Francis Quoynt, fire master and explosives expert
is recently back from Flanders and dreaming of making fireworks, not war. Instead, he is blackmailed by the English Secretary of State, Robert Cecil, into spying for the government on the Gunpowder Plotters. The trouble is that Francis likes Robert Catesby and his co-plotters far more than he likes his employer. This work also makes him the enemy of the woman he loves, the Catholic glove-maker, Kate Peach. It also leads him inexorably into the heart of a plot far larger than anyone imagined, international in scale and threatening the survival of England itself.
Though The Firemaster's Mistress is an historical novel, modern readers will find the politics, threat of terrorism, and information spinning frighteningly familiar.
AUTHOR'S NOTES
Trying to research the true facts about the Gunpowder Plot turned into a real-life detective thriller. You can learn more by reading my article on this saga on the Channel Four History website. I'm often asked, 'Where do you get your ideas?' Here's one example. As choreographer with the RSC, I often wore rehearsal petticoats with bum-rolls, and tightly laced ‘bodies’. Both the scene where Kate’s clothes trap her in a panic-stricken crowd and the one when she puts on her dead brother's clothes were written from personal body memory of the weight and constriction. Without that personal physical experience, it might not have occurred to me to write those scenes as I did.
REVIEWS
‘Wonderfully researched historical fiction speculating on the innocence of York-born Guy Fawkes.’
The Times, 15 October, 2005
'A rich mix of romance,
suspense, adventure and lightly-worn knowledge. Gunpowder,
treason and plot have never been so entertaining.'
Kate Saunders, The Times
'Atmospheric and
impressively researched, it is highly entertaining.'
Elizabeth Buchan, The Sunday Times
'Marries conspiracy theory
to Jacobean high-jinks...a racy read...reveals the
principal actors to be models of conspirators everywhere:
single-minded, ideologically driven, careless of their own
and others' lives, believers for the wrong reasons in the
efficacy of a single violent blow to change the course of
history...so strangely does it resonate with our own
times...sometimes one is momentarily unsure whether one is
in 1605 or 2005 as one reads.'
A.C. Grayling, Financial Times
'The Firemaster's Mistress
is that rare historical novel: utterly congruent with
history and successful as a work of fiction. It tells the
story of an engaging man betrayed both by his honour and
his love for a Roman Catholic woman. His skills with
explosives lead him into the very heart of the conspiracy,
wlking a difficult line between plotters, spymasters, and
his own fears. The England of Hames I is magnificently
evoked in this engging novel.'
Philippa Gregory
'A tour de force on many
levels. Primarily a love story set against the backdrop of
17th-century terrorism, this relates a tragedy that puts
you on the rack in its literary quest for truth about
November 5.'
Oxford Times
'Brilliant historical
romance.'
Sainsbury's Magazine