The Mazzard Tree (Hartford Manor Book 1) by Marcia Clayton

 

The Mazzard Tree
 (Hartford Manor Book 1)
By Marcia Clayton

Publication Date: 21st December 2020

Publisher: Sunhillow Publishing

Page Length: 388

Genre: Historical Romance

1880 North Devon, England

Annie Carter is a farm labourer’s daughter and life is a continual struggle for survival. When her father dies of consumption, her mother, Sabina, is left with seven hungry mouths to feed and another child on the way. To save them from the workhouse or starvation, Annie steals vegetables from the Manor House garden, risking jail or transportation. Unknown to her, she is watched by Robert, the wealthy heir to the Hartford Estate, but far from turning her in, he befriends her.

Despite their different social backgrounds, Annie and Robert develop feelings they know can have no future. Harry Rudd, the village blacksmith, has long admired Annie, and when he proposes, her mother urges her to accept. She reminds Annie, that as a kitchen-maid, she will never be allowed to marry Robert. Harry is a good man and Annie is fond of him. Her head knows what she should do, but will her heart listen?

Set against the harsh background of the rough, class-divided society of Victorian England, this heart-warming and captivating novel portrays a young woman who uses her determination and willpower to defy the circumstances of her birth in her search for happiness.

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The Mazzard Tree
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Marcia Clayton

A farmer’s daughter, Marcia Clayton, was born in North Devon, a rural and picturesque area in the far South West of England. When she left school, Marcia worked in a bank for several years until she married her husband, Bryan, and then stayed at home for a few years to care for her three sons, Stuart, Paul, and David. 

As the children grew older, Marcia worked as a Marie Curie nurse caring for the terminally ill and later for the local authority managing school transport. Now a grandmother, Marcia enjoys spending time with her family and friends. She is a keen researcher of family history, and this hobby inspired some of the characters in her books. Marcia and Bryan are keen gardeners and grow many of their own vegetables. 

An avid reader, Marcia can often be found with her nose in a book when she should be doing something else! Her favourite genres are historical fiction, romance, and crime books. Marcia has written five books in the historical family saga, “The Hartford Manor Series”, and is working on the sixth. Besides writing books, Marcia produces blogs to share with her readers in a monthly newsletter. 

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The Whispering Dead of Rewley Abbey (Murders in the Abbey Series Book 1) By Dr. Peter Stephenson

 The Whispering Dead of Rewley Abbey
(Murders in the Abbey Series Book 1) 
By Dr. Peter Stephenson

Publication Date: 16th October 2024
Publisher: Historiium Press 
Page Length: 227 Pages
Genre: Historical Ficton / Young Adults

"The Whispering Dead of Rewley Abbey" is the first in a series of murder mysteries following the sinister deaths in Rewley Abbey (Cistercian monks) and Godstow Abbey (Benedictine nuns) from the end of the 13th century to King Henry VIII's dissolution of the convents and monasteries in the 16th century. Intrigue and secrets abound as a determined nun deciphers the clues in this timeless historical thriller for both young adults and seasoned readers.

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The Whispering Dead of Rewley Abbey
HERE!

DR. Peter Stephenson

Dr. Peter “Doc” Stephenson is entering the realm of historical fiction after a 50-year career in technology during which he authored or contributed to over 20 books on computing, computer investigation, and computer security topics.

In addition to writing, Dr. Stephenson has been playing blues music for 70 years and it is through performing, and after earning a PhD, that he was given the appellation, “Doc” by the owner of one of his performance venues.

Having visited Oxford several times, it was only natural that he would set his tales in Oxfordshire. His academic experience in Oxford Town sealed the deal and resulted in his first novel, The Whispering Dead of Rewley Abbey. 

“Whispering Dead” is the first in a series of murder mysteries, called “Murders in the Abbey”, that follow the carryings-on in Rewley Abbey (monks) and Godstow Abbey (nuns) from the end of the 13th century to the dissolution of convents and monasteries by King Henry VIII in the 16th century. 

Dr. Stephenson lives with a 15-year-old dog and two Savannah cats on a pond in Auburn Hills, Michigan.

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Nero and Sporus by S.P. Somtow

 

Nero and Sporus

By S.P. Somtow

Publication Date: May 30th, 2025

Publisher: Diplodocus Press

Pages: 750

Genre: Historical Autobiographical Fiction / LGBTQ+ Fiction

Finally available in one volume! The decadence of Imperial Rome comes to life in S.P. Somtow's Literary Titan Award-winning novel about one of ancient history's wildest characters.

The historian Suetonius tells us that the Emperor Nero emasculated and married his slave Sporus, the spitting image of murdered Empress Poppaea. But history has more tidbits about Sporus, who went from "puer delicatus" to Empress to one Emperor and concubine to another, and ended up being sentenced to play the Earth-Goddess in the arena.

Excerpt

“You’d never lie to me,” he said.

“No,” I lied.

A lyre appeared in his hands.  He motioned for me to sit, and I did so on a stone bench in front of the herm.  And then he sang.

Not in the Greek of immortal poets, but in plain Latin, the language of the mob, the language you speak when you’re among close friends, the language you speak to slaves.

I strive with the winds

but soon I will go

where everyone else has gone

wisdom and beauty are never found together

but in you, youth, they are;

seek other shores; seek adventures;

but as for me, love pinches

like an old crab

There were no fanciful apostrophes to mythical beings.  No protests against the Fates.  No plaints to the Nine Muses.  And to go with the words, Nero had found a melody that was almost like a folksong.  Since moving to the palace I had walled off my heart and mind, but I felt my reserve crumbling.  Hadn’t I once fallen stupidly in love with him, when he was distant and impossible to get close to, when I was nobody?  Then again, how long had those feelings lasted?

Tears were welling up when it slowly dawned on me that Nero had stolen these words.  No wonder they sounded familiar.  They were lines lifted wholesale from Petronius’s Satyricon, scrambled and served up together like a dish of eggs and honey.

The Master of the World was a thief.  He stole words.  He stole Divinity itself.  He had stolen my dreams.  And, as he looked deeply into my eyes, I knew that he knew this.

Now I was really weeping.  I was mourning my patronus as I never had before.  I poured out all my pent-up sorrow.

Nero knew I did not weep for him.

He did know me, you see.

There was a boy named Lucius Domitius who had been banished from court together with his ambitious, stiflingly protective mother.  He had grown up among slaves.  He had spoken Latin all day long, like ordinary people.  He had loved Actë.  He had known, as humans understand the word, happiness.

One day, he had been summoned back to Rome, and Rome had devoured him and left him without a heart.

Lucius Domitius had become Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, Pater Patriae, Pontifex Maximus, the Living God.

Lucius Domitius was dead.

Yet, long after Nero had buried him, it was Lucius Domitius who truly saw me.

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Nero and Sporus

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S.P. Somtow

Once referred to by the International Herald Tribune as 'the most well-known expatriate Thai in the world,' Somtow Sucharitkul is no longer an expatriate, since he has returned to Thailand after five decades of wandering the world. He is best known as an award-winning novelist and a composer of operas.

Born in Bangkok, Somtow grew up in Europe and was educated at Eton and Cambridge. His first career was in music and in the 1970s, his first return to Asia, he acquired a reputation as a revolutionary composer, the first to combine Thai and Western instruments in radical new sonorities. Conditions in the arts in the region at the time proved so traumatic for the young composer that he suffered a major burnout, emigrated to the United States, and reinvented himself as a novelist.

His earliest novels were in the science fiction field and he soon won the John W. Campbell for Best New Writer as well as being nominated for and winning numerous other awards in the field. But science fiction was not able to contain him and he began to cross into other genres. In his 1984 novel Vampire Junction, he injected a new literary inventiveness into the horror genre, in the words of Robert Bloch, author of Psycho, 'skillfully combining the styles of Stephen King, William Burroughs, and the author of the Revelation to John.' Vampire Junction was voted one of the forty all-time greatest horror books by the Horror Writers' Association, joining established classics like Frankenstein and Dracula. He has also published children's books, a historical novel, and about a hundred works of short fiction.

In the 1990s Somtow became increasingly identified as a uniquely Asian writer with novels such as the semi-autobiographical Jasmine Nights and a series of stories noted for a peculiarly Asian brand of magic realism, such as Dragon's Fin Soup, which is currently being made into a film directed by Takashi Miike. He recently won the World Fantasy Award, the highest accolade given in the world of fantastic literature, for his novella The Bird Catcher. His seventy-plus books have sold about two million copies world-wide. He has been nominated for or won over forty awards in the fields of science fiction, fantasy, and horror.

After becoming a Buddhist monk for a period in 2001, Somtow decided to refocus his attention on the country of his birth, founding Bangkok's first international opera company and returning to music, where he again reinvented himself, this time as a neo-Asian neo-Romantic composer. The Norwegian government commissioned his song cycle Songs Before Dawn for the 100th Anniversary of the Nobel Peace Prize, and he composed at the request of the government of Thailand his Requiem: In Memoriam 9/11 which was dedicated to the victims of the 9/11 tragedy.

According to London's Opera magazine, 'in just five years, Somtow has made Bangkok into the operatic hub of Southeast Asia.' His operas on Thai themes, Madana and Mae Naak, have been well received by international critics.

Somtow has recently been awarded the 2017 Europa Cultural Achievement Award for his work in bridging eastern and western cultures. In 2020 he returned to science fiction after a twenty-year absence with "Homeworld of the Heart", a fifth novel in the Inquestor series.

Currently he has just finished Nero and Sporus, a massive historical novel set in Imperial Rome.

To support S.P. Somtow's work, visit his patreon account at patreon.com/spsomtow. 

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