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Author

Derek Birks

14 fiction · 1 non-fiction

Derek Birks is a British historical novelist and former history teacher whose work concentrates particularly on medieval and post-Roman Britain. Born in Hampshire, he spent part of his youth in Auckland, New Zealand, before returning to Britain and teaching history for many years at a secondary school in Berkshire. He later took early retirement to concentrate on writing and now lives in Dorset. Birks has studied and taught the Wars of the Roses for decades and has also produced more than forty podcasts on the period. With historian Sharon Bennett Connolly, he has co-hosted A Slice of Medieval, combining discussion of medieval history with historical fiction. His novels are strongly character-driven, using fictional families and soldiers to place readers within political and military upheavals rather than concentrating solely on kings and queens.

His largest sequence is the Wars of the Roses saga following the fictional Elder family, beginning with Feud and continuing through A Traitor’s Fate, Kingdom of Rebels, The Last Shroud, Scars from the Past, The Blood of Princes, Echoes of Treason, Shadow of Doubt and Crown of Fear. The novels span the dynastic struggle from the late 1450s to Bosworth in 1485. Birks then moved much further back in The Last of the Romans trilogy—The Last of the Romans, Britannia World’s End and Land of Fire, with the novella New Dawn—centred on Ambrosius Aurelianus during the collapse of Roman authority in the fifth-century West. His newer Anarchy series begins with Rebel Sword, set after Stephen seized the English throne in 1135 and civil war developed between Stephen and Empress Matilda. He has also moved into nonfiction with A Guide to the Wars of the Roses.

Periods and events

Battle of Bosworth Field1485 CE Battle of Towton1461 CE Post-Roman Britainc. 410–600 CE Princes in the Tower1483 CE The Anarchy1135–1154 CE Wars of the Roses1455–1487 CE

Historical fiction

Historical fiction series by Derek Birks (2 series)

The Wars of the Roses in Order

by Derek Birks 9 books 4.4(3,534)

The Wars of the Roses series follows the fictional Elder family through the dynastic conflicts that divided England between 1459 and 1485. Beginning with a private Yorkshire feud, the family is drawn into the struggle between Lancaster and York and repeatedly finds its survival tied to the fortunes…

The Last of the Romans in Order

by Derek Birks 4 books 4.2(5,438)

In the middle of the fifth century, the western Roman Empire is breaking apart and the old imperial order can no longer protect the people who once depended upon it. The series follows Ambrosius Aurelianus, a Roman military commander forced out of the imperial world and into the…

Non-fiction

Non-fiction by Derek Birks (1 book)

Reference works, biographies and other non-fiction are kept separate from the historical fiction above.

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