If you’re fascinated by the dramatic rise and fall of the Tudors, don’t miss this exclusive interview featuring Tony Riches on Tudor and Elizabethan history. Bestselling historical fiction author Tony Riches brings the past vividly to life through his renowned Tudor Trilogy, the Brandon series, and his captivating Elizabethan Series.
Let’s explore how he crafts compelling narratives around real historical figures—from Owen Tudor and Charles Brandon to Penelope Rich and Frances Walsingham—offering listeners fresh insights into the personalities, politics, and passions that shaped 15th- and 16th-century England. Whether you’re a history buff or a lover of great storytelling, this deep dive into Tony’s research, writing process, and character choices will leave you inspired to learn more.
Transcript of Exploring Tudor and Elizabethan History with Tony Riches: Behind the Books and the Characters
Heather: This is an interview with the most fabulous Tony Riches. Tony has been on my show lots of times. He is an amazing author, and I always enjoy sitting down and talking about random Tudor history with him.
His Tudor Trilogy, which starts with Owen Tudor and goes up through Jasper and then Henry, is amazing. It really paints a portrait of the Wars of the Roses and how Henry VII came to the throne. He also has the Brandon series about Charles Brandon, Mary (the sister of Henry VIII), and Catherine Willoughby. Also, there’s the Elizabethan Series, which is actually six books—three men and three women—so we talk about some of his more recent books too.
If you’re new to Tony, he was born in Pembrokeshire in West Wales and spent part of his childhood in Kenya. He has a BA in Psychology and an MBA from Cardiff University. After careers in the Royal Air Force, the NHS, and local government, he is now a full-time author of historical fiction.
His Tudor Trilogy has become an international bestseller, and he is in regular demand as a guest speaker about the lives of the early Tudors. He has returned to Pembrokeshire, an area full of inspiration for his writing. In his spare time, he enjoys sailing and sea kayaking.
So, let’s get right into it with our interview, where we talk about how Tony chooses the protagonists he tells his stories through—particularly his more recent books on Penelope Rich and Frances Walsingham, the daughter of Francis Walsingham, the spymaster. (Fun fact: the spymaster spells his name with an “i”—Francis—and his daughter spells hers with an “e”—Frances.) Anyway, here is Tony! I’ll turn it right over to him.
Okay, so Tony, I was looking back through our last conversation, and it seems we haven’t talked much during your Elizabethan Series. You started with the Tudors—with Owen—and then moved on to Brandon, Charles Brandon, and Henry’s sister, and that whole story. And now you’re onto the Elizabethan Series, and I don’t think we’ve talked very much at all during this time.
So, tell me about the Elizabethan Series to start with, and then I want to ask you specifically about Penelope Rich and Frances Walsingham, because those are the two latest ones.
Tony: So, it’s worked out quite well because I started off telling the story of the Tudors, and I wanted to continue it through to the end of Elizabeth I. That was the plan. I decided to tell the story of Elizabeth through three of her favorite men and three of her ladies—all of whom saw very different sides of her. She was such a complex woman anyway. That way you get a multi-dimensional view.
So, the three men—just to recap—were Francis Drake, who hero-worshipped her. He had a dreadful chip on his shoulder because he was not a noble. And then Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex who was the son she never had. You might have read that he was her secret lover, but that’s nonsense. She was, essentially, a mother to him. That’s really what the relationship between them was like: an annoying son and an overbearing mother.
The third one was someone quite different again—the captain of her guard, a chap called Walter Raleigh. He wasn’t a noble either; he was a commoner. So, we get to see both sides, really. But he worked for her. You could say he was a servant in a way, because as captain of her guard, he had privileged access—but only under certain conditions.
Then the three ladies sort of emerged from it all as I was writing the three men. The first one I did was Penelope, who I knew nothing about, by the way. I discovered her story when I was writing about her brother, Robert Devereux.
She was his elder sister, and their mother was the mother from hell—Lettice Knollys—who had very little to do with her children at all. So Penelope had to really be the mother hen and look after them, and make sure they didn’t get into trouble—which she failed at spectacularly.
But I got to see that there was this amazing woman I knew nothing about, who completely ignored the conventions of the time and lived life on her own terms. That was quite new to me—that you could get away with that.
So, without any spoilers, she was forced into an arranged marriage with a Puritan. She loved dancing and singing and all that, and Puritans wouldn’t have any of it. So, she took herself a lover—a chap called Charles Blount, who you might have heard of. He was a heroic figure and something of a poet—the complete opposite. And they lived quite openly together and had several children. So that’s quite an interesting story to tell. Then I moved on from there.
Oh, by the way, Penelope got banished from court, through no real fault of her own. It was through association with her brother. The interesting thing is, she probably would’ve been banished from court eventually anyway. I think it was kind of inevitable.
Then I picked up on Frances, who just fascinated me. Now, you will have heard of the Queen’s spymaster, Sir Francis Walsingham. Frances is his only surviving child. I came up with this idea that she nursed him through very poor health toward the end of his life, and she would’ve been the only person he could completely trust with state secrets—secret codes and things like that.
So, that’s what happened. He was unable to decipher coded letters from France and Spain, but she was better educated than most men. And as a kind of reward, she married—after Sir Philip Sidney, the warrior poet. The fact that she hardly knew him didn’t seem to matter at all.
Then I explore how that worked out. I’ll risk giving away one spoiler: on his deathbed, I think Philip Sidney extracted a promise from the rascally Earl of Essex, Robert Devereux—his best friend—to look after his wife and daughter.
Essex interpreted that to mean he should marry her. That didn’t work out well, because he married her for all the wrong reasons, really. And everybody was amazed that she went along with it.
Then the third book—the last book in the whole of the Tudor series. This is quite a challenge for me because not only is it the end of the series, but it’s the end of the whole Tudors arc and leads into my next series, which is about the Stuarts—who I knew almost nothing about. That one is, I think, about 80-something percent done. The target is to have it with my editor by February, and then it’ll be published in the spring.
So then I will have—three, six, nine, twelve—twelve books which cover the entire Tudor story, from Owen Tudor’s first meeting with Queen Catherine of Valois right through to the death of Elizabeth, and the aftermath of that as well, which is quite interesting to explore.
Heather: And who is that woman going to be—or can you say?
Tony: I can say now that, when I was writing about Walter Raleigh, I started getting really intrigued by his wife, Bess. Because unlike the others, she wasn’t educated—other than just enough to run a household. Basically, she was shown how to boss servants around and how to organize a banquet. She wasn’t really taught to read and write, and that comes across in the few surviving letters, which are spelled phonetically.
But what impressed me was that it didn’t stop her at all. She taught herself to read and write, which is quite an achievement, really. And she used to write to people like Robert Cecil, demanding this, that, and the other—phonetically. They just had to go along with it because they didn’t know how to cope with this “speak.”
You know, probably most of what people think they know about Walter Raleigh—and the others—is wrong, actually. But she was very faithful and loyal to him and is to be admired for that. She was the Queen’s gentlewoman, so she had privileged access to Queen Elizabeth, and they became quite close, actually. So that was interesting for me to play with.
Heather: How do you pick these people? Like, you want to tell this narrative story from Owen all the way up to Elizabeth—how do you decide on the people you’re going to profile and pick?
Tony: I don’t do it in advance, particularly. Obviously, I chose Owen because he was the start of the whole thing. But as I was writing Owen, I then realized just how significant Jasper Tudor was in his rise and his life. And so the research took me to Brittany, to follow in the footsteps of Jasper and Henry Tudor. Jasper takes us up to the Battle of Bosworth. And then, of course, that allows me to have Henry Tudor be born in the first book of the trilogy, come of age in the second book, and become king in the third.
So the book Henry, which is the third book in the Tudor Trilogy, explores what it must have been like for Henry to suddenly be thrust onto the stage—not a job he particularly wanted, quite honestly, but his mother did. Margaret Beaufort really wanted him to be king.
Then he was nursed in his last days by his daughter, Mary, who is Henry VIII’s younger sister. And when he dies, Henry VIII promptly marries Mary after the really quite old King of France. I was intrigued by how all that worked.
And of course, I was aware of this character, Charles Brandon, through The Tudors—the series—and Henry V and things like that. But it was really interesting to dig deeper. We actually went to St. George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle and visited and paid our respects where his tomb was, and saw his Garter stall in the chapel and things like that.
But most interesting was when we went to his house at Westhorpe in Suffolk, and there’s quite a lot to see there. So I felt a real connection to him then. And he was loyal to Henry VIII to the end. So I was able to explore the character of Henry through that.
And of course, after Mary died, he then married Katherine Willoughby, who—interestingly—her mother, Maria de Salinas, was the best friend, really, not so much the servant, of Katherine of Aragon. So there’s a kind of nice completion of a circle there, isn’t there?
Katherine Willoughby was fascinating to write about because she had to escape the country when Mary took the throne. But she knew every one of Henry VIII’s wives, and his children, because her children were educated with his children. So there are all these little connections that were fascinating to explore.
Heather: And then she married for love—similarly to Katherine of Valois. That also pulls it together.
Tony: Yes, another one. And Frances ends up marrying for love as well. I shouldn’t say to whom—I’ll leave something for the reader! But I must admit, I really enjoyed writing Frances.
It was something quite different because I didn’t know anything about her, quite honestly, when I started. I couldn’t even have told you that Sir Francis Walsingham had a daughter who might have been quite so important on the world stage. Because when you think of all the big events—like the Spanish Armada—he was right there in the middle of it.
And Mary, Queen of Scots, of course—things like that. And then, it was quite fun to move on from there because I introduced Elizabeth coming to the throne at the end of Catherine. So there’s a kind of nice bridge between the last book of the Brandon series—as I called it, the three books—and then onto the Elizabethan series.
And this chap, Francis Drake— all I really knew about him was that he played balls when the Armada was sighted, and I think all of that was nonsense, of course. I never realized that he had quite such a chip on his shoulder or that his father was a preacher. So he had this kind of tension—he would gather the men on board his ship and read them the prayer of the day and things like that. I put all that in the book. He was quite devout.
But his poor wife had quite a hard time because he was always away at sea. And then, when she died, he married the daughter of a noble who was much younger than him. So there’s a whole intriguing side to his character that comes out through that.
And then Robert Devereux—I’ve always thought he was lacking in what they call emotional intelligence. He couldn’t read people, couldn’t judge character. So he chose his friends rashly, quite honestly. And he got it all horribly wrong with the Queen. He didn’t know how to play the Queen at all—other than at cards. And he wouldn’t let her win, whereas everybody else let her win. You know, he would try to beat her all the time. So you can imagine—there were some good arguments around that.
And of course, it all ends in tears. We went to the Tower of London and visited the Devereux Tower, and that’s when I started—we went inside Walter Raleigh’s tower, which is now called the Bloody Tower, but was called the Garden Tower when he was there.
He had a garden—a herb garden—and he used to make herbal potions. It was more than a hobby. He experimented like a scientist, trying different combinations. He even grew his own tobacco plants in the Tower of London and cured them in front of a fire.
There were all sorts of little things like that I started discovering. It was fun to write his story, but even more fun to write it from his wife’s point of view. What did she think when he was puffing away at his pipe, filling the room with smoke, oblivious to the fact that she wasn’t enjoying it?
It’s been interesting to explore how they raised their children under such challenging circumstances. The fascinating part is that Sherborne Castle is still open to the public. Maria Digby gave us a personal guided tour, and we were allowed into Walter Raleigh’s study, which the public usually isn’t permitted to visit.
While we were in there, she explained the reason it’s closed to the public is because the stairs are a bit creaky. But I was able to stand at the window, look out over the deer park, and place my arm where Walter Raleigh would have stood. I saw the view he would have seen, and you get a real connection then. When you write about it, it brings a special kind of authenticity because you’re drawing from personal experience. When you think that some of these events happened four or five hundred years ago, being able to make that connection is quite special.
Heather: Yeah, that’s quite magical. And if you want to get really deep about it, the only thing separating you is time. You’re in the same place.
Tony: Absolutely.
Heather: And we all know time is elastic anyway—so maybe you were right there with him. Maybe you were communing with him. Who knows?
Tony: It’s just like time travel. I actually saw one of Walter’s pipes on display. You’re not allowed to touch it or anything—it’s behind glass—but you do get a sense of connection to the person. Most authors never have that opportunity. That’s one of the nice things about living where I do—it’s not too hard to explore these places.
Heather: Right. Tell me a little about your research for some of these. I’m thinking, like with Penelope, there’s not a whole lot—the primary sources on her are kind of sparse. How does that come together?
Tony: I love primary sources. I was so lucky that when I was researching her brother, I managed to find a two-volume set of all his letters and papers. Even when he was writing in French or Latin, everything had been translated and annotated—things like, “I think he meant this,” or, “He was probably referring to that.” You get a sense of his voice. There are also letters to Penelope, so you can see how he talked to his sister, what he asked of her.
As for Penelope herself—when I started off with Owen, there was almost nothing to go on. We went to Windsor Castle and explored where he would’ve been to get a sense of geography, but there were certainly no surviving letters. So to have two volumes of letters for Robert Devereux is amazing. And there are letters that Penelope wrote herself, which I’ve incorporated into the book.
What I like to do is include little excerpts in italics. That helps validate what I’ve been saying about someone—these are their actual words. You can see that an event I’ve been describing really happened. This is what she said, to whom, and how she said it. That’s quite powerful.
The other important aspect is visiting the actual locations. I mentioned Westhorpe. I also went to Grimsthorpe Castle, which was Katherine Willoughby’s home. That was just fascinating—you can sense her presence there. I stood in the room where she died, and the guide told me that another lady of the house had died in the same room generations later, which I found really interesting.
Then we arranged with the local vicar to visit her tomb in the church just a couple of miles away. I don’t know if it was a misunderstanding or what, but we ended up with the whole church to ourselves—just my wife and me. So we were literally alone with Catherine Willoughby for as long as we wanted.
I was able to lay my hand on an effigy of her in her later days, with Richard Bertie as well. I just felt a real connection to her then, which I was able to weave into the book. That’s the sort of research I love to do. And if I can find something that’s not generally known—like, for instance, Katherine Parr in Lamentation of a Sinner dedicated it to William Cecil and Katherine Willoughby—it’s right there on the dedication page if you take the time to look. That hints at a particular kind of relationship, doesn’t it?
It makes you think. My wife is always the first one to read anything I write, and I wondered whether Katherine Willoughby might’ve been the first to read anything Katherine Parr wrote. They were very close friends. I don’t think she would’ve passed it to her husband to read in a hurry, do you?
Heather: I heard there was a book, maybe ten years ago, that suggested Henry might have been plotting to leave Katherine Parr for Katherine Willoughby. Do you think there could be any truth to that?
Tony: She was on the brink of marrying Richard Bertie at the time and had already seen what had happened previously.
Heather: I can’t imagine her being interested in that marriage.
Tony: Exactly. Katherine Parr was her best friend, and she was very devout and very loyal to Richard Bertie. So put all that together, and then add into the mix a decrepit old Henry, with his ulcerated leg raised on a stool, trying to chat her up… That scene is actually in the book. I did enjoy writing that one.
She has to walk a fine line—not upsetting him, but not encouraging him either. That could backfire terribly. I really enjoy those kinds of scenes. I call them scenes. I like those sorts of things because you can really place yourself in the room, like a fly on the wall, and imagine—well, how would she have prepared for it, you know?
And of course, it’s easy enough to think how she would’ve prepared, because she’d known Elizabeth, she’d known Mary, she’d known all of the wives at different times. She thought of Katherine of Aragon like an auntie. And what she thought of Anne Boleyn—that can be debated. But she obviously had a bit of resentment, which her mother would’ve passed on. Her mother would’ve told her all the stories about Anne Boleyn, wouldn’t she?
Then we go through each of the wives and each of the children, looking at them from Katherine Willoughby’s point of view. So however wonderful Anne Boleyn was, she would always have been the woman who left Katherine of Aragon alone, if you see what I mean.
It was a deliberate choice not to write a book from Henry VIII’s point of view—it was much more fun to write it from Charles Brandon’s perspective. Charles Brandon once accidentally rammed the tip of his wooden lance under Henry’s visor during a joust and thought he’d killed him. I don’t think Henry was ever quite the same after that accident. If you look at the records, it seems that was a turning point.
Heather: That’s not the 1536 accident, right? That was an earlier one? When was that—1517 or something?
Tony: Yes, I forget the exact date, but it was a jousting accident that stunned him. He nearly lost an eye to a splinter of wood. But he didn’t blame Charles Brandon at all, because that was all part of the game with jousting. If you lost a finger or something, it was just the luck of the draw, really. But it was interesting to explore, and it’s quite well documented.
Heather: Yeah, I was going to ask—you have Henry VII writing a book, but you don’t have any of the other monarchs doing that.
Tony: There was a reason for that—because I was born in Pembroke, which is where Henry VII was born. So that’s how the whole thing started. There was a lot of confusion about Henry VII’s connection with Pembroke Castle, and my wife and I were part of a community group that got the statue erected in front of the castle.
That means anyone going to Pembroke now cannot fail to notice that it’s the birthplace of Henry VII. I gathered together the material for a book on Henry VII, and I had so much material that I realized I should write a trilogy—because you can’t adequately explain his life without talking about Jasper Tudor in some depth. And you can’t talk about Jasper without talking about his father, and Edmund Tudor, of course, who’s a neighbor of mine—he’s buried in St. David’s Cathedral, which is about a half-hour drive from my house.
Heather: Since we’re on him, I have a question for you that sometimes sparks debate. You mentioned earlier how Margaret Beaufort wanted her son to be king. I know some historians say she didn’t necessarily want him to be king until the very end—when it became clear that Richard had taken over and there was no other option. So, when do you think it flipped for Margaret Beaufort—when she truly wanted her son Henry to be Henry VII?
Tony: I think it was later in her life—when she realized it was possible. Until it was possible, nobody really seems to have discussed it or talked about it. But when it did become possible, well… it’s like if you had a son, and your son could possibly become king—then you’d start thinking about it. You’d have to, wouldn’t you? And you’d start considering the ramifications of that.
People were generally ready for a change, I believe. You have to be careful when talking around Richard III supporters—but basically, people were ready. Particularly in Wales, of course, where the idea of the “Son of Prophecy” had always been present—that someone would come forward from Wales and represent the Welsh.
So, when somebody does emerge, that’s quite exciting. People rally to his flag, and figures like the Welsh warlords hardly hesitate to back him—even if it means they might be annihilated. It’s their one chance. They’ve been waiting their whole lives for it, you know.
Heather: Yeah. Okay, I want to be respectful of your time here. I said we’d do half an hour, so I just want to ask you one more question.
When we spoke one of the first times, years and years ago, you said something lovely about how you find historical fiction fills in the pieces where the sources leave off. It was something like that—it was so poetic, so beautiful. I’ve remembered it.
And I just wonder—if we can revisit it for a second—for people who might say, “Oh, I don’t know about reading historical fiction because it’s not true,” or “It’s all made up,” tell me: what’s your case for historical fiction in general, and your books specifically?
Tony: Well, I can pick any of them, but I’ll use Frances, since I’ve got Frances here. I didn’t know anything about Francis. I certainly wasn’t taught anything about her at school. I do remember being taught about the Queen’s spymaster, but he was a two-dimensional, cardboard-cutout figure. There was never any mention of him having a wife and a daughter and a dog—all the normal things you might expect.
And of course, they did. They had real lives. They lived through things like various waves of the bubonic plague, which wiped out half the population. They believed the Spanish Armada might be a catastrophe for England—that the Spanish would take over and we’d all be speaking Spanish. Wouldn’t that be dreadful? Don’t you speak Spanish?
Heather: Yeah, but since I’ve moved back, I’ve lost a lot of it.
Tony: Oh, there we are. Now, where historical fiction comes in is to begin to put some flesh on the bones of these people and to explore not just them in the context of a massive event—like the Spanish Armada, for example—but the rest of their lives.
What did they eat? How did they think? What mattered to them? What did they worry about? How did they get their money? How did they lose it? I find all of that fascinating. And as I’ve progressed through the story of the Tudors, there’s been more and more information.
With the Elizabethans, for example—if you Google “Elizabethan Court Day by Day”—you’ll get a Wikipedia entry. And you can literally look up today’s date and see: where was Elizabeth on this day in a particular year? What was she doing? Who was she talking to? Was she looking forward to Christmas? What presents did she get for Christmas and New Year’s? Who gave them to her?
Why did Robert Devereux, for example, give her a gold flower with a naked man inside it for Christmas? And you think—hang on a minute—what was he trying to say with that? But that’s documented. All of those tiny details are documented.
So, that’s where historical fiction makes all the difference—because it makes these people memorable. And so many people have said to me, “I’d never heard of Penelope Rich, but now I feel like I know her.”
Heather: Yeah.
Tony: And that’s quite something, isn’t it?
Heather: Yeah, it’s really magical. I love the way you speak about your connection with them, too. Robin, if you have any questions, just type them in the chat if you want to ask Tony anything.
Yeah, and I love the way you speak about your connection, because I kind of read some of that “woo woo” stuff—and I just saw Microsoft said they have a computer that they think proves there’s a multiverse now, all of a sudden. Like—it was just in the news three days ago—and I’m just kind of like… yeah, maybe we are all together in the same room.
And maybe it’s like—time is just all hap—what did Einstein have? A theory that it was all happening at the same time and stuff? So maybe we are in the room with her, and maybe you were there with, uh, with Walter Raleigh and actually bonded with him. Who knows, right?
Tony: I’ll tell you—one of the things that really intrigues me, which I can’t explain, is that many times I’ve gone to sleep and woken up with whole passages of dialogue in my head between two characters that I’m writing about.
So it might be, I dunno, Charles Brandon, and it’s all there in my head. I have to have a laptop in bed and quickly write it all down—and it survives everything. My wife reads it, then my editor goes through it with a tooth comb, and it survives. It’s like a stream of consciousness, you know?
And that’s how you get the more believable dialogue. A long time ago, I decided I couldn’t have all the “he said, she said” with adverbs on the end of every sentence—which is perfectly valid, and a lot of readers don’t even notice it, of course.
The other thing I did—I’m a great fan of Hilary Mantel and greatly mourn her passing—but I’d written about three chapters of Owen, and I was reading the first edition of Wolf Hall, and I couldn’t understand the sense of immediacy she’d managed to achieve.
And it was because it’s written in first person present tense. I had been writing in third person past tense—like, “he walked into the room.” But now it’s: “As I enter the room, the tobacco smoke makes me retch.” That’s the kind of immediacy you get.
And it’s become something that I really quite enjoy doing now. I’ve yet to have anybody say, “Oh, I really don’t like that present-tense stuff you do.” They don’t even notice it—right? Unless you take the time to explain what the game is.
But if you think about it, that’s how Hilary Mantel gets that sense of immediacy—built around really quite careful research of the times, the events, and the people.
Heather: Yeah, it’s interesting you say that—because I’ve been watching—I’m sure—have you been watching The Mirror and the Light?
Tony: Yes, of course, yeah.
Heather: And I’ve been thinking about how there is also that sense of immediacy—the way the filming is, and the pacing. Some of the scenes are so slow too—it’s just him walking into a room, and they draw it out for a full minute of him just walking. But yet it feels so alive.
And I think it’s that same thing, because you’re seeing it from their perspective, and that’s—
Tony: Right.
Heather: Yeah. Yeah.
Tony: I love it when—
I mean, it’s taken me a long time to get used to this version of Cromwell, because I had a picture in my mind of what Cromwell was like. And once again, this is what historical fiction can do—it can make you rethink, still using the same facts, but rethink your preconceived ideas of somebody.
He had a hard childhood, and he was thrown into the spotlight—and how did he cope with all of that, you know what I mean? And imagine having Henry VIII as a boss. When he’s pleased, he’s so pleased—he knights you and things. And when he’s not pleased, then your life’s on the line. Literally.
But I really like it when someone makes a long speech to him, and he just turns his back and walks off. Doesn’t say anything, doesn’t even argue. He just walks away. And you think—that’s quite masterful, really.
I’ve tried to do a little bit of that—but not too much. Sometimes I cut the dialogue down to what we would actually do in real life. We don’t give huge, long speeches—well, I seem to be doing that now—but you know, in real life, it’s briefer exchanges. And some readers might have to read it a second time to really understand what’s going on.
But other readers enjoy the subtext then, and can read between the lines. And I think it’s quite interesting that when I look at any analysis of my readership—so, on various platforms like Facebook, you can get an analysis of your audience—my audience is about 70% middle-aged ladies in America.
And you know, I didn’t start out thinking of them as the target audience, but they are my target audience now. And it makes sense because—well, I’m generalizing terribly here—but many of them have the time to actually read a book properly. They’re really quite interested in the interpersonal relationships, and they also understand the subtext more than someone who’s just a casual reader picking up a book to read on the train or something.
So I find that quite interesting. And on Goodreads, I can see that trend applies to historical fiction generally. If you look at the books and reviews there, without doing any serious analysis, you’ll see—it’s generally women, and there’s a huge interest in the U.S. Less so in the rest of Europe, but also a strong interest in the UK.
Heather: So anyway, now we’re digressing. I really appreciate your time. I’m going to put in a link for everybody to get your books—which they definitely should! Robin, I don’t see any questions from you here, let me just check… Nope.
So hopefully people enjoyed listening to Tony Riches—it’s always good to catch up with you and see what you’re working on. You’re just so passionate about your subjects, and I love how you get into people’s heads and bring it all so vividly to life. It’s just—marvelous speaking with you.
Tony: Well, thank you for inviting me back again. And for anyone who wants a bit more depth, I’ve got a podcast series—Stories of the Tudors—where I talk more about my research, generally book by book. When I finish the Elizabethan series, I’ll catch up with that podcast again. At the moment, Stories of the Tudors goes up to the end of the Brandon Trilogy, and that’s a way for people to reach deeper into the factual history if they want to.
Heather: Awesome. I’ll put all the links in—because you have a very popular blog, and you’re popular on Twitter—well, X, or whatever it’s called these days.
Tony: And now I’m on BlueSky as well.
Heather: Okay, perfect!
Tony: This month, I’m really enjoying my blog. What I’ve done is a History Writers’ Advent Calendar, where I invited 24 history writers to contribute a blog post—one for each day in December. It’s going really well. My visitor numbers have quadrupled, and I’m able to support all 24 authors in the run-up to Christmas, which is nice.
Heather: Awesome. So cool. So cool. Well, thank you, Tony, for taking the time. And hopefully, you sell a whole bunch of books from this interview. Hopefully it goes viral—eight million books! That would be awesome. So, buy Tony’s books! I’ll put the links to everything in the show notes.
Tony: Merry Christmas!
Heather: Happy Christmas to you too! Okay, I’ll catch up with you in another year or so when you’re ready to talk about your next book.
Tony: Right.
Heather: Alright—thank you, Tony!
Thank you so much to Tony. I hope you enjoyed that interview. To learn more about him, you can visit tonyriches.com, where you’ll find links to buy all of his books. They’re all so good. I honestly don’t even have a favorite—they’re all excellent. They bring the stories to life in ways that nonfiction books often can’t. I’m a big fan of Tony Riches—so again, that’s tonyriches.com.
Related links:
Tony Riches’ Books
Episode 027: Francis Walsingham, Spymaster
Episode 201: Robert Devereaux the Earl of Essex
Sir Walter Raleigh: The Elizabethan Enigma – Explorer, Poet, and Courtier
Heather Teysko is the creator, writer, and producer of The Renaissance English History Podcast, the original Tudor history podcast, started in 2009. She's been writing about history online for over 25 years, since her first site on Colonial American history became number one in history on Yahoo in 1998. In 2019 she created Tudorcon, which is now a yearly event, in addition to writing books, and running TudorFair.com - a whimsical Tudor Merch shop.
She has been passionate about Tudor England since she first read Alison Weir's The Six Wives of Henry VIII 30 years ago, and subsequently moved to London after college to spend her time immersed in Tudor history (how exciting when she got to interview Alison for the first time!). In addition to history, she is passionate about travel, and has lived in 3 countries and 4 states (not counting her perpetual state of confusion), and her family (who help her host her YouTube channel occasionally).
