Judith Arnopp

I won't deny 2018 was a difficult year both personally and professionally but it ended with a bit of a bang. The first piece of good news was when The Beaufort Woman was awarded The Coffee Pot Book Club Book of the Year 2018. This great news came fast on the heels of the release of Sisters of Arden, which is already gathering in some satisfying reviews.

This spurred me on to start on my next novel, I AM MARY! Not, Mary Queen of Scots who is dominating the headlines just now but her cousin, Mary Tudor, Queen of England. I have got off to a great start with it, Mary is a strong character, often depicted as rather a failure both as a queen and a person but, seen from her own perspective, she suddenly becomes more understandable and very tragic. I am looking forward to spending the rest of the year with her. 

Maybe, just maybe, I will have some more good news for you soo...

You may have thought I'd been abducted by aliens, or fallen into a deep dark hole but no, I've been writing.

Completing the final book in The Beaufort Chronicle left me wiped out so I've taken things a bit easier this time.

My next book is a fictional story set against the historical background of the dissolution of the monasteries. I am enjoying it very much and hopefully it should be with you by Christmas (Arghhh! I said the 'C' word).

Here is a work-in-progress cover and blurb to whet your appetite:

Blurb – Sisters of Arden

Arden Priory has remained unchanged for almost four hundred years. When a nameless child is abandoned at the gatehouse door, the nuns take her in and raise her as one of their own.

As Henry VIII’s second queen dies on the scaffold, the embittered King strikes out, and unprecedented change sweeps across the country. The bells of the great abbeys fal...