A plucky lady-in-waiting rebuffs the attention of Henry VIII! Brave lady. This is a most enjoyable historical novel with all the court intrigue and colour of the Tudor period but with the added ingredient of the love of Exmoor raising it above a court-drama and turning it into a great adventure. It’s fascinating.
In this rich portrait of an indomitable woman, comes an epic tale of Tudor life in an England poised between Reformation and ruin. Lady-in-waiting Jane Sweetwater's resistance to the legendary attentions of Henry VIII may have saved her pretty neck, but her reward is a forced and unhappy marriage to a much older man and a harsh life on his farm. Her only consolation is that she still lives upon her beloved Exmoor, the bleak yet beautiful land that cradles Allerbrook house, her family home. Played out in this remote, forbidding place, Jane's long life is fraught with change.
Fiercely protective she assumes responsibility not only for her husband and child, but also for the rebellious son of her wayward sister. In time, she regains the position of a woman with status and property, but cannot ignore the rumblings from London, as the tide of religious change sweeps the country with every new monarch. Jane's small world is dominated by plotting, treachery and even thwarted love as those she holds dearest are forced to choose between family loyalty and fealty to the crown.
Popular British historical fiction and mystery writer Valerie Anand brings past times and conundrums to life with fascinating characters, abundant detail and meticulous research in her twenty-one novels. In the United States she’s been known under her pen name Fiona Buckley for her historical mystery series set in the early years of Elizabeth I’s reign featuring Ursula Blanchard.
Valerie Anand was born in London and knew at the age of six that she wanted to be an author. At the age of fifteen, she saw MGM’s film Ivanhoe. She walked into the cinema knowing that she wanted to be a novelist and walked out of it knowing that historical novels were the kind she most wanted to write.
Over the course of her long and distinguished writing career, Valerie has written many works of historical fiction and is well known for the Ursula Blanchard series of Elizabethan mysteries written under the pen name of Fiona Buckley.
Still living in London, Valerie Anand is a frequent visitor to Exmoor which she loves and is the setting featured in The House of Lanyon.
