Rogue Malory

London, 1469. Rogue Malory sets out to show how, ‘comfortably imprisoned’ in Newgate Jail, Sir Thomas Malory works on his magnum opus, Le Morte D’Arthur, with the help of his scribe, Montmorency Pickle, his servant, John Appleby, and his stationer, Jack Worms. The story is an imagined account of the preparation of the famous manuscript, the true revelations of Sir Tom’s disreputable past and the factual events covering the final two years of the ongoing tussle for the crown between the Earl of Warwick and King Edward IV. A combination of real and imaginary events brings to life this arresting period of history.

Reluctantly, Monty and Jack become embroiled in Malory’s political machinations whilst also contending with his dissolute yet magnetic character. Whores, pimps, spies and officials pass in and out of Sir Tom’s cell, where he sits at its centre like a hilarious old spider weaving mischief.

Helen began writing novels after retirement from teaching. She has just had published her first novel in a trilogy set in Victorian England, but her focus has always been the fifteenth century. She combined this with a love of Shakespeare and achieved a PhD from The Shakespeare Institute, Birmingham University, in 2009. Research for her thesis was on Warwick the Kingmaker in the three parts of Henry VI. Later, she wrote a quartet of novels on Warwick’s life – Lodestar. During research for them, she came across Thomas Malory.