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Author

Tony Riches

15 fiction

Tony Riches is a British historical novelist from Pembrokeshire, West Wales, specialising in the Wars of the Roses, the early Tudors and the Elizabethan period. Born within sight of Pembroke Castle, he developed a particular interest in the people associated with the castle and the origins of the Tudor dynasty. Before becoming a full-time writer he had careers that included service in the Royal Air Force and senior management, and he also wrote non-fiction before concentrating on historical novels. Riches places considerable emphasis on visiting historical locations and reconstructing his protagonists’ lives from surviving evidence, using fiction primarily to fill the gaps where the documentary record is incomplete.

Riches is best known for the Tudor Trilogy: Owen, Jasper and Henry, which traces three generations from Owen Tudor’s relationship with Catherine of Valois through Jasper Tudor’s role in the Wars of the Roses to Henry VII’s establishment of the Tudor dynasty. He later developed the Brandon Trilogy, centred on Charles Brandon, Mary Tudor and Katherine Willoughby, and an Elizabethan series exploring figures including Penelope Rich, Frances Walsingham and Bess Throckmorton. His novels frequently take people who stand close to famous monarchs but have received less attention in fiction and place their personal lives within dynastic marriage, exile, rebellion and court politics. This approach gives his work a strongly biographical form of historical fiction, with real careers and documented events providing the framework for each narrative.

Periods and events

Battle of Bosworth Field1485 CE Edwardian Reformation1547–1553 CE Eighty Years’ War1568–1648 CE Essex Rebellion1601 CE Henrician Reformation1530–1547 CE Jacobean Era1603–1625 CE Lancastrian England1399–1461 CE Mary I and the Counter-Reformation1553–1558 CE Reign of Henry VII1485–1509 CE Reign of Henry VIII1509–1547 CE Roanoke Colony1585–c. 1590 CE Spanish Armada1588 CE Wars of the Roses1455–1487 CE

Historical fiction

Historical fiction series by Tony Riches (4 series)

The Brandon Trilogy in Order

by Tony Riches 3 books 4.4(5,859)

The Brandon Trilogy follows three closely connected lives at the court of Henry VIII: Mary Tudor, the king’s younger sister; Charles Brandon, his intimate companion and later Duke of Suffolk; and Katherine Willoughby, Brandon’s final wife. Across the three novels, private affection repeatedly collides with the demands of…

Stuart Queens Trilogy in Order

by Tony Riches 1 book 4.4(30)

The Stuart Queens Trilogy turns from the final years of the Tudors to the women who helped shape the new Stuart monarchy. Beginning with Anna of Denmark, the series approaches dynastic politics through queens whose marriages, households, children and religious choices placed them at the centre of struggles…

The Elizabethan in Order

by Tony Riches 6 books 4.3(4,973)

The Elizabethan series tells the later Tudor story through six real people whose ambitions and relationships brought them close to Elizabeth I. Francis Drake, Robert Devereux, Walter Raleigh, Penelope Rich, Frances Walsingham and Bess Throckmorton each occupy a different part of the queen’s world: the sea, war, exploration,…

The Tudor Trilogy in Order

by Tony Riches 3 books 4.2(11,505)

The Tudor Trilogy traces the dynasty from its unlikely origins to the establishment of Henry VII’s monarchy. Owen begins with the Welsh courtier Owen Tudor and Catherine of Valois, whose secret relationship creates the family from which the Tudor claim will emerge. Jasper follows their son Jasper Tudor…

Historical fiction

Standalone historical fiction by Tony Riches (2 books)

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