I am a life-long, avid anglophile and fan of all things Tudor.  (Yes, I even watch The Tudors on Showtime, though I would take me hours to list all the historical inaccuracies in the series.)  But in my reading, I always noticed a fascinating personality who seemed to stay in the background but who was, in a way, the power behind Elizabeth’s throne—Katherine “Kat” Champernowne Ashley, the queen’s governess.  And, since Elizabeth lost her mother at age three and did not remember her, Kat was what we would call today the queen’s foster mother.

I had included Kat as a secondary character in my QUEEN ELIZABETH I MYSTERY SERIES (9 books, still available in paperback from on-line book sites,) but I wondered about the mystery of Kat’s life.  And so began years of research to find the real Kat Ashley.  She was part of the tumultuous lives not only of Elizabeth Tudor but of her infamous mother, Anne Boleyn.  I begin Kat’s story with Anne’s beheading and backtrack to Kat’s early life.  As Elizabeth says in the novel, “Anne Boleyn gave me life, but Kat Ashley gave me love.”

THE QUEEN’S GOVERNESS is a Kat’s-eye-view of one of the most turbulent and tragic families in history, the amazing, terrible Tudors.  But Kat has her own tale of betrayal, love and loss to tell.  Reviews and other information will be posted here as pub date approaches.  Like all my books, this novel is also available in e-book format.

From Pubisher's Weekly, November 23, 2009:

"Katherine Ashley is the daughter of a country squire with no hope of a future, until a chance meeting with Thomas Cromwell gets her sent to Henry VIII's court as a waiting gentlewoman to Queen Anne Boleyn and a spy for Cromwell. When Boleyn comes to an untimely end, Ashley becomes tutor and servant to her daughter, Elizabeth, and accompanies the girl throughout her trials and tribulations before she finally takes her father's throne and goes on to become England's greatest queen. Rarely does a work of historical fiction endeavor to cover so much territory—Ashley lives through the reigns of four Tudors—but Harper's diligent research, realistic portrayal, and insider/outsider heroine will hook those who can't get enough of England's turbulent history. Readers familiar with the period will feel at home and even manage some sympathy for men like Cromwell and Henry VIII. Still, bestseller Harper (Mistress Shakespeare) maintains her focus on the roles of women—both powerful and powerless—in Tudor England, resulting in another enjoyable proto-feminist historical romp."

“So vivid and authentic—a totally satisfying recreation of one of the great Shakespeare mysteries.  I couldn’t put it down.”
   --Rosalind Miles, author of I, Elizabeth and Guinevere

“Harper…knows her period well, and it shows…often in sure handling of the details of politics, theater, and daily life, including some harrowing passages featuring childbirth and the plague.”
   --Booklist

“The novels chief pleasures derive from the easy interaction of Shakespeare’s work, the history of Elizabethan England and the life that the author imagines Shakespeare might have had.”
    --Publisher’s Weekly

“In a wonderful, lively, insightful and heartbreaking love story, Harper allows Shakespeare’s secret wife, Anne Whateley, to narrate her colorful, lusty story.  With her sharp eye for detail and dialogue, Harper delivers a tale that resounds with the color and atmosphere of life in the theater,   London and the intrigues that ran rampant in England.”
   --RT, 4/1/2 stars

Coming June 14, 2010: Review and Interview for MISTRESS SHAKESPEARE at www.book-club-queen.com