Sharon Kay Penman
Sunne in Splendor was the first Sharon Kay Penman novel I read, and I was instantly hooked. Any author that includes an extensive bibliography, an inordinate amount of footnotes, PLUS extensive family trees, is my kind of author! Especially when she writes about English history with such clarity and passion, AND when that novel deals with Richard III, which is another of my passions.
My college roommate was fortunate enough to carry on a correspondence with Sharon for several years. She's an exceptional individual as well as an outstanding author. I hope you enjoy learning more about her work.
More information about Sharon Kay Penman
- Sharon Key Penman's website
- Be sure to take a look at the "Research Recommendations" page, as well as her "Medieval Mishaps." She has also a page on recommended authors.
- Loaded Shelf Interview
- An interesting interview with SKP, from The Loaded Shelf. She recounts her love of Wales, the tragic loss of her first manuscript of Sunne in Splendor, and her abiding love of history.
- "On Reshaping History"
- SKP wrote this article for the 1997-1998 Winter issue of the Richardian Register (a publication of the Richard III Society). In it, she notes: "It is very important to me not to mislead my readers. I do my best to build a strong factual foundation for each of my novels, and rely upon my Author's Notes to keep my conscience clear. Because the Plantagenets led such wildly improbable lives, I often find myself reassuring my readers after one of my novels that Yes, this really did happen."
- 2002 SKP Interview
- Excellent 2002 Sharon Kay Penman interview on the Trivium Publishing website. She discusses Joanna and Llewelyn in some detail, as well as Henry and Eleanor.
- Time and Chance review
- Interesting review of Time and Chance from the Anglican Theological Review, Fall 2002.
Sunne in Splendor
Great reviews for SKP's first novel
"As a publisher I have been lucky to be able to visit bookstores all over the country, independent and chain alike. What interests me first about these stores is what titles are being displayed in the 'Staff Recommends' section of the store. It is here that you can find treasured, beloved books quite dear to someone who works in the stores, someone waiting quite eagerly for the chance to hand sell their recommended titles.
It is in these Staff Recommend sections that I kept on seeing our Penman's titles, HERE BE DRAGONS, FALLS THE SHADOW, THE RECKONING and also SUNNE IN SPLENDOUR and WHEN CHRIST AND HIS SAINTS SLEPT. It's funny, you can sell something for years before you notice that the author has been quietly making a powerful impact on people everywhere." Alice Kesterson, Ballantine Regional Sales Manger
Sunne in Splendour
In this stirring historical novel, Sharon Kay Penman redeems Richard III from his villainous role in history as the hulking, evil hunchback. This dazzling recreation of his life is filled with the sights and sounds of battle, and the passions of the highborn. Most of all, it brings to life a gifted man whose greatest sin was that he held principles too firmly for the times in which he lived, and loved too deeply to survive love's loss.
Amazon Price: (as of 10/10/2008)
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Chronological Order
- 1101-1154 -- When Christ And His Saints Slept (Vol 1 of Henry & Eleanor Trilogy)
- 1156-1171 -- Time And Space (Vol 2 of Henry & Eleanor Trilogy)
- 1171-1186 (est) - Devil's Brood (Vol 3 of Henry & Eleanor Trilogy)- not yet released
- 1192-1193 -- The Queen's Man (1st in the Justin de Quincy Medieval Mysteries Series)
- 1193 -- Cruel As The Grave (2nd in the Justin de Quincy Medieval Mysteries Series)
- 1193 -- Dragon's Lair (3rd in the Justin de Quincy Medieval Mysteries Series)
- 1193 -- Prince of Darkness (4th in the Justin de Quincy Medieval Mysteries Series)
- 1183-1232 -- Here Be Dragons (Vol 1 of Welsh Trilogy)
- 1231-1267 -- Falls The Shadow (Vol 2 of Welsh Trilogy)
- 1271-1283 -- The Reckoning (Vol 3 of Welsh Trilogy)
- 1459-1492 -- The Sunne In Splendour (Richard III)
The Henry & Eleanor Triology on Amazon
When Christ and His Saints Slept
When Christ and His Saints Slept is about the 12th-century struggle for the English throne between Henry I's daughter Maude and her cousin Stephen of Blois. The resultant 20-year war was so brutal and with such loss and pain that the period was characterized by a contemporary chronicle as a time of great wretchedness "when Christ and His Saints slept."
Amazon Price: $12.24 (as of 10/10/2008)
Time and Chance (Ballantine Reader's Circle)
Time and Chance is the second part of Penman's planned trilogy about Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine, beginning in the glory years of their reign, and ending after the death of Thomas Becket and Henry's affair with Rosamund Clifford, and the resulting chaos in his kingdom, and his marriage with Eleanor.
Amazon Price: $10.85 (as of 10/10/2008)
Plot Details on "Devil's Brood" - 3rd in the series
"I plan to begin The Devil's Brood with Henry's return from his self-imposed exile in Ireland, when he reluctantly agreed to do public penance for Becket's death, taking a solemn oath before the papal legates that "he neither ordered it, nor willed it, and that when he heard of it he was greatly grieved.
The final entry in my trilogy will deal with Henry's fraying bond with his wife and sons, surely one of history's most dysfunctional families. I expect to end the book with Eleanor's release from confinement upon Henry's death and Richard's accession to the throne."
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Justin de Quincy Medieval Mysteries Series
Penman's website has a brief excerpt from Prince of Darkness.
The Queen's Man: A Medieval Mystery (Medieval Mysteries)
It's 1193, and King Richard has disappeared on his way back to England after fighting in the Crusades. Justin de Quincy, the well-educated but illegitimate son of a bishop, is tapped to search for the missing ruler, and he turns out to be just the chap to blow away the cobwebs that often hang over historical mystery.
Amazon Price: $7.99 (as of 10/10/2008)
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Used Price: $2.97
Cruel As the Grave: A Medieval Mystery
Justin--the bastard son of a bishop--continues to help England's Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine find out if her son Richard Lionheart is still alive in a German prison while trying to keep another son, John, from usurping the throne.
Amazon Price: (as of 10/10/2008)
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Dragon's Lair (Ballantine Reader's Circle)
Justin de Quincy, tries to recover, quite literally, a king's ransom in coffers of precious metals and bales of wool, which are as valuable as gold, that have been stolen in northern Wales. It's 1193, and Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine fervently needs to ransom her eldest son, Richard Lionheart, from the Holy Roman Emperor before King Philippe of France can interfere and her younger son, John, can seize the crown. J
Amazon Price: $11.16 (as of 10/10/2008)
List Price: $13.95
Used Price: $2.34
Prince of Darkness (A Medieval Mystery)
In 1193, King Richard the Lion-Hearted is still imprisoned, while his devious and unscrupulous brother, Prince John, schemes to position himself to claim the English throne. When an obscure conspiracy seeks to implicate the prince in a plot to kill the king, John turns to young Justin de Quincy, Eleanor of Aquitaine's devoted aide, for help in clearing himself of the treason charge.
Amazon Price: $11.20 (as of 10/10/2008)
List Price: $14.00
Used Price: $2.78
Historical Figures from the Welsh Triology
- Llewelyn Biography
- The Wikipedia entry for Llewelyn The Great (Llewelyn ab Iorwerth) is very detailed, and well-done. " Llywelyn dominated Wales for over forty years, and was one of only two Welsh rulers to be called 'the Great', the other being his ancestor Rhodri the Great. The first person to give Llywelyn the title 'the Great' seems to have been his near-contemporary, the English chronicler Matthew Paris.[61]"
- King John
- "Meeting at Runnymede: The Story of King John and Magna Carta" from the Constitutional Rights Foundation. "King John surrendered significant power when he agreed to Magna Carta. It is doubtful that he really ever intended to live up to all his promises. While John did satisfy some of the barons' personal grievances, he secretly wrote the Pope asking him to cancel Magna Carta on the grounds that he signed it against his will. At the same time he continued to build up his mercenary army. Not trusting John's intentions, the rebel barons held on to London and maintained their own army."
- Smion de Montfort
- Excellent article on Simon de Montfort and the Baronial Crisis of 1258-65. "History has portrayed Simon in many different lights, some see him as a great visionary for the cause of democracy, "a martyr for the liberties of the realm,...as the embodiment of justice,"27 while others strive to be everything that Simon was not. During the time of Oliver Cromwell, Edward Chamberlayne denounced Simon and everything he stood for, saying "Simon posed as a liberator, but his real motive was 'to pull downe Monarchicall government, and set up a factious Oligarchy.'"28 Chamberlayne saw Simon as the epitome of a dangerous man, intent on establishing his own dictatorship."
- Edward I of England
- Edward I, popularly known as Longshanks, achieved fame as the monarch who conquered Wales and who tried to do the same to Scotland. He reigned from 1272 to 1307. He was voted the 94th greatest Briton in the 2002 poll of 100 Greatest Britons.
The Welsh Triology
Here Be Dragons
Thirteenth-century Wales is a divided country, ever at the mercy of England's ruthless, power-hungry King John. Then Llewelyn, Prince of North Wales, secures an uneasy truce with England by marrying the English king's beloved, illegitimate daughter, Joanna. Reluctant to wed her father's bitter enemy, Joanna slowly grows to love her charismatic and courageous husband who dreams of uniting Wales. But as John's attentions turn again and again to subduing Wales-and Llewelyn-Joanna must decide to which of these powerful men she owes her loyalty and love.
Amazon Price: (as of 10/10/2008)
Falls the Shadow
This is Simon de Montfort's story-and the story of King Henry III, as weak and changeable as Montfort was brash and unbending. It is a saga of two opposing wills that would later clash in a storm of violence and betrayal, a story straight from the pages of history that brings the world of the thirteenth century comletely, provocatively, and magnificently alive. Above all, this is a story of conflict and treachery, of human frailty and broken legends, a tale of pageantry and grandeur that is as unforgettable as it is real....
Amazon Price: (as of 10/10/2008)
The Reckoning
With The Reckoning acclaimed novelist Sharon Kay Penman brings her epic trilogy of 13th-century England and Wales--begun in Here Be Dragons and Falls the Shadow--to a magnificent conclusion. As part of a monumental saga, or standing on its own, the dramatic story of England's warrior king, Edward I, and his determination to control Wales is serious English historical fiction at its best.
Amazon Price: $10.85 (as of 10/10/2008)
What are your favorite Sharon Key Penman novels?
Find Sharon Kay Penman novels on eBay
eBay can be a good place to find Sharon Kay Penman novels, and every once and a while, you'll find some good first editions or signed books.
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Reader Feedback
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StevenTill
I love historical fiction, especially historical fiction related to the medieval period, but I haven't read Sharon Kay Penman's novels yet. She is definitely on my list to read. A lot of people I've asked say The Welsh Trilogy (Here be Dragons) is her best series. Would you agree with that? What's your favorite novel by her? Posted September 26, 2008 |
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Stazjia
Sharon Penman is one of my favourite authors. The only thing I don't like is that I've read all her books and she doesn't write quickly enough for me! Posted August 16, 2008 |
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tandemonimom
What an informative lens! I have read (and loved) Here Be Dragons, but didn't realize it was part of a trilogy. Thanks for the info! 5 stars. Posted July 17, 2008 |
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themagickbox
i first learned about Sharon Kay Penman from my uncle who taught at Oxford for a year. I've been hooked on her ever since and I'm eagerly waiting her next book. :) Posted May 04, 2008 |
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xrayspecs
Great lens - I'm a lover of historical fiction and will definitely be keeping my eye out for Sharon's books. Posted April 29, 2008 |
