Threading the story of a sash

HISTORICAL fiction writer AJ Lyndon has released the second novel of her War Without an Enemy trilogy.

The Tawny Sash is an aristocratic family saga and a revenge thriller full of treachery, set between 1643 and 1644 during the First English Civil War, and it has been named after the Earl of Essex’s colours.

Lyndon said those who enjoy reading about battles will like this story.

“It follows the Welsh Vaughan family, and the English Lucie family,” she said. “They’re caught up in the war and there’s a lot of fighting.

“Apart from the fact that they’re being hunted by Sir Henry Lucie’s spy, Gabriel Vaughan gets caught up in the Basing House plot.

“Basing House was the biggest private house in England and the plot is to try and hand the King’s biggest garrison, which is nearly as big as Windsor Castle over to parliament.”

Worcester, Wales’ Tretower Court and Castle, Cornwall’s Fowey, and Boconnoc House, and the Royalist capital of Oxford are some of the book’s recognisable locations.

“Christ Church college, which features as The Great Hall in Hogwarts in Harry Potter, was where Charles I set up his court,” Lyndon said.

“Tretower appears as Gabriel’s home, and the home of the Vaughan family, which it was, but I’ve renamed it The Allt, after a local mountain.”

Lyndon said she strived to get an accurate understanding of each place by making a special visit and looking inside buildings of significance.

With the final draft written throughout the COVID-19 era, Lyndon said The Tawny Sash wouldn’t exist without the research support of live streaming technology.

“The pandemic was a world-wide tragedy, but there were side benefits,” Lyndon said. “Historical societies in the UK such as The Battlefields Trust began holding their historical lectures on Zoom.

“Lectures in London or Manchester at 8pm are 5am our time. I set the alarm and switch my camera on with a sweatshirt hastily pulled over my PJs.”

The Ballarat Writers group member grew up in Wales, and has been a lover of history, and fiction based on the past, since she was a teenager.

Studying English and history at university, Lyndon’s focus was events between the years of 1485 to 1830.

She has been writing for nine years, and released the first War Without an Enemy novel, The Welsh Linnet, in 2017.

Lyndon will discuss her book and sign copies at the Ballaarat Mechanics’ Institute on Tuesday 4 July at 7pm and it’s also for sale at local book shops.