'An enthralling adventure story, honest and powerful. The Wars of the Roses are imagined here with energy, with ferocity, with hunger to engage the reader.'Hilary Mantel

'An enthralling adventure story, honest and powerful. The Wars of the Roses are imagined here with energy, with ferocity, with hunger to engage the reader.' Hilary Mantel October, 1463 England is a divided nation. In the north, the Lancastrian king struggles to hold power, while in the south, the princes of the house of York prepare for war.

Across this land, pursued by the Church and the Law, a young man, Thomas, and a young woman, Katherine, make their way, bearing proof of a secret both sides will kill to learn.

Bent on revenge for a past outrage, Thomas and Katherine journey to the mighty castle of Bamburgh to join a weakening king as he marshals his army to take up arms in one of the most savage civil wars in history: the Wars of the Roses.

Searingly good.Sunday Times

ImmersiveThe Times

Evocative and directIndependent

Toby Clementswas inspired to write theKingmakerseries having first become obsessed by the Wars of the Roses after a school trip to Tewkesbury Abbey, on the steps of which the Lancastrian claim to the English throne was extinguished in a welter of blood in 1471.

Since then he has read everything he can get his hands on and spent long weekends at re-enactment fairs. He has learned to use the longbow and how to fight with the poll axe, how to start a fire with a flint and steel and a shred of baked linen. He has even helped tan a piece of leather (a disgusting experience involving lots of urine and dog faeces). Little by little he became less interested in the dealings of the high and mighty, however colourful and amazing they might have been, and more fascinated by the common folk of the 15th Century: how they lived, loved, fought and died. How tough they were, how resourceful, resilient and clever. As much as anything this book is a hymn to them.

He lives in London with his wife and three children. This is his second novel.