My love affair with history, reading and writing began when I was very young. At five, I agonised over a peasant woman scolding King Alfred for burning the cakes.at a very early age. I agonised over the story of King Alfred burning the cakes. I thought he should be seated on a throne, dressed beautiful clothes, and imagined a gold crown studded with jewels on his head. Aged ten I wept at my image Princess Elizabeth, daughter of Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII, seated on the stairs outside Traitors’ Gate at the Tower of London for fear that like her mother her head would be chopped off. she would be executed like her ill-fated mother. Later, I thrilled to Elizabeth’s famous speech which began: - I know I have the body of a weak, feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too . As a teenager I visualised myself in love with a dashing cavalier, who fought for King Charles I of England, and booing Oliver Cromwell, who sanctioned regicide...
