Publications

Apart from some early trials to work out just how to create a good Kindle book, my publications are all focused on learning more about the sixteenth century: about the people, the events they lived through, the way they thought, and the literature and music that they would have known.

Along the way I have discovered how little I knew about the history of Scotland and France, and about the characters of even well-known people, such as Mary Queen of Scots, and Philip II of Spain. It’s fascinating reading about the same period from the point of view of different historical figures, and different historians — the Guise family, for instance can come across either as unmitigated villains or as a family that is touchingly devoted to each other and not much more ambitious and manipulative than any other noble family of the day.

As I publish each book and look for what to do next, my basic principle is to follow up the people, groups (such as the Knights Hospitallers), and events that form the background to the Dunnett Lymond Chronicles. But if along the way I am intrigued by something in one of those books, such as the name of the Chevalier Bayard (the knight "sans peur et sans reproche") cropping up several times, then I will step off the path and see what I can find.

I hope my magpie rummaging in history has turned up something that you will find interesting too.

I’m a Pinterest magpie, as well, if you are interested in images illustrating the sixteenth century.

Many pages on this site show images from different boards, but there are dozens more about renaissance people, places, events and objects . . .