Category archives: Medieval

March Update… The New Omnibus Edition – Draychester Chronicles 1-3 & the prequel all in one  place for the first time. March, and spring time is not far away here in northern England. It’s been a long winter in many ways and like most of us I am looking forward to better days ahead. Still, […]

Touch wood or Knock on wood? God bless you? The effigy of a crusader knight, carved in wood around 1280, can be found in Southwark Cathedral, London. He has a shiny nose for a reason… Another hangover from our distant past, at least in Britain, “knocking on wood” or “touch wood” (the usual phrase and action for speakers of […]

And Then There Were Three Preparations for the release of the third book in my Draychester Chronicles series have taken longer than first planned even though we are still in strict lockdown here in England. I’m pleased to say Death of the Anchorite is now available. Will, Bernard and Osbert are once again on a […]

The Dilemma of Advanced Reader Copies (ARCs) Just reading my reviews on the various Amazon country sites tonight. I always approach it with a mixture of trepidation and excitement. I do honesty read them all, good or bad. Getting someone to leave even a rating is hard, and most people don’t ever leave a review. […]

Losing A Joust (every day since 1390!) The Jousting Knights, Wells Cathedral Clock A very happy new year to you all. As I sit here typing away I can hear the steady tick of my clock counting off the hours and minutes of the new year. My dad was a carpenter / joiner and when […]

A Medieval Christmas The church, which dominated so many aspects of medieval life, ensured that Christmas was a true religious holiday and a highlight of the calendar. It was the longest holiday of the year, twelve days, lasting from the night of Christmas Eve, the 24th of December, to the Twelfth Day, Epiphany, on the […]

The Gongfermor – Dealing with Medieval Sh*t! (Trying a medieval “garderobe” for size at Lamphey Bishop’s Palace, purely for purposes of research you understand!) Towards the end of the 14th Century, London with a population of around 30,000 defecating souls, had only 16 public latrines, known as “houses of easement”. However, many private latrines (privies) […]

Pick up some free reads… I often link up with other authors to cross promote our books to a wider list of readers. We currently have a promotion underway for the next month or so where you can pick up a ton of free reads from new and established authors. If you’d like to explore whats on […]

Death Of The Official – The Paperback Cover… The last couple of weeks I have been preparing the formatted files and graphics of the latest book release for upload to the Amazon kindle store. This time I’ve decided to do a simultaneous paperback release as well. As an independent author I pretty much do everything […]

A mortal blow to the back – a medieval skeleton Watching TV the other day, I came across the “Bone Detectives”.  It’s a program on Channel 4 here in the UK. The premise is “a team of scientists piece together the lives behind unearthed bones to find out their stories. Once a skeleton has been […]