released<\/a> at the end of July, blending fact with fiction.<\/p>\nIt centres around a fictional family who live in a manor house and interact with factual characters.<\/p>\n
There are knights, real battles, a misguided monk, a grasping uncle, and a young woman wanting greater freedom than her social status allows.<\/p>\n
![\"Mistress](\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg)
Mistress of the Manor is the first of a new series set at medieval Grimsthorpe Castle<\/p>\n
Then comes the Great Mortality, or the Black Death as it\u2019s now known.<\/p>\n
Two further books in the series have been contracted – with the second due for release in December – which will feature successive generations of the fictional family, as well as major events of the period.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thoroughly enjoy the research and ensure my books are as accurate as possible,\u201d said Ros.<\/p>\n
\u201cA fourth in this series is at the planning stage and I expect to return to my writing roots with the battles for the English in France, but this time with Joan of Arc.\u201d<\/p>\n
Grimsthorpe Castle.<\/p>\n
Grimsthorpe is a very familiar setting for Ros and, particularly, husband Scott who is a room steward there and has helped provide fascinating facts and stories.<\/p>\n
The couple also regularly visit its grounds to walk their guide dog for the blind puppy, in training, and also gather atmosphere and further inspiration.<\/p>\n
Today\u2019s castle was originally built during Tudor times, but Ros decided to set her stories during the Medieval period.<\/p>\n
Scott, Ros and their guide dog in training regularly enjoy walks on the Grimsthorpe Estate<\/p>\n
She explained that Grimsthorpe was then a much smaller castle, serving as a defensive outpost for Folkingham Castle, home to the very powerful and politically influential Beaumont family.<\/p>\n
There was also a prominent abbey in the grounds back then, from which the present castle was built after Henry VIII\u2019s dissolution of the monasteries.<\/p>\n
Ros did not turn to writing until relatively recently but several of her books have won readers\u2019 awards or been Amazon bestsellers.<\/p>\n
Retirement in France was the inspiration to start writing her debut novel<\/p>\n
After taking early retirement from her career as a headteacher, Ros moved to France with Scott and lived in a small village among the First World War battlefields.<\/p>\n
\u201cI researched my ancestry through the war diaries at the National Archives at Kew and was able to walk in the footsteps of my grandad in the region of the Somme,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The experience sowed the seeds for her debut novel, Flowers of Flanders, the first in a series of three books about sisters, all set during 20th-century European conflicts.<\/p>\n
Ros has also written contemporary novels<\/p>\n
\u201cThe book found its way to a publisher who issued a contract for three further books,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
\u201cWriting then turned from a hobby to a longer-term commitment.\u201d<\/p>\n
More recently, a local ballroom and Latin dance school in Stamford<\/a> was the inspiration for a more contemporary series of books.<\/p>\n\u201cI love writing and don\u2019t envisage giving up any time soon,\u201d said Ros.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can take my laptop anywhere, and frequently do just that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A country house has been chosen as the setting for a new series of books by an award-winning…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":90350,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[10052,457,35576,96,192,8739,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-90349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-books","tag-arts-and-entertainment","tag-books","tag-bourne","tag-entertainment","tag-human-interest","tag-lincs-homepage","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}