The Tudor Bride (65 page)

Of course I made research trips to the all the castles in The Tudor Bride – Senlis, Vincennes, Windsor, Kenilworth, Eltham, Hertford – some retaining more of their original medieval character than others. But the most extraordinary experience was a visit I made to the Bishop’s Palace at Hadham (now on the map as Much Hadham), where Edmund Tudor was born. There is still a lovely house there, part of which is old enough to have sheltered Catherine and her household but today it is divided into several private residences, whose owners understandably do not seek publicity. So I cannot thank them by name but I am very grateful to the kind lady who let me inside her home to show me the very room in which Edmund Tudor is believed to have been born. For an author seeking atmosphere it was an invaluable kindness.

Similar kindness and of course professional help has been forthcoming once again from the team at Harper Fiction. Many thanks to publisher Kimberley Young, my ever-friendly and forthright editor Kate Bradley, careful and capable copy-editor Joy Chamberlain, well-connected publicist Jaime Frost and to all the designers, distributors, printers, digitisers and marketers who have employed so much skill and effort in sending my sweat-stained words out to the big wide world, polished, buffed and salon-smooth. A hug and a kiss to my ever-diligent agent Jenny Brown, who never misses an opportunity to further the cause of her writers and, most important of all, heartfelt thanks go to you, the discerning reader, who continues to amaze and thrill me by choosing (and I hope enjoying) the fascinating life-story of Queen Catherine and her faithful friend Mette.

Joanna

Joanna spent twenty-five years at the BBC writing and presenting for radio and television. Her first book,
Rebellion at Orford Castle,
was a children’s novel set in East Anglia. This was then followed by
Island Games
and
Dubious Assets
,
set in her adopted homeland of Scotland and published under the name of Joanna McDonald.

Gripped by Shakespeare’s history plays, Joanna originally began researching King Henry V’s ‘fair Kate’ as a schoolgirl and the story of Catherine de Valois and the Tudor genesis has remained with her throughout life. Inspired by a chronicle description of Catherine’s ‘damsels of the bedchamber’, the schemes and treacheries of medieval royal courts are brought to life through the eyes of ‘Guillaumette’, her servant and companion.

Joanna Hickson lives in Wiltshire and is married with an extended family and a wayward Irish terrier.

Follow Joanna on Facebook or Twitter
@joannahickson
.

The Agincourt Bride

Published by HarperCollins
Publishers Ltd

77–85 Fulham Palace Road

Hammersmith, London W6 8JB

www.harpercollins.co.uk

First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins
Publishers Ltd
2014

Copyright © Joanna Hickson 2014

Cover photographs © Richard Jenkins (main image);
Shutterstock.com
(patterns). Cover lettering © Stephen Raw

Cover layout design © HarperCollins
Publishers
Ltd 2013

Joanna Hickson asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780007446995

Ebook Edition © January 2014 ISBN: 9780007447008

Version: 2013-12-20

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