Michael Tudor Barnes

Bailiff Simon Puttoc’s servant, Hugh, has been granted leave to look after his wife, Constance, and her son. But their happy time is to be short-lived, for a gang of men break into their home and attack Hugh’s family. When Simon and Sir Baldwin...

London, 1944. An atmosphere of unease pervades the city as the invasion of Europe looms. Meanwhile, John Fairfax, an American paratrooper, and Robbie Cochran, a New Zealand pilot in the RAF, are swept along by the urgency of the times as they meet and...

Apothecary John Rawlings is intrigued when a letter arrives asking him to investigate an impostor claiming to be the long-lost step-son of a wealthy Bristol merchant in possession of his dead wife's diamond inheritance. John Rawlings' father, Sir...

1325: England is a hotbed of paranoia under the reign of the increasingly unpredictable Edward II and his lover, Sir Hugh le Despenser. When the Queen’s lady-in-waiting is slaughtered and a man’s body, hideously mutilated, is discovered behind the...

1794. Free from jail, John Pearce is not free from the smugglers whose boat he stole. While lying low, Pearce soon has other pressing concerns on his mind. Granted a commission by William Pitt, John Pearce evades his pursuers by undertaking a...

When King Edward II is informed that his wife, Queen Isabella, has defied him and remained in France with their son, he flies into a rage. It is Sir Baldwin de Furnshill and his friend Bailiff Simon Puttock, who have broken the news to him and are now...

1326: Queen Isabella refuses to leave France and humiliates her husband King Edward II by flaunting her adulterous relationship with the arch-traitor Sir Roger Mortimer. The King is furious when he hears she has also betrothed their son to the...

Exeter, 1323. A strange man is entering people’s houses at night, causing panic amongst householders. Although many had thought him harmless, now he seems to have committed murder. A man lies dead in his own home, slaughtered merely for trying to...

Forty years ago, Exeter's Cathedral Close was the scene of a vicious ambush. Afterwards, the bodies left lying in their blood bore witness to the conflicts tearing at the heart of the Cathedral itself. Today, in 1323, murder is again polluting the...

1324: a disastrous autumn looms large. As the leaves begin to fall there are those who wish to bring the Kingdom down as well. In Dartmouth, a man is found lying dead in the road. Dismissing his death as a drunken accident, the locals turn their...

1325: Sir Baldwin de Furnshill and his friend Simon Puttock are sent to France to guard the King’s son. The King’s son must pay homage to the French King if he is to enable the English to keep hold of vital territory, but they are unaware that King...

Roger Mortimer was once the King’s most able commander, but now he is his most hated enemy. Escaping from the Tower, Mortimer made his way to France and has hired an assassin to murder the King – but others have the same idea. As the body of a local...

1325: King Edward II’s reign seems cursed. Although he has rejected his wife, Queen Isabella, he still relies on her. Even now, she is in France to negotiate peace with her brother, King Charles IV of France – but he fears for the outcome. Meanwhile,...

1325: In the gilded cage that is the Palace of Westminster, Isabella, Queen of England, is troubled by court intrigue. Her jealous husband, Edward II, has removed all her privileges, her regal status and even her children. When Isabella is dispatched...

On capture, British officers and men were routinely told by the Germans, “For you the war is over”. Nothing could be further from the truth. In the camps the war was eternal. There was the war against the German military, fought with everything from...