I’m deep into writing Book 2 in the Trobairitz Sleuth series of medieval murder mysteries. I’ve been researching medieval poisonings in the British Library and medieval magic via Medievalists.net. My recent post on the poisons research is on Substack: https://traceywarr.substack.com/p/the-poison-tree You can read about Book 1 in the Trobairitz Sleuth series on Tony Riches’ Blog:…
Tag: Medieval Women
Female Lords: Adelaide-Blanche of Anjou
I’ve started posting a new series on medieval Occitan female lords on France’s Splendid Centuries. Here’s my first one on Adelaide-Blanche of Anjou. She wasn’t originally Occitan, coming from Anjou in the north, but she married with a series of Occitan lords and was regent for a couple of sons in the south. She was…
New Book Review – Women in History
A new review of Love’s Knife just published on Amazon emphasises the focus on women in history in my novel: ‘Warr skillfully immerses readers in the vibrant yet unforgiving world of a female troubadour, shedding light on a chapter of history where women’s stories are often overlooked. Through rich detail and keen historical awareness, she…
Celebrating medieval women
It’s Women’s History Month. My novels celebrate real medieval women who receive slight (and misogynistic) mentions in medieval chronicles. I have tried to imagine my way into their lives and experiences from a few sentences in the historical record. The Viking Hostage is based on the true story of a French noblewoman kidnapped by Vikings…
Helen of Wales
Shortly after Christmas, 1106,* the Norman steward of Pembroke Castle in Wales, Gerald FitzWalter, and his wife, the Welsh noblewoman Nest ferch Rhys, were invited to feast with Gerald’s bitter enemies King Cadwagn and his son Prince Owain. Cadwagn gave lip service to the Norman king but Owain was one of the lead rebels harrassing…
Talking on Nest ferch Rhys at Carew Castle this weekend
I am talking about the turbulent life of the Welsh noblewoman, Nest ferch Rhys at Carew Castle, Pembrokeshire, Wales, including a tour of the castle, on Sunday 18 September 2022 at 11am and again at 2pm. Nest is the heroine of my Conquest trilogy and Carew was one of her castle homes. It may have…
Voicing the Voiceless – medieval female protagonists
Almodis de La Marche, countess of Toulouse and Barcelona, was, according to the monk chronicler William of Malmesbury, ‘afflicted with a godless female itch’. Ah ha, I thought, she sounds like she should be the heroine of my first novel. After that first novel on Almodis, I wrote four more novels set in early medieval…
Rambling vine
I am a guest on Alison Morton’s writing blog today, talking about how living in France inspires and affects my writing. ‘I fell in love with the pace of village life, which gives me focus to write.’ ‘My writing is inspired by material culture—objects in museums, archaeology, illustrated manuscripts—and by sensory experiences of places.’ ‘I…
The salt sea flood
My new novel, The Anarchy, is published next week by Impress Books. It is the final book in the Conquest trilogy, focused on the life of Nest ferch Rhys and the 12th century struggle between the Welsh and the Normans. In the novel I (anachronistically) use a poem by the Welsh bard Dafydd ap Gwilym: Yr wylan deg ar lanw,…
The Gerona Beatus
I was recently in Girona carrying out research on a biography I am working on about the lives of three sisters who lived in the 11th century: Almodis de La Marche, Raingarde de La Marche and Lucia de La Marche. More on the sisters and the biography in a later post. In this post, I…
Tracey Warr Writing 