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Alison Stuart

Alison Stuart

About

Alison was born in Kenya and emigrated to Melbourne at the age of ten. She studied law at Melbourne University and has worked in a variety of areas as a lawyer, including the military. In 2000 she moved to Singapore with her husband and sons and for three years was able to pursue serious, full time writing. While in Singapore she was published in two anthologies of short stories, one of which appeared briefly in a best seller list and both of which are still available on Amazon! Apart from this minor success with short stories, she has been published in a number of other anthologies of short stories and magazines. Prior to publication Alison was a finalist in competitions, including the shortlist of the Catherine Cookson Fiction Prize, the Emma Darcy Award and the Emerald Award. In 2007 her first two novels BY THE SWORD and THE KING'S MAN were published. BY THE SWORD won the 2008 Eppie Award for Best Historical Romance.

Murdo

Murdo

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Description

<p>When Jessica Bryant pesters her wealthy parents to allow her to have a dog as a pet, the answer is a resounding &quot;No&quot;; but they soon come to regret their decision when thier home is broken into one evening whilst they are out and their daughter kidnapped and held for ransom. The kidnappers, in the form of four seedy and incompetent characters wearing Disneyland-type masks, take her hostage and keep her incarcerated in a place from which there appears to be no escape. However, they reckon without the resourcefulness of our heroine, and the courage of a wonderful stray dog who comes to her aid and whom she names 'Murdo'. And so begins an exciting and humurous accounting of the couples' adventures together as they consistently foil and outwit the abductors whilst on the run together.<br /> This is a lovely story of the friendship between a girl and a dog, bringing out themes of responsibility, camaraderie, redemption, salvation and self-sacrifice. It includes some wonderful dialogue sequences as Jessica teaches her new four-legged friend how to communicate with her, with additional delightful conversations between the animals when a rabbit and a sparrow join forces with them in an effort to outwit the kidnappers and restore Jessica safely back to her parents' home. </p>

Story Behind The Book

How did I come to write The Kings Man? It began with a chance sentence in Antonia Fraser’s wonderful biography of Oliver Cromwell, Cromwell, Our Chief of Men, (Antonia Fraser, published Panther Books Ltd. 1975) where she describes how a “Miss Granville” hurled a brickbat at Cromwell’s coach. I found no other reference to “Miss Granville” or indeed any explanation as to why she found it necessary to hurl a piece of broken brick at the Protectoral coach, but further reading plunged me into the murky world of “The Ship Inn” Plot and “Gerard’s Plot” and the story became substance. While Thamsine Granville may have her roots in a real character, Kit Lovell is entirely fictional. The Ship Inn did exist, although Jem Marsh and his sisters are also fictional. Most of the other characters that move in and out of the story are very much historical fact, including the French Ambassador’s English mistress and the impossibly French, Baron de Baas (who was himself, the brother of Dumas’ D’Artagnan) as are all the plotters - even those of dubious reputation such as Henshaw and Wiseman and the notorious Colonel Bampfield and of course, poor Fitzjames, found drowned in the Thames estuary with incriminating letters in his pocket! It is not a period that I am aware of that has been much addressed by the fiction writer, but what fun! I really enjoyed bringing the dry text of the history books to life with the, at times, almost comical antics of the plotters. I couldn’t have dreamed up a more interesting cast of characters. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!

Media Links

ABC Arts Nation

🔗 http://www.abc.net.au/arts/stories/s2881298.htm

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Reviews

<div>&quot;The King’s Man is a lovely story set in a period of history I knew little about prior to reading this book. The author does a splendid job of setting the scene and giving the reader a bird’s eye view into England just after Cromwell took over. It was not hard to see how difficult life must have been for those nobles who lost everything. Ms. Stuart even manages to make Kit loveable, in spite of the fact that he does some pretty reprehensible things. I admired Thamsine’s ingenuity in outsmarting those around her who wished her harm. The characters are so real they seem to leap from the pages. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys allowing the written word to take them away to other times and vistas!&quot;</div><div>5 CUPS:  Coffee Time Romance</div><div>July 2007</div><br /><div><div>(March 2008)</div><br /><div>The King’s Man heralds the start of an exciting career for a wonderful new historical romance novelist: Alison Stuart. Richly woven, intriguing, passionate and riveting from page one, if you like reading historicals, you’ll absolutely love this! ....</div><br /><div>The King’s Man is an absolutely terrific historical I just couldn’t put down! Alison Stuart is a master storyteller who has written a story that’s fast-paced, enthralling, passionate and absolutely impossible to resist!</div><br /><div>FOUR STARS:  Ecataromance Reviews</div></div>