New Author (to me anyway)

I’m very picky about my pleasure reading. I really only tend to read historical fiction and even then only really Tudor period. It does make it quite difficult to find new books to read.

I was catching up with one of my podcasts Tudor Dynasties, when out on my lunchtime walk and the host was interviewing Nicola Cornick. Nicola has written fiction based on other, lesser known Tudor ladies, with a lot of artistic licence it has to be said.

The Phantom Tree is the story of Mary Seymour, daughter of the playboy Thomas and Dowager Queen Katherine Parr. Mary’s story is a bit of a mystery as after the Queen died and Thomas was executed, she was farmed out to an unsympathetic aunt who didn’t want her. The real life mystery is that there are no records of what happened to Mary. Did she grow to adulthood? What would life have been like for her? The story hypothesises.

Cornick’s second novel The Forgotten Sister is about the life of Amy Robsart, the feted wife of Elizabeth I’s favourite Robert Dudley.

Both novels are dual time period mysteries. There are parallel stories running through them and they don’t necessarily answer the burning questions…what happened to Mary? and did Amy fall or was she pushed?

Both ladies are little known in their own right and usually only a reference to the stories of the men in their lives. The podcast conversation was interesting and has piqued my interest enough to consider purchasing one, if not both books. I have about £75 of book vouchers to use up, that I have to use in a bookshop, although I would have preferred a Kindle version to download.