Books
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My Name is Victoria
Explore the world of the young Queen Victoria in my second novel for children. Miss V. Conroy is good at keeping secrets. She likes to sit as quiet as a mouse, neat and discreet. But when her father sends her to Kensington Palace to become the companion to Princess Victoria, Miss V soon finds that she can no longer remain in the shadows.
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Eliza Rose
Delve into the fascinating and dangerous world of the Tudor court in my debut novel for children. Eliza Rose Camperdowne is young and headstrong, but she knows her duty well. As the only daughter of a noble family, she must one day marry a man who is very grand and very rich. But Fate has other plans. When Eliza becomes a maid of honour, she’s drawn into the thrilling, treacherous court of Henry the Eighth . . . Is her glamorous cousin Katherine Howard a friend or a rival? And can a girl choose her own destiny in a world ruled by men?
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A Very British Murder
This new book and TV series for BBC Four investigates the way that British people have enjoyed – yes, enjoyed – murder. From the start of the nineteenth century, a new form of entertainment developed that was based on the British obsession with death. Ballads, china ornaments, melodrama, detective fiction and films are all covered here, along with some gruesome and sometimes strangely amusing crimes.
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If Walls Could Talk An Intimate History of Your Home
… is a book and a 4-part BBC TV series, exploring the intimate history of your home. Why did the flushing toilet take two centuries to catch on? Why did Samuel Pepys never give his mistresses an orgasm? Why did medieval people sleep sitting up? When were the two ‘dirty centuries’? Why did gas lighting cause Victorian ladies to faint? Why, for centuries, did people fear fruit? All these questions will be answered in this juicy, smelly and truly intimate history of home life. We travel through the history of the bedroom, bathroom, living room and kitchen, covering the architectural history of each room, but concentrating on what people actually did in bed, in the bath, at the table, and at the stove. From sauce-stirring to breast-feeding, teeth-cleaning to masturbation, getting dressed to getting married, this book will make you see your home with new eyes.
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Courtiers The Secret History of Kensington Palace
Ambitious and talented people flocked to court in search of power and prestige, but Kensington Palace was also a gilded cage. While its inhabitants were cocooned in comfort and splendour, successful courtiers had level heads and cold hearts; their secrets were never safe. Among them, a Vice Chamberlain with many vices, a Maid of Honour with a secret marriage, a pushy painter, an alcoholic equerry, a Wild Boy, a penniless poet, a dwarf comedian, two mysterious turbaned Turks and any number of discarded royal mistresses. This book tells the story of the dramatic lives of George II and Queen Caroline: a lover murdered, babies snatched, horrific illnesses and tearful deathbed reconciliations.
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Cavalier The Story of a Seventeenth Century Playboy
If you’ve been watching my BBC4 series Harlots, Housewives and Heroines, and if you want to know more about the seventeenth century, then you might like my book Cavalier… Cavalier, The Story of a Seventeenth Century Playboy (as it’s called in paperback) or Cavalier: a Tale of Passion, Chivalry and Great Houses (its hardback title). It’s a portrait of a seventeenth-century nobleman, his roller-coaster life, his household and servants, and the dramatic decades surrounding the English Civil War.