The new paperback cover
My longest-standing project is researching the lives of the Jermyns from Rushbrook Hall, Suffolk. Having risen from relatively obscure landed gentry status in the 16th century, they gave the Seventeenth century two of its most fascinating yet enigmatic characters- Henry Jermyn, Earl of St Albans, who is now the subject of my book The King’s Henchman and his nephew Harry Jermyn, Lord Dover. Neither are remotely well-known, not because they did nothing of interest- far from it- but because they managed to slip through the net of mainstream history. No longer: these two men, who were lovers or reputed lovers of female members of the Stuart dynasty, and were both intimately intertwined with Stuart politics, are coming into sharp focus thanks to this on-going research project. One further successful step I took towards making the Jermyn’s better known was the unveiling of a plaque to Henry Jermyn in St James’s, Westminster in 2011.
