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Mandeville : A novel of the Wars of the Roses
December 1460. The vicious struggle for the crown of England, known to history as the Wars of the Roses, remains unresolved. Sir John Mandeville delights his young wife with the gift of a book of hours. Soon she is dead, murdered by men desperate to retrieve a secret letter hidden in the book.As an uneasy truce fractures into the bloody endgame of the Yorkist coup, Mandeville follows the trail of the mysterious Kemp, who led the attack. The glamorous spy, Francesca Nori, and her mentor Coppini, the papal nuncio, both want to help him, but whose side are they really on?And as the spiral of violence leads inexorably towards the holocaust of Towton Field the shocking truth of the letter's contents will be revealed, and Mandeville will find himself at the centre of a web of intrigue which reaches far beyond the shores of England.
310 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 14, 2011
7 people want to read
About the author
Christopher Rae
16 books5 followersChristopher Rae was born in Glasgow, but having arrived in Yorkshire at the age of 5, after a detour via London, feels justified in claiming to be a native. A first degree in History from the University of Sussex was forgotten for a number of years while he pursued a career at the bleeding edge of information technology, but now provides the experience and knowledge behind the exhaustive research which underpins his writing.
Whether it is the 15th century, or the 17th, Christopher's writing seeks to evoke a sense of period which is both fascinating and compelling for the reader.
'To some people the attempt to "fill in the gaps in the sparsely chronicled past", as Schama described it, is folly. But for others it is an essential component of the civilised mind's struggle to understand the world, for if we cannot understand the past we can never hope to understand the present. These people understand very well the difference between a work of history and a work of historical fiction, but also understand the light that can be shed on the dry bones of the historical account by the judicious use of an imaginative hypothesis.'
Whether it is the 15th century, or the 17th, Christopher's writing seeks to evoke a sense of period which is both fascinating and compelling for the reader.
'To some people the attempt to "fill in the gaps in the sparsely chronicled past", as Schama described it, is folly. But for others it is an essential component of the civilised mind's struggle to understand the world, for if we cannot understand the past we can never hope to understand the present. These people understand very well the difference between a work of history and a work of historical fiction, but also understand the light that can be shed on the dry bones of the historical account by the judicious use of an imaginative hypothesis.'
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