Check out Marguerite: Hell Hath No Fury! by Judith Arnopp

Marguerite:
Hell Hath No Fury!

By Judith Arnopp

Publication Date: June 21st, 2025

Publisher: Judith Arnopp

Pages: 342

Genre: Historical Fiction / Biographical Fiction

Marguerite: Queen of England

From the moment Henry VI's new queen, Marguerite of Anjou, sets foot on English soil she is despised by the English as a foreigner, and blamed for the failures of the hundred years war in France.

 Her enemies impede her role as the king’s consort and when Henry sinks into apparent madness, her bid to become regent is rejected. Marguerite must fight, not only for her own position but to maintain Henry’s possession of the crown. 

The ambitious Duke, Richard of York, seizes control of the country, thrusting Marguerite aside and inflating the mutual hatred between the houses of York and Lancaster. But the queen refuses to relinquish power and fights determinedly for the rights of her son, Edward of Lancaster.

The long and bitter civil conflict, that has come to be known as the War of the Roses, commences.

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Judith Arnopp

Judith Arnopp at Pembroke Castle

A lifelong history enthusiast and avid reader, Judith holds a BA in English / Creative Writing and a Masters 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, focussing on the perspective of historical women but recently she has written a trilogy 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 and why 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. A non-fiction book about Tudor clothing, How to Dress like a Tudor, was published in 2023 by Pen and Sword.

 

She runs a small seaside holiday let in Aberporth and when she has time for fun, likes to garden and restore antique doll’s houses. You can find her on most social media platforms.

 

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)

The Henrician Chronicle: comprising of:

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 (Book Three of The Henrician Chronicle)

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

The Book of Thornhold

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

            Marguerite: Hell Hath no Fury!

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Check out The Will of God by Julian de la Motte

The Will of God

By Julian de la Motte

Publication Date: May 13th, 2025
Publisher: Historium Press
Pages: 292
Genre: Historical Fiction

"Deus Lo Vult!"

Gilles is the natural son of the Earl Waltheof, executed by William the Conqueror for supposed treachery. Raised in Normandy by Queen Matilda of England, Gilles is a young servant of Robert, Duke of Normandy, when the first call for a Holy War against the infidel and for the liberation of Jerusalem is raised in Christendom. Along with thousands of others, inspired by a variety of motives, intense piety mixed with a sense of adventure and the prospects of richness, Gilles becomes a key and respected follower of the Duke of Normandy and travels through France and into Italy to the point of embarkation for Constantinople and the land of the Greeks.

In this epic first phase of a long and gruelling journey, Gilles begins to discover a sense of his own strengths and weaknesses, encounters for the first time the full might and strength of the Norman war machine and achieves his much coveted aim of knighthood, as well as a sense of responsibility to the men that he must now lead into battle.

The Will of God is the literal translation of the Latin phrase "Deus Lo Vult"; a ubiquitous war cry and a commonly offered explanation of all the horrors and iniquities unleashed by the First Crusade of 1096 to 1099, when thousands of Europeans made the dangerous and terrifying journey to the Holy Land and the liberation of Jerusalem. It is the first of two books on the subject.

Praise 

"De la Motte has superpowers as a writer of historical fiction; he's a warhorse of a writer bred to stun and trample the literary senses. You won't stop turning the pages of The Will of God."

 

Charles McNair, Pulitzer Prize nominee and author of Land O'Goshen

Excerpt

Gilles lay, legs crossed and arms behind his head which rested upon his saddle. He gazed up at the vast spectacle unfolded above him. His left side, facing the fire, roasted uncomfortably whilst his right side froze, one of the many vagaries of life on campaign. His mouth was sour and acrid from a combination of poorly cooked and very elderly mutton and local wine, thin, sour and acidic, unwilling gifts from the last village that he and his small command had visited.

In the jagged and flickering shadows on the other side of the fire his men also rested, seemingly oblivious to the splendour and majesty above them. Ralph, commonly known as 'the Contentious' was once more expressing his views and opinions to a largely uninterested audience. Ralph, a man from the badlands on the Normandy Brittany border, seemingly had a view and opinion on most things. Gilles allowed himself to listen for a while. Ralph had been on the lists of the Duke as long as Gilles could remember, as thickset and stocky as his master, he had been publicly whipped on a number of occasions for his views and the loose tongued manner in which he voiced them, particularly for those relating to dogma and religion. Currently he was treating his largely indifferent comrades to his views on the Holy Trinity. His almost casual remarks would have had a churchman apoplectic with rage and reaching for his bell and candle.

A flaring as a shrub of furze caught and crackled in the flames. Mixed with rosemary, it gave off a strong and aromatic scent amidst the brushwood, a further deterrent to the swarms of midges. Along with snakes, large black spiders with a life threatening bite and venomous toads that seemed to lurk under every rock, they appeared to be a speciality of the region. The sudden blaze illuminated the usually genial features of Ralph in stark chiaroscuro as he relentlessly continued to warm to his theme. Gilles surrendered his thoughts to the skies above him, a vast dome of black nothingness, blacker than anything else he could imagine and dotted with countless shining stars more numerous, it seemed, than grains of sand upon the beach. Despite the oppressive heat of the day, in this strange and alien country the nights were bitterly cold. Gilles shivered and pulled his riding cloak more tightly about him. The horses stood and fidgeted in the dark, tethered to a set of crude hitching posts hammered into the ground. Occasionally one or other of them stamped the ground or raised its ears in alarm. There were, after all, wolves in these high hills and they sensed their presence.

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Julian de la Motte

Julian de la Motte is a Londoner. He graduated from the University of Wales with a degree in Medieval History. He was further awarded a Master of Arts qualification in Medieval English Art from the University of York. He studied and taught in Italy for nearly four years before returning to the U.K. and a career as a teacher, teacher trainer and materials designer before taking up a new role as a Director of Foreign Languages and of English as a Foreign Language.

 

Married and with two grown up children, He is now extensively involved in review writing and historical research, primarily on medieval history.

''The Will of God'' [the first of two books on the subject of the First Crusade] is his third novel.

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Check out A Shape on the Air (Dr DuLac Series #1) by Julia Ibbotson

A Shape on the Air

(Dr DuLac Series #1)

By Julia Ibbotson

Publication Date: January 8th, 2022

Series: Dr DuLac Series

Publisher: Archbury Books

Pages: 220

Genre: Mystery Romance / Medieval Timeslip Mystery

A haunting Anglo-Saxon time-slip of mystery and romance

Can echoes of the past threaten the present? They are 1500 years apart, but can they reach out to each other across the centuries? One woman faces a traumatic truth in the present day. The other is forced to marry the man she hates as the 'dark ages' unfold.

How can Dr Viv DuLac, medievalist and academic, unlock the secrets of the past? Traumatised by betrayal, she slips into 499 AD and into the body of Lady Vivianne, who is also battling treachery. Viv must uncover the mystery of the key that she unwittingly brings back with her to the present day, as echoes of the past resonate through time. But little does Viv realise just how much both their lives across the centuries will become so intertwined. And in the end, how can they help each other across the ages without changing the course of history?

For fans of Barbara Erskine, Pamela Hartshorne, Susanna Kearsley, Christina Courtenay.

You can pick up your copy at your favourite bookstore- here 

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Julia Ibbotson

Julia Ibbotson is fascinated by the medieval world and the concept of time. She is the author of historical mysteries with a frisson of romance. Her books are evocative of time and place, well-researched and uplifting page-turners. Her current series focuses on early medieval time-slip / dual-time mysteries. 

Julia read English at Keele University, England, specialising in medieval language / literature / history, and has a PhD in socio-linguistics. After a turbulent time in Ghana, West Africa, she became a school teacher, then a university academic and researcher. Her break as an author came soon after she joined the RNA’s New Writers’ Scheme in 2015, with a three-book deal from Lume Books for a trilogy (Drumbeats) set in Ghana in the 1960s.

She has published five other books, including A Shape on the Air, an Anglo-Saxon timeslip mystery, and its two sequels The Dragon Tree and The Rune Stone. Her latest novel is the first of a new series of Anglo-Saxon dual-time mysteries, Daughter of Mercia, where echoes of the past resonate across the centuries.

Her books will appeal to fans of Barbara Erskine, Pamela Hartshorne, Susanna Kearsley, and Christina Courtenay. Her readers say: ‘Julia’s books captured my imagination’, ‘beautiful story-telling’, ‘evocative and well-paced storylines’, ‘brilliant and fascinating’ and ‘I just couldn’t put it down’.

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