Many people, writers and readers alike, have a tbr list. I have a tbw list – a to be read list. It’s quite short, only 5 stories clamouring for attention. Two are set in the 19th century, two in the fifteenth century and one in the fourteenth century. The latter is tempting because I wrote 200 pages before putting it on the metaphoric shelf where it has languished for a couple of years gathering metaphoric dust and cobwebs. The problem is that one of the nineteenth century stories is the one clamouring loudest for my attention. What to do? Well, I thought about it for approximately a week and a half and decided the fourteenth century could wait in limbo a little while longer because my heart and mind directed me to the nineteenth century. So, after an appropriate fanfare ta-da! I have decided to write a book about Ludwig II King of Bavaria. It will be a challenge, yes, but what a terrific story.
I would like to put in a picture of Ludwig here but the subjects of my pictures tend to lose their heads when appearing on my facebook page.
Few English monarchs had to fight harder for the right to rule than King Edward IV – Shakespeare’s glorious son of York. Cast in the true Plantagenet mould, over six feet tall, he was a naturally charismatic leader. Edward had the knack of seizing the initiative and winning battles and is free from the unflattering characterisations that plagued his brother, Richard III, having been portrayed as a good-looking and formidable military tactician. Described sometimes as reckless and profligate, all sources remark on his personal bravery. In the eleven years between 1460 and 1471 he fought five major battles in the Wars of the Roses. Three of them – Towton, Barnet and Tewkesbury – rank among the most decisive of the medieval period.
DIGGING INTO THE PAST 