My guest author today is David Pilling

 I am very happy to welcome David Pilling to my blog today. David is going to talk about his latest series of books set in The Wars of the Roses which is, I know a favourite era of many of my followers. Over to you, David.

A Bolton, a Bolton! The White Hawk!

David Pilling: author

Judith has kindly allowed me a guest spot to talk about Book One of The White Hawk, my new series of novels set during The Wars of the Roses.  This period, with its murderous dynastic feuding between the rival Houses of York and Lancaster, is perhaps the most fascinating of the entire medieval period in England. Having lost the Hundred Years War, the English nobility turned on each other in a bitter struggle for the crown, resulting in a spate of beheadings, battles, murders and Gangland-style politics that lasted some thirty years.

Apart from the savage doings of aristocrats, the wars affected people on the lower rungs of society. One minor gentry family in particular, the Pastons of Norfolk, suffered greatly in their attempts to survive and thrive in the feral environment of the late 15th century. They left an invaluable chronicle in their archive of family correspondence, the famous Paston Letters.

The letters provide us with a snapshot of the trials endured by middle-ranking families like the Pastons, and of the measures they took to defend their property from greedy neighbours. One such extract is a frantic plea from the matriarch of the clan, Margaret Paston, begging her son John to return from London:

"I greet you well, letting you know that your brother and his fellowship stand in great jeopardy at Caister... Daubney and Berney are dead and others badly hurt, and gunpowder and arrows are lacking. The place is badly broken down by the guns of the other party, so that unless they have hasty help, they are likely to lose both their lives and the place, which will be the greatest rebuke to you that ever came to any gentleman. For every man in this country marvels greatly that you suffer them to be for so long in great jeopardy without help or other remedy..."

The Paston Letters, together with my general fascination for the era, were the inspiration for The White Hawk. Planned as a series of three novels, TWH will follow the fortunes of a fictional Staffordshire family, the Boltons, from the beginning to the very end of The Wars of the Roses. Unquenchably loyal to the House of Lancaster, their loyalty will have dire consequences for them as law and order breaks down and the kingdom slides into civil war. The ‘white hawk’ of the title is the sigil of the Boltons, and will fly over many a blood-stained battlefield.

In the following excerpt, one of the protagonists is introduced to his first taste of real combat at the Battle of Northampton:

“The Lancastrians still had their archers, and the unseasonal rain had turned the ground between the two armies into a quagmire. Geoffrey lost a shoe in the soft, sucking mud, and cursed as he was forced to hobble onward with one naked foot.

Then the skies darkened, and the man beside him squealed and went down with an arrow protruding from the eye-piece of his sallet. Geoffrey lowered his head and stumbled on, gagging at the stench of excrement and split gut that filled his nostrils as more arrows strafed Fauconberg’s division, cutting men down and breaking up their carefully ordered ranks. 

Geoffrey was breathing hard, his limbs seized with weariness as he laboured through the mud. His heart rattled like a drum. The Yorkists were being murdered by the arrows, and still had to cross a deep ditch, defended by a wall of stakes and thousands of determined, well-fed and rested Lancastrian infantry. They would surely be repelled, panic would set in, and men would start to run. Then the Lancastrian knights would mount their destriers, and the real killing would begin as they pursued their beaten foes across miles of open ground.

Geoffrey’s courage and desire for vengeance shriveled inside him. He desperately wanted to turn and run, but the press of men forced him on, towards the bristling line of stakes. He glanced ahead, and saw that March’s division had stormed right up to the barricades on the right flank of the Lancastrian position. These were defended by men wearing badges displaying a black ragged staff. He recognised the livery as that of Lord Grey of Ruthin, a powerful Welsh Marcher lord.

He expected March’s advance to grind to a halt as his men came up against the stakes and Grey’s well-armed infantry, but then something extraordinary happened. The men wearing the badge of the ragged staff laid down their weapons and stood aside, allowing the Yorkists to pass through their lines. Some even stooped to help their supposed enemies over the ditch.

Lord Grey had turned traitor. Geoffrey had no idea why or how it had been arranged, being too unimportant to be made privy to such deals, but his heart sang at the result. That one act of treachery would surely reverse the tide of battle. The Lancastrians were doomed, trapped like rats inside their improvised fortress. More to the point, Geoffrey’s chances of survival had just improved dramatically…”

If all this whets your appetite, then please check out the paperback and Kindle versions of Book One below...

TheWhite Hawk - paperback version Amazon UK

Kindle version

The White Hawk - paperback version Amazon USA

Kindle version 

The Next Big Thing: Authors Tagging Authors!

THE NEXT BIG THING: AUTHORS TAGGING AUTHORS!

I am really pleased to be taking part in The Next Big Thing: Authors Tagging Authors!

I was tagged by my really good friend, author Karen Aminadra and it's my pleasure to keep this going.

So, what I do is answer the questions below, tag a new set of authors, then they answer, tag authors, etc.

I’m answering questions about my novel, The Winchester Goose which will be available very soon in paperback and is also currently available through Amazon Kindle.

What is the working title of your book?

The title has always been The Winchester Goose. I did consider ‘Geese’ at one point, since there is more than one ‘Goose’ involved but I decided the singular had more impact.

Where did the idea come from for the book?

The Winchester Geese were prostitutes, living and working in Southwark who paid their rents to the Bishop of Winchester. I have studied medieval women for years and most of them have been depicted in historical fiction in one way or another, so I was delighted to find a social group that is largely overlooked. I began to think about how a prostitute from the lowest segment of society might have viewed the goings on at Henry VIII’s court.

What genre does your book fall under?

It's Historical Fiction with a dollop of romance and a hint of adventure.

What is the one sentence synopsis for the book?

Tudor women, high and low, living and loving beneath the shadow of King Henry VIII.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

Drafting the first manuscript is the easy bit, it took about a year but the research took a great deal longer than that …and then the redrafting and the edits longer again.

Simon Woods to play Francis Wareham

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

Alex Kingston to play Joanie Toogood

A movie! What a lovely thought. I am not very good at remembering the names of actors but I will give it a shot. Francis Wareham is very dashing and handsome but not very old. He would need to be played by someone like, erm …Simon Woods who was Mr Bingley in Pride and Prejudice, the Keira Knightly one. I think Alex Kingston would make a brilliant Joanie Toogood, the ‘goose’. She did a great job with Moll Flanders and I think she has all the necessary credentials. 

Rupert Grint to play Peter the Costermonger

Isabella and Evelyn Bourne are gentlewomen from court. Emma Watson (Hermione in Harry Potter) would be good as Eve, and the girl who plays Edith in Downton Abbey, Laura Carmichael, would make a lovely Bella. For Peter, who is a costermonger from Southwark it would have to be Rupert Grint – wonderful young actor who played Ron Weasley in Harry Potter. Henry VIII would not be played by Jonathon Rhys Meyers (as gorgeous as he is) I think the role is better suited to Steven Waddington who played Lord Buckingham in the Tudors. As to Katherine Howard and Anna of Cleves, goodness, I have no idea. I will leave that to the directors!

What other books would you compare this story to, in your genre?

I’m not sure. It is quite different coming as it does from the mouth of a prostitute. Michel Faber’s The Crimson Petal and the White is similar in theme although that is set much later in Victorian England.

 What else about the book might pique the readers’ interest?

It offers a new perspective on events in Henry VIII’s reign and looks at how the lower echelons of society might have viewed matters. It contrasts the rougher side of life in Tudor England with the glittering royal court.

The Winchester Goose will be available on Amazon Kindle before Christmas and in paperback early in 2013.

And for the authors I have tagged:

Helen Spring – Author of Memories of the Curlew, Strands of Gold and The Chainmakers.

Mary Middleton – Romance Author of  Vittorio’s Virgin, Come, Dance with Me and Where the West Wind Blows.

Cas Peace - Author of The King's Envoy and The King's Champion

Gregory House - Author of The Red Ned Tudor Mysteries

Anna Valentine -Romance Author of Love Torn

Over to you guys!

The Winchester Goose - Coming Soon

I am just applying the finishing touches to The Winchester Goose now and it should reach the shelves in time for Christmas.

Writing this one has been a whole different experience to my other books. My confidence in it waxed and waned like the moon; sometimes I hated it and thought I should bin it, other times it seemed to be the best thing I have written so far.

As usual I am breaking all the rules, writing in the first person present tense but I make no apologies. My books are conceived in my head and nurtured in my  heart, they just sort of happen. Planning and rules go out of the window.

My characters are always flawed,  and the first person narrative, that gives voice to all those inner thoughts that we usually conceal, makes them human. 

You won't find many unstained characters in The Winchester Goose. Francis Wareham is a serial womaniser, thoroughly charismatic but incurably disloyal, and I have  made no attempt to dress him in prettier armour. 

I haven't hidden Joanie Toogood's flaws either. Probably the most endearing person in the book, Joanie is a prostitute from Southwark who, rather like a saucy Florence Nightinglae, seeks to nurture anyone who will let her. As a result her business flourishes and she is popular with both commoner and nobleman alike. Her downfall begins when she meets Francis and is unable to resist his boyish charm.

Although she is a bit of a bad girl, her  humanity is very close to the surface, and it is Joanie's uneducated observations of events at the Court of Henry VIII that make us smile.

Tudor London: 1540. Each night, after dark, men flock to Bankside seeking girls of easy virtue; prostitutes known as The Winchester Geese. Joanie Toogood has worked the streets of Southwark since childhood but her path is changed forever by an encounter with Francis Wareham, a spy for the King’s secretary, Thomas Cromwell.

Meanwhile, across the River Thames, at the glittering court of Henry VIII, Wareham also sets his cap at Evelyn and Isabella Bourne, members of the Queen’s household and the girls, along with Joanie, are drawn into intrigue and the shadow of the executioner’s blade.

Set against the turmoil of Henry VIII’s middle years, The Winchester Goose provides a brand new perspective of the happenings at the royal court, offering a frank and often uncomfortable observation of life at both ends of the social spectrum.

The Winchester Goose will be available on a Kindle near you very soon.

Paperback to follow in 2013.

Vice in Tudor London

Henry VIII

Historical fiction usually concentrates on virtuous, upper-class women and the less fortunate, poorer women are often over-looked. Many ordinary women worked as prostitutes on the Bankside in Southwark and it is those women I will be discussing today.

In Tudor Britain there were no poor laws, no welfare, you either survived or you didn’t and every woman, even the most unskilled, was equipped to earn a living from vice should she need to. But that doesn't mean it was an easy option.

In the sixteenth century men tended to marry later, often not taking a wife until they had gained a foothold in society. They did not enjoy the sexual freedoms we have  today and prostitutes were to some, a necessary evil. Sometimes the girls who earned their living in this way were raised to the business from childhood and their bawds were often their own mothers. Sometimes innocent girls were left with no choice but to turn to vice. There were few doors open to a girl who was ‘soiled’ before marriage.

It was a hard, dangerous and undesirable lifestyle but it was also a lucrative business for some, often providing the easiest and the most profitable path. Early in the Tudor period the Reverend Symon Fysshe wrote:

“Who is she that will set her hands to worke to get three pence daye, and  may have at least twenty pence a daye to slepe an houre with a frère (friar) or a moncke (monk) or preste (priest)?”

When you consider, even today, the difficulties of housing and feeding a family, he may have had a point. 

What might a prostitute, living just across the water, have made of the high-jinx going on at Henry's court? I began to think that it might be interesting to flip the coin and present a prostitute as the protagonist in my next novel. Digging into the lives of less affluent woman opened up a whole new area of interest for me and I spent the next year or two researching the dark side of Tudor London, up to my ears in vice and crime. And some of the things I've learned are eye-opening and disturbing.

***

In my novel, Joanie Toogood is a tough, hard-working, resolute young woman who is bred into the life of vice and, at the death of her mother, is left with two younger sisters to provide for. She works to keep a roof over their heads and bread on the table and, when the time comes, her sisters work hard too. 

***

The Winchester Palace

The area of Southwark on the south bank of the Thames was renowned since Roman times for the nature of the entertainments it provided.  In 1161 Henry II officially handed over the land to the Church and licensed a cluster of Brothels which became known as the ‘Bankside stewes’, servicing the needs of Londoners and passing travellers.

Since the brothels paid their rents to the Bishop of Winchester and his sumptuous palace was situated bang in the middle of the Southwark stewes, the prostitutes who worked the surrounding area provided a source of both recreation and profit for the church. It is for this reason that the girls became known as The Winchester Geese. Needless to say, the phrase ‘bitten by a Winchester Goose’ referred to a dose of syphilis, a condition that was both widespread and incurable.

Stephen Gardiner, The Bishop of Winchester

It has been suggested that Stephen Gardiner, the Bishop of Winchester, pandered to Henry VIII by keeping him supplied with the cream of the Geese. However, I could find nothing in the primary source evidence to support this claim and it may have been propaganda against his conservative views on church reform.

The Tudor monarchs made several attempts to close down the brothels. During an outbreak of syphilis in 1505 Henry VII succeeded to do so for a short period of time but they quickly re-opened, albeit under a different guise and subject to fresh legislation.  

Fabyan, writing at this time, said, ‘This year the stewes or common bordello beyond the water for what help or consideration for certain I know not, was for a season inhibited and closed up but it was not long ere they were set open again.”

If this was an attempt to quench the spread of the disease it was unsuccessful. The girls simply crossed the river looking for work, some into St Katherine’s parish, some settling in St Giles, and others close to the King’s palace at Westminster. Even after the brothels were reopened, any woman found to be suffering from syphilis was fined 100 shillings and expelled from the Bankside, presumably to work independently. This dispersal of the girls brought them into contact with new customers and aided the spread of the contagion. The infection may have been better contained by leaving Southwark well alone.

The court records of the period contain many references to the Southwark Stewes and the names of the Inns were varied. One was called The Castle, another The Antylopp (antelope). Then there was The Unycorn, The Cardinal’s Hat and The Cock, the last of which features in my novel as the haunt of Joanie and her sisters.

The street names of medieval and early modern Britain reflect the trades that took place within them, so names like Tanner Street and Fish Street, Market Street, speak for themselves.  The small lanes that intersected Southwark were named Maiden Alley, Love Lane and Addle Street and it does not strain the imagination too far to see how they came by them. 

Red light districts in other areas of England are quite easily located in this way on medieval maps. My favourite example, if you will pardon my French, is ‘Gropecunt Lane’ now adapted to the more genteel, Grapenut Lane.  What went on there is really rather self-explanatory and I am far too ladylike to discuss some of the street names to be found in medieval Paris.

Why Henry VII allowed the bawdy houses to open up again so quickly when on the continent such places remained closed for years remains a mystery. But after his death, his son Henry VIII, continued the crusade against them, ordering Wolsey to ‘purge London and Southwark of its vagabonds and loose women.’

This proved to be as ineffectual as the previous attempts.

During the time in which the events of my novel take place (1540 -47) the vice continued to thrive. The brothels served nobles and commoners alike and the women, earning a living as they did, lived in constant danger of attack and even murder. Higher class prostitutes were shipped across the river to be smuggled into court but the lower class worked the bankside and the men came to them.

London and Southwark (foreground)

The risks of prostitution in the sixteenth century were the same as today and the pastime of ‘whore-bashing’ was, even then, a popular pastime among some sections of society. In March 1543 an incident is recorded when a party of youths were apprehended on a boat shooting with their stone bows (a kind of bow that shot small rocks) at the girls working on the south bank.

It can be surmised from this that, although their services were in demand, the prostitutes themselves were not highly regarded by all. This story becomes even more interesting when you realise that this wasn’t the work of drunken apprentices but that the ringleader was in fact a Knight of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, the young Henry Howard, the Earl of Surrey and cousin to two of Henry’s queens.

Throughout history Southwark has been renowned as an area of double dealing and vice. Outside the jurisdiction of London, the bearbaiting pits, theatres, inns and cockfighting attracted more and more unsavoury characters until the area became little more than a den of iniquity. Rubbing shoulders as they did with the criminal element from every walk of society, the prostitutes themselves were the least of the King’s problems. Thieves, vagabonds, dispossessed priests, spies, travellers and rent boys carried out nefarious dealings with the members of the king’s court who slipped across the river after dark.

Bear-baiting

It was not until late in Henry VIII’s reign in 1546 that he finally succeeded in closing the brothels down, outlawing bear baiting and seizing the church lands for himself. At the King’s command The Winchester Geese were hounded from their sanctuary at Southwark and the brothels prohibited from reopening and  Henry made a big show of doing so. Fabyan reports that,

‘This year at Easter the Stewes was put down by the King’s proclamation made there with a trumpet and an harolde-atte-armes.”

Unfortunately for Henry, he would not live long enough to ensure the continued success of his campaign and shortly after his death in 1547 the brothels were again flourishing but this time, they did not restrict themselves to the south bank.

In the early days of the following reign the young king, Edward VI addressed his court on the subject:

“My lords, you have put down the Stewes, but I pray you, how is the matter amended? What availeth that you have but changed the place and not taken the whoredom away? …There is nowe in London more than ever was on the Bancke.”

The Winchester Goose opens in 1540 just before Henry VIII’s marriage to Anne of Cleves. It follows the fortunes of four people, Joanie Toogood, a prostitute from Southwark, Francis Wareham, the runaway son of a country squire who becomes a spy for Thomas Cromwell, and Isabella and Evelyn Bourne, ladies in waiting in the households of the Queens, Anne of Cleves and Katherine Howard.

From diverse backgrounds, these four people find themselves embroiled in a web of intrigue, treachery and violence.

The Winchester Goose is not an excuse to write about sex. It is not meant to titillate but is a frank account of the life of a prostitute, reflecting her own opinions (not mine) of the goings-on in high places. Southwark provides a dark and dangerous backdrop to the events that Joanie witnesses: the coronations, the intrigues and the executions. 

www.judithmarnopp.com
www.juditharnopp.com
author.to/juditharnoppbooks

Judith Arnopp's other books include:
The Beaufort Bride
The Beaufort Woman
A Song of Sixpence
Intractable Heart
The Kiss of the Concubine
The Song of Heledd
Peaceweaver
The Forest Dwellers

Illustrations from wikimedia-commons.

Interview with debut novelist, Jo Ann Butler, author of Rebel Puritan.

This weeks featured author is Jo Ann Butler who’s book Rebel Puritan follows the life of her own ancestor, Herodias Long, beginning in 17^th century London, England and ending in New England.

Hi Jo Ann, Thank you for joining me on my blog today, it’s good of you to come.  I am really fascinated by the main protagonist in your novel Rebel Puritan.  She is an ancestor of yours, is that right?

Jo Ann:  My grandparents were surnamed Gardner, so when I started researching my genealogy in the late 1970s, I began with them.  The first line I found led back to my 8^th-great grandmother Herodias Long, via her liaison with George Gardner. 

What made you decide to turn Herodias’ story into a novel?

Jo Ann:  Herodias led an amazingly modern life for a 17^th-century woman, but with two separations from unsuitable husbands, she was considered quite scandalous in her day.  In 1658 she protested against the Puritans’ abuse of Quakers, and that led to her own whipping.  That bold act made Herodias’ story irresistible, so I wrote the novel about her that I wanted to read!

I suppose, as a genealogist, researching for Rebel Puritan came quite naturally but how difficult, as a first time author, did you find it to turn the bland facts of her life into a flesh and blood personality?

Jo Ann:   Herodias laid out her life in petitions for divorce, so research was easy.  However, I studied archaeology in college, not creative writing, and Rebel Puritan was the first project I undertook.  There’s nothing like starting big!  I’d write a chapter, let my friends and family comment on it, and then rewrite.  By the time I finished the mss, I had sold several magazine articles, so I learned as I went.

Fellow writers are immensely important. I know from experience just how very difficult it is as a self-published, unknown author to get noticed. What marketing strategies do you employ to promote Rebel Puritan?

Jo Ann:  After Rebel Puritan was published, I asked readers to post reviews on GoodReads, and it’s still thrilling to see reviews pop up there and on Amazon.  Word-of-mouth on Facebook has been invaluable, and so have reviewers and bloggers like you.  I’m still seeking reviews from historical fiction readers, historians, and genealogists.  If anyone would like a review copy, please contact me at joann(at)rebelpuritan(dot)com.

Writing a historical novel is like painting a country you have never visited and can never visit. Rebel Puritan spans a number of years and two different countries.  How did you go about researching 17^th century London and New England?

Jo Ann and Richard at the LDS Genealogy library
where they met  tewnety-five years ago.

Jo Ann:  New England was easy, because I live in upstate New York.  My mother, uncle, and I must have spent several months in archives and genealogy libraries.  We also visited museums and ancestors’ homes, where I picked up that 17^th-century flavour.  I got most of my English information at the Mormon Church’s genealogy library in Salt Lake City, which has a superb book collection and over two million rolls of microfilm.  As a bonus, I met my partner compiling his genealogy in the Mormon library, and after twenty-five years we are still together.

A love story! How wonderful! I’ve never met any likely partners in a library. I must have been doing something wrong.  And Rebel Puritan has won the IndieBRAG medallion? Can you tell us what that is and what it means for your book?

Jo Ann: IndieBRAG is a group of American, European, and Canadian readers promoting high-quality independently-published books – the sort you would recommend to your best friend.  Helen Hollick mentioned the group on her Facebook, so I asked them to review Rebel Puritan.  IndieBRAG promotes winners of their Medallion at book expositions and online, and I’m delighted to talk about the group and their Medallion award to Rebel Puritan.  We’ll scratch each other’s backs!

Have you caught the historical novel writing bug now? Will there be any more?

Jo Ann:   The writing bug caught me!  I’m preparing to publish The Reputed Wife this fall, the sequel to Rebel Puritan, and there’s at least one more book in the series.  Another of my ancestors was a doctor on the upstate New York frontier in 1803, and she is whispering in my ear.

Well, that is good to hear. Give me a shout when The Reputed Wife is released and I will share the word. Online presence is invaluable for an author these days. Do you have a blog or a webpage that readers can visit?

Jo Ann:  My Rebel Puritan website is at www.rebelpuritan.com/ and I have a blog at http://www.rebelpuritan.blogspot.com/ , and I even have a public figure page for Herodias Long on Facebook!

That’s wonderful. Brace yourself for an onslaught of visitors. Thank you so much for giving us your time. Good luck with Rebel Puritan, I hope it does very well.

Thank you for hosting me, Judith.  It’s been my pleasure!

Rebel Puritan is available as a paperback and as a Kindle on Amazon and other leading bookstores.

US readers click here..
UK readers click here.