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Tudor

On tour: The Dartington Bride, by Rosemary Griggs @RAGriggsauthor @cathiedunn #HistoricalFiction #Devon #Elizabethan #FrenchWarsOfReligion #BlogTour #TheCoffeePotBookClub

April 11, 2024 by Adriana Kraft

Book Information

Book Title: The Dartington Bride
Series: Daughters of Devon
Author: Rosemary Griggs
Publication Date: 28th March 2024
Publisher: Troubador Publishing
Page Count: ~ 368 pages
Genre: Historical Fiction
Audiobook narrated by Rosemary Griggs

Blurb:

1571, and the beautiful, headstrong daughter of a French Count marries the son of the Vice Admiral of the Fleet of the West in Queen Elizabeth’s chapel at Greenwich. It sounds like a marriage made in heaven…

Roberda’s father, the Count of Montgomery, is a prominent Huguenot leader in the French Wars of Religion. When her formidable mother follows him into battle, she takes all her children with her.

After a traumatic childhood in war-torn France, Roberda arrives in England full of hope for her wedding. But her ambitious bridegroom, Gawen, has little interest in taking a wife.

Received with suspicion by the servants at her new home, Dartington Hall in Devon, Roberda works hard to prove herself as mistress of the household and to be a good wife. But there are some who will never accept her as a true daughter of Devon.

After the St Bartholomew’s Day Massacre, Gawen’s father welcomes Roberda’s family to Dartington as refugees. Compassionate Roberda is determined to help other French women left destitute by the wars. But her husband does not approve. Their differences will set them on an extraordinary path…

Excerpt

Chapter One
The Regicide
1559, Paris

‘Ton père a tué le roi!’ screamed the woman from the doorway. ‘Your father has killed the king!’ I stirred on the bed and my eyes flew open. Snatched from my dreams in a heartbeat, I strained my ears. Again, those words. ‘Your father has killed the king,’ but softer, quavering, less strident. The third time the voice was hardly more than a breath, cracking and breaking as the words dropped into the silent room like slivers of ice.

In the clammy heat of that night I had thrown the bed covers aside and my shift was clinging about me, the crumpled linen wound around me like a shroud. Caught between sleep and waking, I scrambled wildly to pull the velvet coverlet right up over my head. Knees curled up, I made myself as small as I could and tried to shut out the thumping noise thrashing in my ears. It was the sound of my heart banging like a drum.

Curiosity got the better of me and, trembling, I peeped out. A shaft of moonlight fell on the ghostly face of a woman framed in the doorway. A scream fought its way up to my voice box but no sound came. I swallowed hard and forced myself to look. She wore Clotilde’s clothes, the same green kirtle and crisp clean apron Clotilde had on when she put me to bed. But the woman was not Clotilde. My Clotilde had twinkling brown eyes set in a merry face as round and rosy as a Normandy apple. She had a soft, silvery voice as even and contented as a cat’s purr. The woman framed in the stone arch, the not-Clotilde, had put on a white mask; she had bulging, goggly eyes and a gaping mouth. She shook her head from side to side and twisted her hands in her apron as she croaked out the words again in brittle little gasps.

‘Your father has killed the king!’ So said the not-Clotilde.

‘Vite, Clotilde! Vite! Dépêche-toi.’ Other servants scurried in, pushing past her, frantically waking my sisters, shouting that they must dress quickly. I shrank back behind the hangings and tried to hide in the great bed.

All the shouting jolted her into action. The not-Clotilde stumbled forward, rushed to my coffer, picked up a cloak and heaped underwear and sleeves and caps and gowns onto it all higgledy-piggledy. She snatched the necklace from the little wooden casket by my bed, added that to the pile and knotted the cloak round it all. Somehow she got me into some clothes; not the pretty blue dress embroidered with pearls; not my best shift with the blackwork collar. Instead, with rough hands, the not-Clotilde bundled me into a plain shift and an old woollen kirtle. She was about to pick me up when I found I could scream.

‘Diane! I want Diane!’

The not-Clotilde groaned as she bent to retrieve the doll and tied the ribbon round my middle. Diane was always getting lost and this precaution saved a lot of searching.

The not-Clotilde grabbed me and clasped me to her chest, running through unlit passageways close on the heels of a scurrying maid. The maid’s hand trembled so much the candle she carried sputtered and all but died, only for the flame to revive and cast even more grotesque shadows on the old stone walls. That brought me out of my mute terror. I found my voice again and shrieked and kicked and hollered. But the not-Clotilde just gripped me more tightly as she ran on. Her breathing was ragged and wheezy by the time we were down the steps and out of the door. Strong arms hoisted me up onto a horse. I held tight to Diane the doll with one hand and rubbed the plump little fingers of my other hand up and down the familiar soft silky fabric of her gown.

The blanket they used to secure me in front of Alain du Bois, Papa’s sergeant-at-arms, was scratchy and rough. Alain had a prickly beard and his breath smelled of ale and onions. I heard muffled voices, then the hooves hammered on the cobbles, metallic echoes that lingered long in the still night air. I clutched my doll as she bumped along under the blanket. After a while I rested my head on Alain’s chest and eventually the steady beat of his heart must have lulled me to sleep.

Buy Links:

Universal Buy Link: https://rosemarygriggs.co.uk/books/2/The%20Dartington%20Bride/

Author Bio:

Author and speaker Rosemary Griggs has been researching Devon’s sixteenth-century history for years. She has discovered a cast of fascinating characters and an intriguing network of families whose influence stretched far beyond the West Country and loves telling the stories of the forgotten women of history – the women beyond the royal court; wives, sisters, daughters and mothers who played their part during those tumultuous Tudor years: the Daughters of Devon.

Her novel A Woman of Noble Wit tells the story of Katherine Champernowne, Sir Walter Raleigh’s mother, and features many of the county’s well-loved places.

Rosemary creates and wears sixteenth-century clothing, a passion which complements her love for bringing the past to life through a unique blend of theatre, history and re-enactment. Her appearances and talks for museums and community groups all over the West Country draw on her extensive research into sixteenth-century Devon, Tudor life and Tudor dress, particularly Elizabethan.

Out of costume, Rosemary leads heritage tours of the gardens at Dartington Hall, a fourteenth-century manor house and now a visitor destination and charity supporting learning in arts, ecology and social justice.

Author Links:

Website:https://rosemarygriggs.co.uk/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/RAGriggsauthor
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ladykatherinesfarthingale
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/griggs6176/
Threads: https://www.threads.net/@griggs6176
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/ragriggsauthor.bsky.social
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Rosemary-Griggs/author/B09GY6ZSYF
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/21850977.Rosemary_Griggs

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Filed Under: Blog, Excerpts, Guest Bloggers Tagged With: Blog Tour, Devon, Elizabethan, French Wars Of Religion, Historical Fiction, Tudor

On Tour: A Matter of Time, by Judith Arnopp @JudithArnopp @cathiedunn #HistoricalFiction #Tudor #HenryVIII #NewRelease #BlogTour #CoffeePotBookClub

March 13, 2024 by Adriana Kraft

Shining a torch into the heart and mind
of England’s most tyrannical king.

BOOK INFORMATION

Book Title: A Matter of Time: Henry VIII, the Dying of the Light (Book Three)

Series: The Henrician Chronicle
Author: Judith Arnopp
Publication Date: 2nd February 2024
Publisher: independently published
Page Length: 302
Genre: Historical Biographical Fiction

Blurb:

With youth now far behind him, King Henry VIII has only produced one infant son and two bastard daughters. More sons are essential to secure the Tudor line, and with his third wife, Jane Seymour dead, Henry hunts for a suitable replacement.

After the break from Rome, trouble is brewing with France and Scotland. Thomas Cromwell arranges a diplomatic marriage with the sister of the Duke of Cleves but when it comes to women, Henry is fastidious, and the new bride does not please him. The increasingly unpredictable king sets his sights instead upon Katherine Howard and instructs Cromwell to free him from the match with Cleves.

Failure to rid the king of his unloved wife could cost Cromwell his head.

Henry, now ailing and ageing, is invigorated by his flighty new bride but despite the favours he heaps upon her, he cannot win Katherine’s heart. A little over a year later, broken by her infidelity, she becomes the second of his wives to die on the scaffold, leaving Henry friendless and alone.

But his stout heart will not surrender and leaving his sixth wife, Katheryn Parr, installed as regent over England, Henry embarks on a final war to win back territories lost to the French more than a century before. Hungry for glory, the king is determined that the name Henry VIII will shine brighter and longer than that of his hero, Henry V.

Told from the king’s perspective, A Matter of Time: Henry VIII: the Dying of the Light shines a torch into the heart and mind of England’s most tyrannical king.

Buy Links:

Universal Buy Links to the three titles in the series:

A Matter of Conscience: https://mybook.to/amoc

A Matter of Faith: https://mybook.to/amofaith

A Matter of Time: https://mybook.to/amot

Excerpt

November 1541 Henry prepares for mass

It is good to be home, and my spirits remain high. I jest with my gentlemen as my beard, greyer now than gold, is trimmed, my nails clipped. I select a doublet of black with silver thread embellishing the cuffs, the slashes across the sleeves and chest revealing a fine silk shirt beneath.

My looking glass reflects a king, a man in his prime, a wise and honest man. As my dress sword is arranged at my hip, I take the gloves Denny is offering and tuck them into my girdle.

“Where is my psalter?” I ask, and it is instantly produced. I tuck it beneath my arm and make my way to the chapel, wondering as I go if Katherine will make it to Mass so early.

My mind is not on prayer this morning. I am feeling spry enough to go for a ride. Brandon has returned to court this week, perhaps we can ride out together as we used to, if he is feeling up to it. I often forget that he too grows old.

The sound of the choir greets me, their voices ascending to the dizzy heights of the blue and gold ceiling. Immediately, I feel contrition that my mind had strayed to sport rather than giving thanks to God for another day. Before I enter and take my seat, I rearrange my face into a pious expression. But as I sit down, I notice a folded slip of paper. I pick it up, look about the chapel to discover the author of the note, but when no man meets my eye, I unfold the message and … the world around me crumbles.

Author Bio:

A lifelong history enthusiast and avid reader, Judith holds a BA in English/Creative writing and an MA in Medieval Studies. She lives on the coast of West Wales where she writes both fiction and non-fiction. She is best known for her novels set in the Medieval and Tudor period, focusing on the perspective of historical women but recently she has been writing from the perspective of Henry VIII himself.

Judith is also a founder member of a re-enactment group called The Fyne Companye of Cambria which is when she began to experiment with sewing historical garments. She now makes clothes and accessories both for the group and others. She is not a professionally trained sewer but through trial, error and determination has learned how to make authentic looking, if not strictly historically accurate clothing. Her non-fiction book, How to Dress like a Tudor was published by Pen and Sword in 2023.

Her novels include:

A Song of Sixpence: the story of Elizabeth of York
The Beaufort Chronicle: the life of Lady Margaret Beaufort (three book series)
A Matter of Conscience: Henry VIII, the Aragon Years (Book One of The Henrician Chronicle)
A Matter of Faith: Henry VIII, the Days of the Phoenix (Book Two of The Henrician chronicle)
A Matter of Time: Henry VIII, the Dying of the Light
The Kiss of the Concubine: a story of Anne Boleyn
The Winchester Goose: at the court of Henry VIII
Intractable Heart: the story of Katheryn Parr
Sisters of Arden: on the Pilgrimage of Grace
The Heretic Wind: the life of Mary Tudor, Queen of England
Peaceweaver
The Forest Dwellers
The Song of Heledd

Previously published under the pen name – J M Ruddock.

The Book of Thornhold
A Daughter of Warwick: the story of Anne Neville, Queen of Richard III

Author Links:

Website: www.judithmarnopp.com
Blog: http://www.juditharnoppnovelist.blogspot.co.uk/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/JudithArnopp
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thetudorworldofjuditharnopp
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/judith-arnopp-ba999025
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tudor_juditharnopp/
Threads: https://www.threads.net/@tudor_juditharnopp
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/jarnopp.bsky.social
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/jarnopp/
Book Bub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/judith-arnopp
Amazon Author Page: https://author.to/juditharnoppbooks
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4088659.Judith_Arnopp

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Filed Under: Blog, Excerpts, Guest Bloggers Tagged With: Blog Tour, Henry VIII, Historical Fiction, new release, Tudor

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