News
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Philippa Gregory reviews Desmond Seward
17 Mar 2014
Desmond Seward’s latest, The Demon’s Brood: A Plantagenet History from Anjou to Bosworth, has received a glowing review in The Times by celebrated historical novelist Philippa Gregory.
‘This is a big ballsy history of the sort that is seldom written in these nuanced days, and Seward reminds us of a style that has been all-but lost in this thundering account of the Plantagenet family — from 999 when Count Fulk burnt his young wife in her wedding dress, through 500 years to the man he calls the “suicide king”, Richard III… Best of all, and typical of this vivid opinionated history, is the postscript at the end of every reign when the author — who has not minced his words in the previous chapter — gives a magisterial summing up of the progress so far…. The general reader will find this book invaluable for filling in gaps of knowledge and putting a vivid story to a previously unknown monarch… It is a dramatic and page-turning history taking in the loss of the Norman inheritance, and then the shifting ownership of the “English” lands in France during the Hundred Years’ War. Seward’s description of the battle of Agincourt is particularly vivid … this is the medieval world — populated with heroes and seductresses, gods and murderers —and few know it better than Desmond Seward.’ Philippa Gregory
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FT review for God's Traitors
17 Mar 2014
‘A superb account of cloak-and-dagger religious intrigue in Tudor England. God’s Traitors describes a John le Carre-like world of political double-dealing and ‘spiery’…God’s Traitors, with its crisp prose and punctilious scholarship, brilliantly recreates a world of heroism and holiness in Tudor England…as a mainstream history it is little short of a triumph.’
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Third serial for Monica Porter
16 Mar 2014
The Mail on Sunday has featured Monica Porter for a third week running, in the week that her sensational new memoir Raven: My year of dating dangerously… is released.
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Agent of the Year nomination for Andrew Lownie
14 Mar 2014
For the second year running, Andrew Lownie has been shortlisted for Literary Agent of the Year at the Bookseller Industry Awards.
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Katharine Quarmby speaks at Human Rights Forum
14 Mar 2014
Journalist and campaigner Katharine Quarmby spoke at the Wadham Human Rights Forum on: ‘Reporting human rights: Rwanda, Dale Farm and disability hate crime’.
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Little Drifters: Kathleen's Story is no 15
12 Mar 2014
Congratulations to Kathleen O’Shea whose Little Drifters: Kathleen’s Story remains a fourth week in the non-fiction paperback list .
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Little Drifters interview
11 Mar 2014
‘Kathleen O’Shea’s shocking memoir Little Drifters: Kathleen’s Story about her stolen childhood in one of Ireland’s notorious convent orphanages is getting five star reviews on Amazon. Here daughter Maya talks exclusively to Katy Weitz about growing up in the shadow of the orphanage where her mother was bullied, beaten and abused.’
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True Lies serialised in the Mirror
11 Mar 2014
True Lies: The incredible true story of the man who infiltrated Greenpeace by Ross Slater and Douglas Wight is serialised this week in the Mirror.
Inside Greenpeace: Spying on Wayne Rooney, dumping coal at Downing Street and pig’s blood
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The Monica Porter phenomenon reaches Australia
10 Mar 2014
How I discovered at age 60 that I was irresistible to men
Raven is released this month by Thistle Publishing.
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Reviews in for God's Traitors
10 Mar 2014
Jessie Childs’ God’s Traitors: Terror and Faith in Elizabethan England is released this week.
There’s a long review in The Economist here: "Ms Childs has written an engaging history of English papists, filled with memorable episodes…. An excellent new book."
The book is also a ‘Must Read’ selection in the Sunday Times:
