For THE WINTER PRINCE I tramped Civil War battlefields and county towns in England and explored the colleges, streets and museums of Oxford, King Charles I’s elegant royalist capital, to rediscover as much as I could of the complex and perilous world inhabited by the Duchess of Richmond and Prince Rupert of the Rhine.

I am very grateful to General Sir Frank Kitson, a masterly biographer of Prince Rupert, and former Commander-in-Chief UK Land Forces, who kindly agreed to read the manuscript for military accuracy. He wrote to me in 2006, “Your book is an excellent recreation of the period and of the Civil War. Your depiction of Rupert as a commander is both vivid and convincing. I was particularly impressed by your description of the battles of Newark and Marston Moor. Whereas I was only able to describe what happened in the light of hindsight, you describe them as they might have appeared to Rupert at the time in a vivid and spectacular manner … You get King Charles’s charm, consideration, indecision and ability to be swayed by the last person speaking to him, to a tee; a mixture between a saint and a disaster.”

Prince Rupert was King Charles’s most brilliantly successful commander in the first phase of the Civil War, which lasted until the battle of Marston Moor in 1644. It was in many ways a tragic period, which saw the realisation that however justified Charles I might have felt himself to be in his actions towards Parliament at the beginning of 1642, he had in effect declared outright war on his own people.

I have included an historical note in the book which I hope will be of help to those interested in the early Civil War, but don’t hesitate to write to me if there is anything in the novel that piques your curiosity, and I’ll do my best to answer your query.