Spellbinding storytelling
Enjoys a debut novel that weaves together fact and fiction in a tale of politics and paranoia
At the court of the new king, James VI & I, supporters of his predecessor, Elizabeth I, find little favour. One of those who soon falls foul of James’s regime is Frances Gorges, the chief protagonist of this gripping debut novel by royal historian Tracy Borman.
Not only was the young woman one of Elizabeth’s most trusted companions during the queen’s final months, she is also a healer and herbalist of great talents. To James, these gifts smack of the supernatural: the king, freshly arrived in London from his Scottish kingdom, is obsessed by the idea of witches. They are the spawn of the devil and must all, he believes, be rooted out and destroyed.
Frances herself would rather spend her time in rural retreat at her family’s home in Hampshire, tending her plants and reading her books, but her uncle, the head of the family, has other ideas. His insistence that she take up her position at court places Frances in great danger. So, too, do the scheming of her family’s political rival, Lord Cecil, and the king’s relentless persecution of alleged witches.
Just about her only friend at court is a handsome, mysterious lawyer named Tom Wintour. However, Wintour is embroiled in plots against the king, and Frances’s relationship with him propels her into even deeper trouble.
Borman’s expertise as a historian of this period is in evidence throughout The King’s Witch, and she cleverly weaves together elements of both the romance novel and the thriller in a story that holds the attention from the first page. She has taken the real history of the tumultuous early years of the reign of James I and added to it her own (mostly plausible) speculations to create a plot that not only twists and turns towards a gripping conclusion but also promises further tales to come.