Anne O’Brien, Sunday Times best-selling author

“To my right worshipful husband, John Paston. Be this delivered in haste”
Anne O’Brien, Sunday Times best-selling author
Anne’s most recent novels take their inspiration from the Paston Letters, the earliest and largest collection of documents detailing the life of a single family in 15th century England. The collection came to light in 1735 when, following the death of William Paston, earl of Yarmouth, it fell into the hands of a local historian. Thus began our intimate knowledge of the Paston family, from its peasant origins to the gentry. During the 15th century, the Paston menfolk used education and their facility at law to work for notable men at court. They wrote about the conflict of the Wars of the Roses, relationships between great magnates and their struggles for land and power. But for Anne, the jewels in the Paston crown are the 107 letters written by its matriarch, Margaret Paston, whose distinct and clear voice details the complex interests of a medieval family on the rise. Margaret’s letters deal with far more than shopping lists and childcare. They wrestle with bitter domestic quarrels, legal disputes, the much-contested ownership of Caister Castle, family scandals, disobedient daughters and obstinate sons; and, of course, the marriage alliances, some of which went disastrously wrong, others marvellously right. Anne describes Margaret and her family as “exuberant, confrontational and compelling.” She’ll talk to us about Margaret’s letters, the insights they provide to family and national experience, and how she used them as a jumping-off point for a pair of novels that bring the 15th century to fact-based fictional life.
Anne O’Brien is a Sunday Times best-selling author, born in West Yorkshire. After gaining a BA Honours degree in history at Manchester University and a Masters in education at Hull, she lived in East Yorkshire for many years as a teacher of history. Today she has sold over a million copies of her books in the UK and internationally. She lives with her husband in an 18th century timber cottage in the depths of the Welsh Marches in Herefordshire - an area that provides endless inspiration for her novels about the forgotten women of medieval history.