Pandora – a paradox of grace and danger, she received a skill or curse from every Olympian god. Beneath her captivating exterior lies a sharp, restless duality: she possesses a captivating eloquence and nimble wit, yet carries a streak of mischief, and a deeply burning, irrepressible curiosity.
I wrote my first book when I was nine years old. It was a tale of an imaginary world, peopled by mythical beings whose interactions with humans created all manner of mischief, carefully scribed in pencil in a notebook with a bright red cover.
I would read passages aloud to my friends as we travelled to and from school, enjoying my role as storyteller as much as they enjoyed being entertained. That notebook is long lost, but my love of writing has endured throughout my life and is now combined with a passion for the past and an obsession with research.
My historical studies gradually narrowed to focus on the medieval period, where the romance of noble knights and heroic battles proved too appealing to resist. The core principles of chivalry, bravery in battle, loyalty to one's sovereign, the protection of the vulnerable, and the value of honourable conduct, lie at the heart of my writing. Alongside these run the enduring bonds of family and friendship, the wounds of treachery and betrayal, and the ache of misplaced love.
Yet it was the unanswered questions hidden in the overlooked corners of medieval history that truly drew me in.
Somewhere between the surviving facts and the missing pieces, I found the stories I wanted to tell.
And so my journey into the world of John Fitzalan began...
He is true historical figure, John Fitzalan, 7th Earl of Arundel, 1408-1435, but I knew nothing of him until the day I stepped into the chapel at Arundel Castle. My eye was caught by a magnificent memento mori, and seeing my interest, a guide told me a little of the earl it commemorated.
An unusually tall, formidable man for his time, he had been a brave knight taken prisoner during a battle in France. His wife, rumoured to have been unfaithful, refused to pay the ransom for his release, and John died in captivity. For centuries it was thought he was buried in France after his death, (hence the tomb was a cenotaph, an empty grave) yet here he was, at rest in the chapel.
These fragments of history fascinated me. There were so many questions: why would a noblewoman refuse to ransom her husband? Was he a cruel man? Had their marriage failed? Or had history misunderstood the truth? How did someone who was buried in France now lie in a chapel in Arundel?
The guide could not enlighten me, so I moved on as queues formed behind me. But the seed had been planted and already I felt the stirring of curiosity. Not for nothing am I named Pandora!
My first simple questions led to more than a year of intensive research of John’s life and times, the battles he fought, the political turmoil in England after the death of Henry V, and the long dispute over the earldom of Arundel.
I learned much about medieval customs, warfare, politics of the time, but found little evidence of John the man, apart from details of his remarkable military career as a knight and feared commander in the Hundred Years’ War, a man later remembered as the ‘English Achilles.’ Yet his early life, a questionable first marriage, and the circumstances of his death and burial remained shrouded in mystery.
Too much of his story lay hidden in the gaps of history, so Requital grew from my imagination. The novel follows John Fitzalan from childhood through his rise as a legendary warrior, exploring the ideals of honour, loyalty, and chivalry that shaped the medieval knightly world.
Around the known facts I wove a human story of love, betrayal, and duty, imagining what might have happened behind the fragments of history I teased from ancient manuscripts and modern archives. I listened to the quiet layers of meaning in those traces, sensing the life in places and stories, and tried to bring John back into the light.
I hope I have done him honour in the telling.
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