Why I'm writing Blood of the BEAR

I recently heard someone describe Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, as "just a schemer." Nothing else. Just a schemer.

He would turn in his grave if he still had one. Henry VIII destroyed that too.

Contemporary sources tell a different story. Jean de Wavrin, who actually lived in the same period, wrote of a man who was generous, who was loved by the common people, whose household hospitality was legendary. The chroniclers record that "the Earl of Warwick was very generous to all the commons of England." At the time of his first rebellion in 1469, his popularity exceeded that of the king.

Was he ambitious? Yes. Was he ruthless? When he needed to be. But he lived in the fifteenth century, not the twenty-first. It was kill or be killed. We cannot judge men of that age by the comfortable standards of ours.

The Woodvilles were not saints. Edward IV's secret marriage was a betrayal that humiliated Warwick before all of Europe. He did not start this war. He defended himself, his family, and what he believed was justice for his country.

So why am I giving him a mistress?

Because he was not a saint either. He was discreet, remarkably so for a man of his wealth and power. A long-term, secret relationship would explain why we have no trace of any affairs, apart from one possible liaison when he was younger. He married very young, a political match. I am sure there was fondness with Anne, but when I looked into Alice Neville, I noticed something strange.

She married at twenty-three. In an age when most noble women wed in their early teens, that is extraordinarily late. Her father went to Calais. She could easily have gone too. She married John Conyers, son of the steward of Middleham, both men fiercely loyal to Warwick until the very end.

I find that very convenient.

So I filled in the gaps I could not find in any document. Perhaps, somewhere, I discovered some truth. And if I am right, if she loved him as I believe she did, then that poor woman must have been terribly lonely after September 1471 when she lost her brother so after soon after she lost Richard.

She waited nine years before joining him on the other side.

This series is my attempt to restore the reputation of a man history has reduced to a single word. He was more than a schemer. He was a warrior, a diplomat, a father, a lover, a man of extraordinary complexity who shaped the destiny of England.

He deserves better than he has been given.

And so does she.

The Kingmaker's Spy, Book 1 of the Blood of the Bear series, is available for pre-order now. Out 14th April 2026, the 555th anniversary of the Battle of Barnet.

Pre order here