Lord of My Heart (43 page)

I have not to my knowledge violated any fact in this book, but I have had to invent many details. William, Matilda, Judith, Agatha, Edwin, Gospatric, Waltheof, and Hereward are real people known to us only from fragments. I apologize to their shades for the liberties I have taken.

There is no evidence that Agatha ever tried to join her rebellious earl, but there is plenty that Matilda gave birth to the future Henry I in a hermit’s hut in Selby, Yorkshire.

My only straight inventions are the tattoos on the hands of the English, and Hereward’s initiation ceremony. In the case of tattoos there is evidence that they were an Anglo-Saxon tradition, though I have found no details of design or location.

Though opinions vary, I choose the view that the Norman Conquest was a case of warlike semi-barbarians overrunning a more peaceful and vastly more cultured nation. It is generally now held, for example, that the Bayeux Tapestry—that wonderful visual record of the Conquest—was English work, not Norman, simply because the Normans were not capable of it.

As I researched this period, I realized how strongly modern English people, including myself, tend to side with the Anglo-Saxons rather than the Normans, as if the two nations had not in the end blended. The Conquest is remembered vividly as the last successful armed invasion of England, and Hereward as the last noble leader of resistance. The fact that he just might have come out of it all right in the end adds savor to his story.

At the time I wrote this book I hoped to write more about the period, but I found it very bleak and moved on to the next generation, when then Anglo-Norman situation was more stable. These novels are:
Dark Champion, Lord of Midnight,
and
The Shattered Rose.

However, I do hope one day to write a novel about the true story of Waltheof and Judith, a very intriguing and mysterious tale.

There is a slight link here in that the hero of
Dark Champion,
FitzRoger, is the son of that unpleasant brother of Aimery’s, Roger de Gaillard.
Dark Champion
will be reissued early in 2003, and
Lord of Midnight,
about FitzRoger’s friend, Renald de Lisle, is still available new.
The Shattered Rose,
with a very slight connection to the other books, is currently out of print.

I am the author of twenty-three romances all set in my native England in three periods—Medieval, Georgian, and Regency. My most recent new novel was a regency historical,
Hazard,
published in May 2002, and the next will be
St. Raven
in February 2003.

You can find a full list of my novels and novellas on my Web site:
www.jobev.com
, in addition to excerpts and background information about my books. There are even some samples from my unpublished writing. If you’d like to be updated about new and reissued books, send an e-mail to
[email protected]
asking to be put on my mailing list. I also enjoy reading reader comments about my books.

You can contact me by regular mail at: Jo Beverley, c/o The Rotrosen Agency, 318 East 51st Street, New York, NY 10022. If you would like a reply, I appreciate a stamped, self-addressed envelope.

JO BEVERLEY is widely regarded as one of the most talented romance writers today. She is a five-time winner of Romance Writers of America’s cherished RITA Award and one of only a handful of members of the RWA Hall of Fame. She has also received the
Romantic Times
Career Achievement Award. Born in England, she now lives with her husband and two sons in Victoria, British Columbia, just a ferry ride away from Seattle.

SIGNET

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First Signet Printing, October 2002 10 987654321

Copyright © Jo Beverley, 1992

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