When the Black Plague flares up in England striking the house of Lancaster, Katherine visits the Duchess and obtains a priest for her in her last hours. Her husband Hugh spends much time abroad, helping the Duke of Lancaster wage war in France and Spain. She bears Hugh two children, naming the eldest Blanche after the lovely Duchess of Lancaster, the wife of the protector whom she has come to admire so much. Secluded on Hugh’s estate of Kettlethorpe, Katherine leads a miserable and lonely life away from her sister (and her sister’s husband Geoffrey Chaucer). Hugh is forced to offer Katherine honorable marriage as the only way to possess her. Overcome by his lust, Hugh Swynford attempts to rape her, but John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster and third son of King Edward, intervenes and saves her.

She immediately catches the eyes of the English nobles, especially those of the coarse and ugly Hugh Swynford. Convent bred and of lowly parentage, a young and beautiful Katherine visits her sister at the court of Edward III. Beginning almost exactly where my book I Serve leaves off, it tells the story of the woman destined to be the ancestress of the Tudor family. Katherine, named after its title character Katherine Swynford, first intrigued me because of its fourteenth century setting.

(Is it sound historical research to assume that every medieval man who produced no known bastards or legitimate progeny must have of necessity been a homosexual?) Occasionally, however, my research uncovers a real gem, reminding me why historical fiction is the queen of all the genres. Frequently, my forays into historical fiction remind me why I want to write historical fiction - to give readers an accurate picture of medieval people instead of giving them modern thinkers with modern sensibilities in medieval dress. One of the pros (and cons) of being an author is that you must explore other books in the same field as yours so that you can learn how your work relates to the literary world.

Katherine anya seton review