those many women we “know” were dumped into nunneries because they were superfluous females, women who must therefore have been intensely resentful, rebellious, depressed, repressed, etc.? Ah, facts, pesky facts. Judging by how many English nunneries there were and the known numbers of nuns in each (medieval bishops kept meticulous accounts), there must have been very few superfluous women in medieval England, because most nunneries were small. A dozen nuns was a generous amount for any but the most socially prestigious, royally-founded abbeys.

But if the nunneries weren’t full of resentful, rule-breaking nuns forced into a life they did not want, what were all those women doing in nunneries? Well, simply put, it would seem they were there by choice -- that they chose to become nuns.

Consider that choice in the context of actual medieval life as lived (versus modern clichéd perceptions of “medieval”). The life of the spirit – of the soul – was thought to be the most valuable life there was. A life given over to prayer, not just for the self but for the world, was supposed to be the richest life there was, albeit one most people could not hope (or, frankly, want) to have. A woman who chose to become a nun was choosing to forgo worldly life for the infinitely more valuable life of the soul.

That said, the fact remains that they were still individuals, were still in the world, however cloistered they might be, because a nunnery was a workaday place as well as a place of prayer. A nunnery was a complex corporate entity with levels of managerial responsibilities webbing not only through the nunnery itself but outward into the numerous aspects of worldly medieval life that sustained the spiritual one. Nuns were expected to be corporate managers as well as sustainers of their own and other people’s spirituality. That dichotomy of purpose is one of the reasons that a medieval nun and a nunnery work so well in a history mystery novel. I’m not only able to explore an under-utilized aspect of medieval life from the angle of reality (rather than histrionics), but Dame Frevisse, with her keen, curious mind and deep spiritual life, brings a unique (but definitely medieval) viewpoint to everything around her. That includes both her fellow nuns with their widely varying personalities (some of whom are, after all, not as suited to the spiritual life as they might be) and all the men and women who populate the many layers and facets of medieval society surrounding the nunnery.

The tensions of this duality add fascinating difficulties to all the usual problems involved in a murder and mystery, and allow readers that deep immersion into a truly different time and place that is the one of the pleasures of reading historical novels. Human passions may remain the same through the centuries, but what sparks them changes with the world they grow in. I love my “life in a medieval nunnery” because by being there I’ve been able to explore not only the worldly passions of the body but the spiritual passions of those who quest for the peace and glory of soul said to lie beyond the bounds of everyday.

That said, I know it’s not a life I want for myself full time. No nunnery for me. But that morning at the cold, slush-ridden bus stop, it was good to think about another way of living, good to remember there have been – and are -- other ways to live than in the noise and rush and onward thrust of modern city life. It was the quiet of “my” nunnery I wanted – that ordered, peaceful place where the life of the soul is as honored as the life of the body.

Or is until, as a novelist, I have to kill someone and get on with the plot.

The Confessions of Catherine de Medici by CW Gortner **includes giveaway**

The truth is, none of us are innocent. We all have sins to confess.

So reveals Catherine de Medici in this brilliantly imagined novel about one of history’s most powerful and controversial women. To some she was the ruthless queen who led France into an era of savage violence. To others she was the passionate savior of the French monarchy. Acclaimed author C. W. Gortner brings Catherine to life in her own voice, allowing us to enter into the intimate world of a woman whose determination to protect her family’s throne and realm plunged her into a lethal struggle for power.

 The last legitimate descendant of the illustrious Medici line, Catherine suffers the expulsion of her family from her native Florence and narrowly escapes death at the hands of an enraged mob. While still a teenager, she is betrothed to Henri, son of François I of France, and sent from Italy to an unfamiliar realm where she is overshadowed and humiliated by her husband’s lifelong mistress. Ever resilient, Catherine strives to create a role for herself through her patronage of the famous clairvoyant Nostradamus and her own innate gift as a seer. But in her fortieth year, Catherine is widowed, left alone with six young children as regent of a kingdom torn apart by religious discord and the ambitions of a treacherous nobility.

Relying on her tenacity, wit, and uncanny gift for compromise, Catherine seizes power, intent on securing the throne for her sons. She allies herself with the enigmatic Protestant leader Coligny, with whom she shares an intimate secret, and implacably carves a path toward peace, unaware that her own dark fate looms beforeher—a fate that, if she is to save France, will demand the sacrifice of her ideals, her reputation, and the passion of her embattled heart.

From the fairy-tale châteaux of the Loire Valley to the battlefields of the wars of religion to the mob-filled streets of Paris, The Confessions of Catherine de Medici is the extraordinary untold journey of one of the most maligned and misunderstood women ever to be queen.

There are certain figures from history whose lasting legacy seems to be a bad reputation in some way, usually deservedly so. If a novelist chooses to write about them it can be difficult for them to walk the fine line between writing the history or trying to rehabilitate their reputation or to be apologist.

CW Gortner has chosen to write about Catherine de Medici, a woman known through history as a someone who would do whatever she could to maintain her grip on power, including meddling in the dark arts, poisoning her enemies, inciting religious disharmony and so much more. In doing so, he tries to bring a balance to the stories we think we know about Catherine and presents her as a wife and mother trying to do everything she can to maintain her family's grip on power, a stranger in a foreign land, a woman whose husband loves another. For the most part, Gortner manages to tell this woman's story without straying too far into sentimentality or being too apologetic.

Catherine is a member of the de Medici family, but they are no longer the all powerful family they once were. Spirited away from a dangerous situation at home, Catherine is married off to a French Prince - Henri. He is however destined to become King Henri II.  This Catherine is innocent, full of hope that she may find love and fulfilment within her marriage, but she is also determined and after all a Medici. Packed in her trousseau - a vial of poison. Her husband has, however, already given his love to another - the beautiful and powerful Diane de Poitiers, and the French Court does not like the young Catherine. Not only is she lonely in her marriage, but she is dealing with new customs she must learn to fit in in the French Court, but even if she does she will always be seen as an outsider.

Diane is not content with taking Catherine's husband's affections, she also wants to usurp her role at court, to find a place in Catherine's children affection, and her house! I remember reading years ago that Diane de Poitiers was a forebear of Princess Diana. If ever there was another case of 'there were three people in this marriage' then this would be it!
 
As Catherine's hopes of happiness fade, she eventually finds power the one way that she can - through her children, but even then there are obstacles. Widowed at 40, she becomes regent for her sons, and finds herself part of a struggle for power between the de Guise family and the ruling family, and so she must make the hard decisions to protect her children's legacy. At the same time, there is religious upheaval and rebellion.

The narrator is Catherine herself, looking back over her life from the relative distance of old age. She shares with us her hopes and dreams, her loves,  her disappointments, the meetings with influential people of the age including Nostradamus, and yes, her regrets.

Whilst this wasn't quite a warts and all look at the life of Catherine de Medici, the author certainly didn't gloss over the terrible consequences of the decisions that were made, whether they were the intended consequences or not.

As much as I liked CW Gortners previous book The Last Queen, this was a step up. Now I am eager to read his next book on Isabel of Castile. I am expecting a very readable and enjoyable look at another fascinating female character from history.

Rating 4.5/5

This review is part of the blog tour for The Confessions of Catherine de Medici being run by Historical Fiction Virtual Blog Tours. You can follow the blog tour by visiting the tour schedule here.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thanks to HF Virtual Blog Tours and  CW Gortner we have a copy of the newly released paperback of The Confessions of Catherine de Medici to giveaway.



- open to US residents
- leave a comment and don't forget your email address
- the contest closes May 31 June 9 at midnight GMT

Tony Hays' Books of a Lifetime

I have always loved reading, especially historicals. There has always been something seductive about historical novels and their ability to send you whirring across the centuries. I’m sure that I’ve read thousands, but a few stand out.

Herman Wouk’s World War II epics The Caine Mutiny and The Winds of War are probably two of my all time favorite historicals. Wouk’s strengths lie in his ability to create a believable world. When you read The Caine Mutiny, you find yourself on the Caine. But in a larger sense, both books are romances – I’m of the opinion that all novels have a romance at their heart. Willie Keith’s quest for Mae Wynn is, in many ways, ultimately as important as the mutiny itself.

In brief, the story follows the adventures of Willie Keith, a budding pianist and scion of a wealthy New York family. While his parents would prefer that Willie study literature, he wants only to play the piano in bars. Shortly after the outbreak of World War II, he meets a beautiful singer, Mae Wynn, and as their affair heats up, Willie is forced to join the Navy for officer training rather than be drafted as an enlisted man.

Willie is assigned to an antiquated minesweeper/destroyer, the USS Caine, a rust bucket of a ship and one that sees mostly menial duties in the Pacific, almost never sees combat. Until they encounter a typhoon one night, while the ship is commanded by Captain Philip Queeg, a deeply-flawed man. Fearful that the captain’s actions will cause the ship to founder and sink, the officers essentially mutiny and relieve the captain of his command.

I loved this book when I first read it, and it is one of those that I can re-read time and time again. But it was brought home to me again in the fall of 2002. I took a job through the Navy College to teach courses onboard one of our amphibious ships during its Atlantic crossing and Med cruise. But what should have been a pleasure cruise turned into a cruise into war.

Wouk’s strengths lie in creating atmosphere, the tedium of life onboard ship, the tension of those rare and fleeting moments of combat, the petty tyrannies of an overbearing captain. And while I felt all of those emotions when I first read Wouk, it was only on that cruise that I understood how truly accurate and skillful Herman Wouk really was.

There was the Atlantic crossing where rough seas sent dozens of sailors to their bunks. Standing the bridge during our Gibraltar transit when a small fishing boat came at us from the Moroccan coast, refusing to divert or even acknowledge our hails. The fear and suspense when we were ordered through the Suez Canal and into a war zone. The uncertainty when al-Qaeda was reported to be planning attacks on US ships with small aircraft. The palpable tension when we were ordered near the Yemen coast to participate in a search and rescue mission, that could have been a ploy to get us close enough to launch a USS Cole type attack.

And there were the captains, neither really Queeg-like, but each with his own idiosyncrasies. The captain who stormed across the bridge, cursing and demanding that a machine gun be brought to the bridge so he could fire the first shot. It was a coed ship – something that neither Willie Keith nor Captain Queeg had to face – and one captain would not allow men and women to sit within three feet of each other. And when we had “steel beach picnics” – cookouts on the flight deck – he would not allow men and women to dance together.

Although I had already placed The Caine Mutiny on my favorite book list, after that cruise, it moved to that even shorter list of books of a lifetime.

Tony Hays it the author of an Arthurian Mystery series featuring The Killing Way, The Divine Sacrifice, and the recently released The Beloved Dead.

The Help movie trailer

Sometimes when you see the trailer for a movie that you were eagerly awaiting there is a little apprehension in case it doesn't look like it is going to meet your expectations. I have to say, that wasn't the case when I saw this trailer for The Help, based on the novel by Kathryn Stockett!



It looks fantastic! Of course, that apprehension will be back when it is time to watch the whole film, but based on what we have seen in the trailer I have high hopes!

Winners of The Silver Locket by Margaret James

Wow, this week really got away from me, and I am really, really late drawing the two winner's names for The Silver Locket giveaway.

I have to say I was really pleased with the amount of interest shown in this giveaway. Thanks to everyone who entered.

The two winners are:

Michelle from The True Book Addict

Meg from MegMims.com


I will be in contact shortly to obtain your contact details depending on which format you chose!

If you would like to find out more about The Silver Locket, click on the link to read the super guest post that Margaret James did about her Books of a Lifetime.  You will also find links to her website, Twitter, etc as well.

Don't forget that we currently have a giveaway of Trade Winds by Christina Courtenay. You can enter here.

Guest Post: Getting it Right . . . Doing Research for Historical Novels

Today we are very pleased to welcome Douglas W Jacobson to Historical Tapestry as part of his blog tour with Pump Up Your Books! Later next month I will be review his new book, The Katyn Order. I read his debut novel, Night of Flames, a couple of years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it.

~~~~~~~~~~

As the old saying goes, “The devil is in the detail.” One of the reasons I have always loved historical fiction is that it is a truly marvelous way to learn a bit of history. Some authors of non-fiction (Stephen Ambrose comes to mind) have a flair and style of writing that make their work enjoyable and easy to read. But, in my humble opinion, there’s nothing quite like curling up with Herman Wouk’s War and Remembrance or Ken Follet’s Pillars of the Earth for the ultimate reading experience . . . and, a great way to learn history.

And that brings us to the issue at hand. Writing good historical fiction places a special burden on the author, the burden of getting it right. And getting it right doesn’t stop with the big stuff, the dates and locations, the battles and who won the war. It gets right down to the detail. For example, what would a serf in the thirteenth century be likely to eat for breakfast? What type of profanity would a soldier likely have used during the Napoleonic wars? Did the troopers of the Polish cavalry carry lances during World War Two?

It’s the detail that immerses the reader in the time and place of your story. It’s the scent of the kerosene lanterns and the smell of the boiling cabbage, the sticky mud of the footpaths and creaking of the yardarms that give a story its life and vitality. It’s what makes it real. But, making it real, of course, means doing the research.

When I set out to write my first book, Night of Flames, I had been studying and reading about World War Two for most of my adult life. I knew a lot, but not nearly enough. For instance, I wanted to write about the Polish cavalry because the notion of horse-drawn armies in WW2 has been largely ignored even though almost all the armies in the first few years of the war—including those of Germany and Russia—relied heavily of horses for transportation. But how was a Polish cavalry brigade organized? What type of weapons did they carry? What did their uniforms look like? How far could they travel in a day? Where did they find food for the horses and who re-shod them when necessary? Did they really charge tanks?

Let’s stick with this issue for a moment to pursue the ways and means of research. You can learn a lot on the internet these days and, indeed, I found numerous websites filled with detail about WW2 era cavalry. I also found a marvelous book entitled, The Cavalry of World War Two, chock full of information about specific cavalry regiments from Poland, France, Germany and Russia, their organization and leadership, the types of horses and weapons, battles and anecdotal accounts. But the most fascinating of all was my experience at The Battle of the Bzura Museum in Kutno, Poland, which I visited during one of my trips to Poland. It was a treasure of maps, artifacts, displays of uniforms and weapons, canteens and knapsacks. And, even more fascinating, was an encounter the next day with an elderly gentleman in Walewice, Poland who happened to be sitting on the front porch of his home while we were wandering around the town square looking for some type of commemorative plaque. Through the translation offered by my friend and Polish history scholar, Slawomir Debski, the elderly gentleman confirmed that the Wielkopolska Cavalry Brigade did, indeed, cross the Bzura River and confront a German infantry battalion in that town on 14 September, 1939. He knew . . . because he was there. And that’s the best kind of research.

Having developed a discipline of research, I found the going much easier when I started my latest book, The Katyn Order. Some basic information from earlier research efforts was useful since the book is also set in Poland in WW2. But in this case I had to learn a lot about Russians and the relationship between Russians and Poles in WW2. What I learned was fascinating and absolutely energized me to write the story. There is nothing like the true facts of human experience to motivate the writer (and hopefully the reader) of historical fiction.

Douglas W. Jacobson is an engineer, business owner and World War Two history enthusiast. Doug has traveled extensively in Europe researching stories of the courage of common people caught up in extraordinary circumstances. His debut novel, Night of Flames: A Novel of World War Two was published in 2007 by McBooks Press, and was released in paperback in 2008. Night of Flames won the “2007 Outstanding Achievement Award” from the Wisconsin Library association. Doug writes a monthly column on Poland’s contribution during WW2, has published articles on Belgium’s WW2 escape organization, the Comet Line and other European resistance organizations. Doug’s second historical novel, The Katyn Order, which will be released in May, 2011, focuses on one of history’s most notorious war crimes, the Katyn massacre.

You can visit his website at www.douglaswjacobson.com.

Giveaway: Trade Winds by Christina Courtenay

A couple of days ago, Christina Courtenay wrote us a fascinating guest post on why she loves to write about the Far East.

When I posted it, I forgot to add the giveaway details!

If you’d like to read Trade Winds by Christina Courtenay, please complete the competition entry form below, and you could win one of two copies! Here's the blurb

Marriage of convenience – or a love for life?

It’s 1732 in Gothenburg, Sweden, and strong-willed Jess van Sandt knows only too well that it’s a man’s world. She believes she’s being swindled out of her inheritance by her stepfather – and she’s determined to stop it.

When help appears in the unlikely form of handsome Scotsman Killian Kinross, himself disinherited by his grandfather, Jess finds herself both intrigued and infuriated by him. In an attempt to recover her fortune, she proposes a marriage of convenience. Then Killian is offered the chance of a lifetime with the Swedish East India Company’s expedition and he’s determined that nothing will stand in his way, not even his new bride.

He sets sail on a daring voyage to the Far East, believing he’s put his feelings and past behind him. But the journey doesn’t quite work out as he
expects …

The book is available in either ebook or paper form and the competition is open to all. Entries close on Sunday 22 May.

Entry Form

The Historical Fiction Challenge-May Reviews

In April, we collectively read 68 books! That makes our total for 2011 so far, 334 books!

There is still time to join the challenge, go to Historical Fiction Reading Challenge to sign up and then come back to leave your links each month.  There is a new post for your links each month.

Please leave your links for your May reviews in Mr. Linky, below or, if you don't have a blog, in the comments below.

*Note: if you missed posting your links last month, please always post "late" links in the current month's Mr. Linky.  For example, if you forgot to post a link in February, please post it on this Mr. Linky in this post.

Why I Love Writing About the Far East by Christina Courtenay

I grew up in a very small town in Sweden and when I was a child, my grandfather had a set of beautifully illustrated books - a Swedish version of the Thousand and One Arabian Nights.  I used to spend hours looking at the drawings of exotic ladies, powerful rulers, magicians and genis (genii?), wishing I could travel to faraway places like that and imagining myself in their world.

When I was fifteen, my wishes sort of came true, although not quite the way I’d imagined.  My father came home one day and said “how would you like to move to Japan?” My mother, brother and I all laughed.  He might just as well have asked if we wanted to live on the moon, it was so far out of our orbit.  But to our amazement, he was serious.  He’d been offered a job with a Swedish firm in Tokyo, the kind you just can’t turn down, and the following summer we moved there.

I had travelled a little bit by then, but only within Europe.  And although Spain might seem exotic to someone who is used to cold Scandinavia, it was as nothing compared to Japan.  This was a culture shock extraordinaire for me.  And Tokyo is, of course, one of the largest cities in the world.  I went from living in a town of 30,000 inhabitants to one of about 10 million (if you include Yokohama)!  That took some getting used to.

Once I did adapt, however, I fell in love.  With the country itself, the culture, the food and the people.  In fact, everything about it.  This was all Exotic with a capital ‘E’, just the sort of thing I’d been dreaming of.  At the time, I was too busy enjoying myself to do more than just absorb it, but the whole experience had a profound effect on me.  Later on, when I came to write historical novels and was casting around for story ideas, this all bubbled to the surface.  It seemed obvious that I had to use the Far East as a background, at least partly, and I wanted to make others fall in love with it as much as I had myself.  My debut novel, Trade Winds, is therefore set in both Sweden and Canton in China.

So what was it about Japan and the Orient that caught my imagination to such an extent?  I’m not sure, but their sense of harmony and the way they present even the smallest thing in the best possible light really appealed to me for a start.  Food is always served on beautiful porcelain or lacquer-ware, arranged in patterns in order to tempt the eye as well as the palate.  Art and design is understated, yet elegant, and this includes the patterns on kimonos, folding screens, fans and china.  Even their writing is beautiful to look at!  In everyday items too, there is always something aesthetically pleasing.  I took the opportunity to buy as many things as I could, including kimonos like the one which inspired the title of my second novel, The Scarlet Kimono, and a whole collection of painted fans.

Then there are the buildings – with my love of history, I prefer the traditional ones, although modern ones are built with flair as well.  To me, the temples and castles from ages gone by are the real beauties, however, with their tip-tilted roof corners and embellishments in the form of wood carvings or hammered bronze decorations.  (I used the castle of Himeji as the template for the one my hero lives in as it was just perfect!)  When you walk around in Tokyo, you often stumble upon tiny shrines or older houses, wedged in among the more modern apartment-blocks.  And wherever you go, you may catch a glimpse of women dressed in kimonos as they head off for special occasions – some colourful, some plain, but always elegant and serene.

It is a society very much like ours, and yet enormously different in many ways, and I just had to try and capture this somehow.  I’m not sure I succeeded, but I have been told my love of the Far East comes through loud and clear in my novels.  I hope that’s a good thing because I love writing about it!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here's some information about Trade Winds

Marriage of convenience – or a love for life?

It’s 1732 in Gothenburg, Sweden, and strong-willed Jess van Sandt knows only too well that it’s a man’s world.  She believes she’s being swindled out of her inheritance by her stepfather – and she’s determined to stop it.

When help appears in the unlikely form of handsome Scotsman Killian Kinross, himself disinherited by his grandfather, Jess finds herself both intrigued and infuriated by him.  In an attempt to recover her fortune, she proposes a marriage of convenience.  Then Killian is offered the chance of a lifetime with the Swedish East India Company’s Expedition and he’s determined that nothing will stand in his way, not even his new bride.

He sets sail on a daring voyage to the Far East, believing he’s put his feelings and past behind him.  But the journey doesn’t quite work out as he expects ...

Trade Winds, published by Choc Lit, ISBN 978-1-906931-23-0 (www.choc-lit.co.uk)

Christina Courtenay – short bio

Christina is half English/half Swedish and grew up in Sweden. She is a committee member of the UK’s Romantic Novelists’ Association, currently responsible for organizing one of their awards and for library liaison. She has won two of the RNA’s prizes - the Elizabeth Goudge Trophy in 2001 and the Katie Fforde Bursary in 2006.

Christina has had several Regency novellas published by DC Thomson (two of which are now available in Large Print). Her first full-length novel Trade Winds was published by Choc Lit in September 2010 and was subsequently shortlisted for the RNA’s award for Best Historical. Christina’s second novel, The Scarlet Kimono, was published in March 2011.

Winners of the Rivals in the Tudor Court giveaway

We are pleased to announce the two winners of the Rivals in the Tudor Court by D.L. Bogdan giveaway:

Felicia

and

Avid Reader

Congratulations! We will be contacting you to get your mailing details shortly. If we do not receive a response within a few days we will draw a new winner.

Thank you to everyone who entered the contest!

Why I Love Women in a Man’s World by Kate Lord Brown

I’ve always been drawn to women who have made incredible contributions to history, proving their own in a ‘man’s world’ – people like the war photographer Lee Miller, the travel writer Freya Stark, or the polymath and ‘Mama of Dada’ Beatrice Wood. I love smart, strong characters – adventurers who break new ground. As the old saying goes – well behaved women seldom make history.

When I read a small obituary for a woman who had flown Spitfires during WW2, I felt my hair stand on end. I knew this was a story that had to be told. I am married to a pilot, and a couple of our relatives served as Lancaster pilots, but I had no idea that civilian women had flown everything from Spitfires to huge bombers, ferrying planes to Allied fighter stations. I had to know more.

I learnt that these civilians came from every walk of life – pilots joined the Air Transport Auxiliary from 28 nations, and there were debutantes, conjurers, trick fliers, antique dealers and even a stripper. Among the men, there were one-eyed, one-armed veterans flying alongside young fresh cheeked graduates.

There were some incredible characters – women like Audrey Sale Barker, who had her uniform made up on Savile Row with a shocking scarlet lining. She had crash landed in Africa before joining the ATA. She calmly wrote an SOS note in lipstick and handed it to a passing Masai tribesman to take to the nearest Mission. My admiration for these women grew as I delved deeper and deeper into the research, and I wanted to make sure my fictional characters did them justice, reflecting their quiet bravery as well as their flamboyance and youthful beauty – to the fighter pilots they were ‘the beauty chorus’, but they were skilful, highly disciplined pilots too.

Amy Johnson is the only pilot many will know of the 166 women who joined up – she lost her life ferrying an Airspeed Oxford. In ‘The Beauty Chorus’ I’ve woven factual events like Amy’s crash with the fictional story of three girls from very different backgrounds who learn to live and fly together. Every time these women went up, they risked their lives – they flew without radios and without arms. But if you hear the veterans talk now, they will tell you what fun it all was, and as women what a privilege it was to fly these planes. It was the time of their lives.

________________________________________

Kate studied Philosophy at Durham University, and Art History at the Courtauld Institute of Art. She is currently taking a Masters degree. She worked as an art consultant, curating collections for palaces and embassies in Europe and the Middle East, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. She was a finalist in UK ITV’s the People’s Author competition in 2009. Her debut novel ‘The Beauty Chorus’ is published by Atlantic in 2011.

‘The Beauty Chorus’ is published by Corvus,  Atlantic 1/4/11 http://thebeautychorus.blogspot.com

Russian Winter by Daphne Kalotay

A mysterious jewel holds the key to a life-changing secret, in this breathtaking tale of love and art, betrayal and redemption.

When she decides to auction her remarkable jewelry collection, Nina Revskaya, once a great star of the Bolshoi Ballet, believes she has finally drawn a curtain on her past. Instead, the former ballerina finds herself overwhelmed by memories of her homeland and of the events, both glorious and heartbreaking, that changed the course of her life half a century ago.

It was in Russia that she discovered the magic of the theater; that she fell in love with the poet Viktor Elsin; that she and her dearest companions—Gersh, a brilliant composer, and the exquisite Vera, Nina’s closest friend—became victims of Stalinist aggression. And it was in Russia that a terrible discovery incited a deadly act of betrayal—and an ingenious escape that led Nina to the West and eventually to Boston.

Nina has kept her secrets for half a lifetime. But two people will not let the past rest: Drew Brooks, an inquisitive young associate at a Boston auction house, and Grigori Solodin, a professor of Russian who believes that a unique set of jewels may hold the key to his own ambiguous past. Together these unlikely partners begin to unravel a mystery surrounding a love letter, a poem, and a necklace of unknown provenance, setting in motion a series of revelations that will have life-altering consequences for them all.

Interweaving past and present, Moscow and New England, the backstage tumult of the dance world and the transformative power of art, Daphne Kalotay’s luminous first novel—a literary page-turner of the highest order—captures the uncertainty and terror of individuals powerless to withstand the forces of history, while affirming that even in times of great strife, the human spirit reaches for beauty and grace, forgiveness and transcendence.

As soon as I first saw this book being talked about, I knew I wanted to read it. There is something about Russian history, particularly 20th century Russian history, that makes for compelling reading for me, and this book was no exception. I was however a bit concerned that my lack of knowledge about ballet might be problematic, but in the end, this was a minor issue. Most of the time, I was lost in the world that the author created in both Moscow and Boston.

The three main characters in this drama are Nina Revskaya, a former ballerina and star of the Bolshoi Ballet, Grigori Solodin, a professor of Russian, and Drew Brookes who works in a prestigious auction house.

The story begins when Nina, who is now wheelchair bound due to her physical afflictions gained through many years of dancing , decides to sell off many of the jewels that she has accumulated throughout her years as a famous ballerina and to donate the proceeds to the Boston ballet. Some of the jewels are gifts received since her defection, but there are others that she bought with her from Communist Russia, and it is really those that are the catalysts for the stories that we hear about Nina's life.

We first meet Nina as a young child who is taken to try out for the famous Moscow ballet school. From that time on, Nina lives and breathes ballet, determined to work her way up through the ranks of the competitive and prestigious Bolshoi Ballet.

When Nina meets poet Victor Elsin, she not only falls in love but also loses some of her political naivety. This is the second novel I have read in the last month that is set in Stalinist Russia (the other being The Betrayal by Helen Dunmore). Both books do a great job of showing readers, who in most cases can only begin to imagine, what it is like to be constantly on edge, worried about which ones of your neighbours or friends is informing on you, and knowing that it doesn't take much to lose a person in the notorious prisons of the time.
When Nina agrees to sell her jewels, the auction house sends Drew Brooks to try and garner more information from the famous ballerina - photos, anecdotes, anything that can be used in the auction catalogue. Nina, who has never really learnt to trust anyone, is resistant to sharing those memories, despite the fact that each day she (and the reader) is transported back in time to spend time with her friends: Gersh, a Jewish composer, and Vera and Polina who are also dancers. Drew is devoted to her work, often going above the call of duty, but she is not quite as successful in her private life, much to her mother's consternation.

The third strand of the story is that of Grigori Solodin, a professor of Russian at a prestigious university, and a man who has a strong professional interest in the poetry of Victor Elsin (Nina's husband), for reasons known initially only to him at the beginning of the book. When Grigori decides to also donate a  necklace that appears to match some of Nina's jewels, Brook is left with more questions than answers. Is the necklace part of the same set, but most importantly, what is the connection between Nina and Grigori?

At it's heart, Russian Winter is a story about reevaluating what you think you know about your life,. For Nina, this means reevaluating her life through the lens of her memories of her life with her husband and in the oppressive regime where no amount of success guaranteed safety. For Grigori, it is not only his past as a recent widower and his struggle to move on with his life, but also a search for identity, for belonging, for answers he has been searching for his whole life. And for Drew, questions about her grandfather's life, about her failed marriage, and her future happiness  - about looking back, but also about moving forward.

I love it when story lines are interwoven with each other, and going backwards and forwards in time, but it has to be done well. With all three of the characters looking back at their lives, there could have been capacity for Kalotay to lose some of those strands, but she managed to weave the various story lines together with aplomb.

I also really liked that between each chapter there was a description of some of the items that were going up for auction, and I especially liked it when we got to see how it was that Nina came to own that particular piece.

If I was to make a criticism of this novel, it would only be a small one, and that relates to the way the novel was wrapped up - it was too soon! There was one event that was telegraphed but that the reader didn't get to see, and I really wanted to experience that moment with the characters! The other thing is that, there was one particular relationship that felt too convenient. Without giving too much away, the chemistry was good between the characters, but I am not sure that I necessarily felt that the connection between them was as strong as it was implied to be.

In short, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would recommend it, especially if you enjoy reading about Russia, ballet, jewellery or if you are in the mood for a fascinating story that you can get lost in for a few hundred pages.

Once again, I am grateful that by agreeing to participate in a blog tour I was given that extra push to read a book that I would have eventually read, but it would have taken me ages to actually get to. I am almost reluctant to return Russian Winter to the library now!

To find out more about the author and her book, visit her website, her Facebook page, or the reading group guide.

Review crossposted at Adventures of an Intrepid Reader

Books of a Lifetime by Margaret James (includes a giveaway!)

I’m delighted to be a guest blogger on Historical Tapestry, and to have the chance to share my books of a lifetime with fellow readers. 

A big thank you to Marg for inviting me!

The books which mean most to me and will be on my shelves forever have one thing in common – they’re all inspirational and uplifting in some way, even if the stories they tell are sad or even tragic. Whenever I re-read them, I’m always cheered and heartened, because their message is – life can be what you make it. You don’t have to accept defeat. You’ll never be a failure provided you do what you know is right and are true to yourself

These books don’t pretend it’s ever going to be easy to meet the challenges of life. But they do encourage the reader to try harder, do better, and they show us that with a bit of luck and a wagon load of determination it’s possible to win through. As a writer myself, trying to make my way in one of the world’s most challenging professions, I find that concept enormously empowering.

So, let’s get started on my keeper shelf...

A novel which helped me get through a troubled adolescence, took me into a world I hadn’t known existed, and showed me what real courage is all about, is Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, set in the Deep South of the USA in the days of racial segregation. The hero of this novel is small town lawyer Atticus Finch, a widower who is doing his best to bring up two motherless children and keep his own self-respect in the face of prejudice and hostility to almost everything he holds dear.

Atticus takes on a case he can never win, even though his client is obviously innocent of the crime of which he’s been accused. The client is a black man, so Atticus knows he’s defeated before he sets foot in the courtroom. But, as the novel itself makes clear, courage is not a man with a gun in his hand. It’s knowing you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway, and you see it through no matter what.

My other favourite read as a teenager was Jane Eyre, another story of courage and determination, narrated in the first person by someone who could easily have been one of life’s losers. Jane is poor, plain and socially disadvantaged, but she has the soul of a born fighter, and this keeps her going even when it looks as if she might lose everything – her livelihood, the man she loves, and perhaps even life itself.

Jane’s love for Mr Rochester is requited, and all that needs to happen for them to end up together is for Jane and Rochester to achieve some kind of parity – for her to go up in the world and for him to come down – which eventually they do. But one of my other heroes, Pip in Great Expectations, suffers the torment of unrequited love throughout the novel, and his courage in the face of constant rejection must surely get every reader on his side. He doesn’t deserve to be put through so much pain, especially as he grows in moral stature throughout the story, eventually risking his own life to save those of two people – Miss Havisham and the convict – who have deceived him, and candidly owning up to all his past mistakes. The ending of this novel is ambiguous, and the reader can decide if Pip marries the cruel beauty Estella, or if they part.  Personally, I think she’s already given him enough grief, so I hope he married someone else, had several children, and lived happily ever after!

Bryce Courtenay’s The Power of One is another story of courage in the face of overwhelming odds. It tells the story of Peekay, an orphaned child living in South Africa at the time of apartheid, a boy who is bullied and tormented by almost everyone, but who finds salvation in sport. Peekay becomes a boxing champion and, in a terrific showdown, beats the hell out of a man who has tried to ruin his life. Hurrah!

Now, before you assume I’m a gore freak, let me assure you I don’t like boxing. I think it’s a degrading and demeaning activity, and as far as I’m concerned the thought of two men trying to beat each other’s heads in is pretty disgusting. So it’s a tribute to the author that I’ve read this book five or six times, cheered the hero on throughout, and been thrilled when he wins through. If you don’t like boxing either, I still recommend you give it a go. You can skip the really brutal bits…

If you’re the runt in a bright and brilliant and physically gorgeous family of brothers and sisters, how do you manage to make any sort of life for yourself?  Robert Graves’s I, Claudius shows us how.  Claudius stammers, stutters, is lame, is ugly, and is not particularly smart, either – or so his family believes. Loyal to his family and friends, even when they don’t deserve his loyalty, Claudius is one of those quiet heroes doing their best in difficult times, and I’ve never found it hard to identify with him – or with his fictional version, anyway. The real Claudius was apparently just as cruel, ruthless and tyrannical as the rest of the Caesars. But we’ll let that pass…

I’d like to end on a lighter note and mention my last book of a lifetime, which is Winnie-the-Pooh.  The bear of very little brain has been delighting me, my children and my grandson for many years and, if you’re going to give a child a role model, you could do worse than Pooh.  He’s kind, he’s loyal, he never makes out his mistakes are anyone else’s fault, he encourages Piglet, he tries to bring a bit of sunshine into Eeyore’s miserable life, and he puts up with the eternally tiresome Tigger without complaint. Sometimes, he even has a brilliant inspiration, for example when he and Christopher Robin escape a flood riding in Christopher Robin’s open umbrella, hastily rechristened The Brain of Pooh.

So there are six of my literary heroes and heroines, whose stories never fail to delight me. I have plenty more heroes and heroines, such Flora in Cold Comfort Farm and the unnamed heroine of Rebecca. But the characters I’ve mentioned above are the ones who inspire me and my own fiction, in which I write about many different kinds of courage, the character trait which always most impresses me.

My latest novel The Silver Locket is a historical romance set during the Great War of 1914 - 1918. The heroine Rose Courtenay is the spoiled, bored only child of wealthy parents, and Rose is expected to marry well. This means marrying the man her parents have chosen, but Rose falls in love with Alex Denham, the local bad boy, who is also a married man. When war breaks out, Rose goes to London to become a nurse, and later she is sent to France, where she meets Alex again. They begin an affair which has huge repercussions – enough for two more novels, in fact!

I’m on Facebook and Twitter – www.twitter.com/majanovelist. I have a blog at www.margaretjamesblog.blogspot.com and a website at www.margaretjames.com. 

The Silver Locket is published by UK independent Choc Lit – http://www.choc-lit.co.uk – where heroes are like chocolate, irresistible!

Giveaway details

If you’d like to meet the handsome, brave and gorgeous Alex Denham, please complete the competition entry form below, and you could win a copy of The Silver Locket. The book is available in either ebook or paper form and the competition is open to all. Entries close on Sunday 8 May.

Entry Form