04 November 2026
‘An entertaining read’ – SUNDAY TIMES
‘A treat for anyone who hankers for a light-hearted, modern-day Trollope’ – S.G. MACLEAN
‘Historical fiction at its finest’ – JANICE HALLETT
The hunt for an ancient king could prove deadly…
Leicestershire, 1774. Following a minor royal scandal, Susan Bell’s father has lost his post as Dean of Westminster, and the two find themselves exiled to the family’s country seat, Fortune Hall. Susan fills her days attempting to prevent her fiancé Lindley from being married off to a richer bride, while her father takes on the tutorship of Francis North, son of the Prime Minister.
When a visiting surveyor mysteriously disappears near a fast-flowing river, the man is presumed to have drowned. Susan alone is not convinced by this explanation, or by that of eccentric visiting librarian Mr Quintrel, who declares the surveyor likely lost in the tunnels that form the tomb of the mythical King Lear. But when the young Francis North also disappears, Susan knows that her family’s reputation is at stake and she must investigate. What did the surveyor stumble upon that someone would possibly kill to hide? And what darker secrets are waiting to be revealed?
The Bells are back! What was it like to return to the characters of The Bells of Westminster?
Returning to the world of Susan Bell was great fun – and also a little daunting, as the real historical event behind The Bells of Westminster had been such a humdinger! But I needn’t have worried too much: the weird and wonderful eighteenth-century antiquaries threw me another great titbit which allowed me to pay homage to the great country house novels of the past, especially Mansfield Park with its amateur theatricals.
Susan Bell is such a compelling protagonist; she’s sagacious, strong-minded and delightfully witty. Are there any persons (real or fictional) that inspired her creation?
Well, I’m sure there’s a shade of Elizabeth Bennet in her irreverent character and tendency to laugh at the eccentric people who surround her. But she did spring fully formed from the page as if she’d always existed in some deep corner of my mind. It would be nice to think that there’s some alternate version of myself in a parallel universe who could be just as sagacious and witty as she is!
In The Bells of Fortune, you take inspiration from the ancient myth of King Leir as well as real events in eighteenth-century Britain. What research did you do while writing this book?
I knew that this book would take place at the Bell family’s country seat in Leicestershire – that much had been established at the end of The Bells of Westminster. So I set to work to find a real historical nugget from Leicestershire that could inspire a series of events in the new book.
As ever, going back to the primary sources was the solution. I sat down with John Nichols’ The History and Antiquities of the County of Leicester which was written in 1795. Among its densely packed pages I eventually came across the Leir story and knew I’d found my nugget! I’d not known Leir (or Lear as Shakespeare calls him) was anything more than a fictional character so, as ever, the story was educational as well as providing lots of comic possibilities. I was also delighted to discover that the myth was associated with Bradgate Park, home to poor, doomed Lady Jane Grey, and one of my favourite spots when I lived nearby many years ago.
What other writers would you recommend to your readers?
I have recently discovered Samantha Harvey, who won the Booker Prize with Orbital, but she is also the author of a brilliant medieval murder mystery The Western Wind which is one of those books that makes you question why you’re even trying to be a writer yourself.
Can you give us any hints about your next book?
A total departure! Like my main character, apothecary’s apprentice Robin Cunliffe, I have taken myself to a setting entirely foreign to me, where the natives speak differently and everyday existence is full of deadly dangers: the Tudor court of Henry VIII.
