Writing historical fiction allows me to immerse myself in another time and world where people dress differently and are faced in daily life with far different etiquettes and social norms than we are today. And yet the way people love and feel, the struggles we humans go through and the things we fight for haven’t changed, they’ve remained the same for centuries.
The Shepherd’s Lover was my debut novel. I wrote The Master’s Rose several years ago and am currently seeking representation. Do You Dream Of Angels is my latest book.
Do You Dream Of Angels
Hunchback, misfit, thorn in the flesh… Domhnall has been called various names since the accident that left his spine bowed and right arm ungainly bent. Now his own reflection repulses him – it doesn’t look like a knight, it doesn’t even look like a man; it looks weak.
Venus, lady of the manor, fatherless… Lilith Savage is beautiful, innocent-bordering-on naïve, turbulent as the isolated moors she’s been raised on and stubborn, a trait she is told she shares with her mad father who left her at the age of two with a scar on her neck. But growing up watching her mother choose their carefully bred war horses over her has left Lilith ill-prepared for the arrival of a war company.
Crusade hero, knight, mysterious, dark… Lothar Gabaldon has seen many things, but here in England no one knows anything about him except what he wants to be known. Here, he can be as free as he chooses to be. But his past should have taught him, it’s dangerous to feel.
Add to the mix an unscrupulous lord who uses his Arab stallions as an excuse to frequent the manor (and one of these days he’s going to manage to find Lilith alone), a travelling minstrel whose skills of perception are uncannily accurate (come nightfall he’s moved onto unveiling the future), a blind farrier, a weedy itinerant tinker, two strapping grooms, a chaplain that likes flowers in his chapel, a wily steward, a superstitious cook and the chambermaid’s little daughter who is so sweet one could almost forget she’s illegitimate, and there’s never a dull moment.
But the perils of the time are many – the living death, fire, famine, betrayal, infidelity – and no one is left untouched as Lilith, determined to make her own decisions, drags those around her through the consequences of thinking you know your own mind.
The Master’s Rose
Great Britain, 1848 – a year fraught with revolution. But Amy, a spirited eighteen-year-old, is blissfully oblivious to all that occurs outside her little world in the Highlands; that is, until she meets the infamous Mr Adam Colborne, an embittered gentleman with a reputation for merciless dealings, an erratic temper and reclusive tendencies. Their paths cross at an inn, where he hears Amy sing; her sweet voice soothes his temper. Desperately clinging to this newfound spark of life he forces her to abandon all that she loves and accompany him into his world of political intrigue, high society and social differences.
‘The Master’s Rose’ follows Amy’s journey as she learns to navigate upper class etiquette, London gossip, servant life and an inscrutable master, all the while trying to discover why she is there. It is a story of friendship across classes and the realisation that no one is too far gone to change.
This story has inspired several pieces of music. Here’s one of them: Winter At Blackmore.
The Shepherd’s Lover
Eleanor Ashmore is the eldest daughter in a lively and affluent family. Beautiful and innocent, with a plethora of accomplishments, she is perfectly content with her lot until a handsome stranger – hoped by all to be a gentleman, although rumoured to be a shepherd – appears in Mayhaven. Caught off their guard, an attachment forms, which must survive an immediate separation with no sign of reunion. Meanwhile, a jealous anger threatens to unleash itself and a deluded affection adds layers of complication. When tragedy strikes and hope hangs by a thread, can their dreaming hearts and belief in love bring them back together?
You can purchase The Shepherd’s Lover here.
‘THERE ARE THREE RULES FOR WRITING A NOVEL. UNFORTUNATELY, NO ONE KNOWS WHAT THEY ARE.’
– William Somerset Maugham