Character Sketch

What makes a great historical fiction book unforgettable? Characters who feel alive—heroes you can root for and villains to fear. This collection of pages is for my character sketches that spotlight the people at the heart of my stories and related research. Each profile is a fast, vivid read designed to help you get to know the character behind the scenes.

Here you’ll find portraits like Francis Drake, whom I paint in the book Sic Parvis Magna, Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, the poet-warrior whom I called “the last knight of a dead age”; Gregory Trelawney, a loyal yet conflicted minor gentry son drawn into Henry VIII’s final war; James Reynard, a bitter orphan whose hunger for power curdles into violence, and others. These sketches blend period detail, moral tension, and clear stakes—material that historical-fiction readers prize when choosing great books to read.

Enjoy!