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Books
Long-Listed for the 2022 Page Turner Awards Book Award
Short-listed for the 2022 Chanticleer Reviews Goethe Award for Historical Fiction
THE PRIVATE MISADVENTURES OF NELL NOBODY
It is 1793, and France and Britain are at war.
Tested to the very edge of her endurance, Eleanor Buccleuch leaves behind her domestic life, dons waistcoat and breeches, and becomes Ned Buckley. Ned enlists in the British army and vanishes amongst the soldiers of the 69th Regiment of Foot.
Sent to the Mediterranean, Ned is pulled out of his squad and assigned to work with a zealous Royal Navy captain named Horatio Nelson, who is goading the army to besiege the Corsican town of Bastia.
Ned becomes a participant in momentous events of victory and defeat, forming an unlikely friendship with the man who will one day become Britain’s greatest naval hero. But even as he witnesses Nelson’s trajectory towards immortality, Ned’s past is stalking him, threatening him with a downward slide into discovery, ignominy, and the prospect of his own destruction.
THE mAID AND THE MID
A SUPERNATURAL SEA STORY
Anne Middleton has no great expectations of her family’s voyage home to England from India in 1775. She remembers the passage to Calcutta, a few years before, as being exceedingly tedious. But Anne is older now, on the apex of adulthood, and she and her brother Tobias have become intrepid during their sojourn in the strange environment of India. When Anne and Tobias befriend an ailing midshipman named Horace and encounter something uncanny, the three companions band together to uncover the cause. And then they must discover a solution, before something truly dreadful occurs… miles from any shore.
Available now from your favourite bookseller.
On Wounds of Woe
Eleanor Anson begins a new life in turn-of-the-century Gibraltar.
A woman with an unusual past, she has participated first-hand in the war against the French, and has the scars—both physical and emotional—to prove it. Suddenly a property owner, a businesswoman, and a new mother, she believes her life to be settled and her future course set.
But with Napoleon rising to power in France, her world will not remain at peace. Nell finds herself tossed back into the storm of war in the Mediterranean. With a tenuous alias, an unlikely partner, and a young child, she must navigate the rough seas of the French invasion of Italy. A chance encounter with someone at the eye of the storm reopens old wounds, and Nell must make some life-or-death decisions—lives not necessarily her own.
The Taste of mead and ashes
The last book in the trilogy, available summer 2025. Embittered and displaced by war, Nell must fight to recover a lost life… and a chance at her own redemption.
Delighted to make your acquaintance
I hope you’re a reader. Because I have ideas to share.
My genre is historical fiction, but truthfully, I’ll write whatever fires my imagination. The thing is, I’m kind of particular. Like those old guys who would sell no wine before its time, I won’t publish a work until I’m convinced it’s ready for you.
Go to the Where to Buy My Books page for links to retailers. And if you subscribe to my newsletter, I’ll send you the short story Close Your Eyes and Think of England. It’s free, and this is the only place you can get it. If you decide you don’t want to receive the newsletter, you can opt out at any time. I promise.
Check out my blog, too. I’m not quite as meticulous about the stuff I post there, but I hope you’ll find something to like. And I’d love to hear from you, so please do post comments!
Welcome to my worlds. I hope you will enjoy spending time here as much as I do.