Jennifer Margrave runs her own business as a solicitor practising in the unusual and relatively new field of 'advising the elderly'; in 2003 she won a prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award given by the Law Society's Gazette, as part of their centenary celebrations, for her work in this field. It is good to get an award that virtually nobody else living will get - as it is awarded only every 100 years! She writes legal articles for journals and gives lectures and workshops not only to other lawyers but also to groups such as Womens' Institutes. Jennifer has been writing fiction since she could hold a pencil and has at least 100 short stories, many poems, and several modern novels hidden away in her bottom drawer, waiting for marriage with a publisher.

She has been short listed at Winchester Writing Conference several times and won short story competitions over the years.

In the last ten years her interest in historical and artistic matters have led to the writing of several historical novels and so far she has completed three: all with a mysterious character called Priedeux as the thread in them. (See links for plots and a read).

The Gawain Quest based on the idea that the Medieval poet (anonymous) who wrote Gawain and the Green Knight at about the same time that Chaucer was writing, wrote it as a seditious tract, to raise the people against Richard ll. Our hero, Priedeux, who is a spy and carries out assassinations under the orders of John of Gaunt, is sent by Gaunt and his colleague Chaucer to discover the writer and murder him. They want to protect Richard II from insurrection.

Using the descriptions in the poem, Priedeux travels to Cheshire and indeed discovers who wrote Gawain and the Green Knight but also finds true love, which changes him from a ruthless, amoral murderer, to a true knight. Just like the character in the poem itself.

Even if the reader has never read Gawain and the Green Knight, The Gawain Quest is still a rip roaring read with sex, intrigue and threats on Priedeux's life. See link for Chapter One.

Luther's Ambassadors is the second novel, and Priedeux reappears in a new guise; he is a strange orphan brought up by Anne Boleyn's childhood nurse. He is devoted to Anne and becomes her sidekick, her confidante but also her conscience when she becomes arrogant. Anne is determined to be an influence in the reform of the Catholic church - the only way she can do it is to become the wife of an influential man. This is her passion, and, helped by Priedeux and two of her childhood friends, Dinteville and De Selve, she at last succeeds. Dinteville and De Selve are the two men painted by Holbein in his painting 'The ambassadors'.

The nine lives of Kit tells how Kit Marlowe did not die at Deptford but, dressed as a woman, lived for some years, travelling on the continent, with his friend Priedeux. He and Priedeux have a love-hate relationship because Kit has mysterious goings on throughout their travels which Priedeux believes could reveal them for the fugitives they are, and put their lives in danger. Kit will not tell him the whole truth. Kit is, in fact, writing all the plays and sending them back to Shakespeare who is arranging for them to be produced under his own name. Kit and Priedeux have wonderful adventures including landing on a mysterious island where they meet three strange characters: a monster, a light and airy creature and a powerful magician who rules the island. The book ends with Kit finally returning and blackmailing Shakespeare.

A fourth novel is now being planned. It is well known that Jane Austen had a romance which was never consummated into marriage. The novel will reveal that Jane fell in love with a French naval officer, captured by her brother, Francis, who was in the English navy, at the beginning of the hostilities with France; before their romance is sealed by a wedding, the Napoleonic Wars break out again and Jane feels it is impossible, in her society, to marry a Frenchman. The Frenchman will be called, of course, Priedeux.

Other ideas in the offing

• Who was Mary Seacole really? A charlatan or the black Florence Nightingale who was actually at the front of the battle against disease and war wounds in the Crimean War, whilst Nightingale hid hundreds of miles away at Scutari?
• How many secret lovers did Dickens keep on the boil?

Contact her by email at margravejen@googlemail.com

Copyright © Jennifer Margrave