About Carol Townend
Carol has always adored reading romances, particularly historical ones. The shelves of her writing room bulge with them including the great Georgette Heyer classics.
Born in Yorkshire, England, Carol went to a convent school high on the Whitby cliffs before going on to study history at Royal Holloway College, London. She now lives in West London with her husband and daughter.
Love between couples on opposing sides of a dispute (Romeo and Juliet) has always produced great stories. Carol’s first few novels were set in 11th century Britain just after the Norman Conquest when tension between the native Saxons and the invading Normans was at its highest. For example, you can meet Saxon aristocrat Lady Cecily Fulford, a novice on her way to becoming a nun. One day, while acting as a midwife in a humble cottage, she removes her veil. When the Breton knight Sir Adam Wymark peers into the cottage, he sees the golden waterfall of her hair, and Cupid’s arrow buries itself deep in his heart. (The Novice Bride).
Born writers do not stop at writing one story. Carol had completed three before her first – Sapphire in the Snow – was published and won the RNA New Writers’ Award. Later two other novels were shortlisted for the RoNA Rose award – Betrothed to the Barbarian in 2013 and Unveiling Lady Clare in 2015.
Carol loves research trips. She can often be seen teetering on the battlements of various European castles. Most of her ideas usually spring from such visits. Winchester is a case in point. In the museum there, a meticulously accurate model of the 11th century Anglo Norman town shows every street, mill and stream so that in Carol’s story we are carried into this ancient world exactly as it was then. In Europe, a visit to Brittany’s Granite Rose coast gave rise to the longer saga, The Stone Rose. And Carol’s fascination with the Byzantine period led to a visit to Istanbul sparking her imagination to come up with her three Byzantium novels: Chained to the Barbarian, Bound to the Barbarian and Betrothed to the Barbarian. Visiting cities today, Carol does not see skyscrapers or rush hour traffic. Instead, the tranquil gardens and luxurious palaces of the past come alive in her mind.
Recently she carried readers off to Moslem-dominated Spain with three stories based on the Alhambra palace in modern day Andalusia (The Warrior’s Princess Prize, The Knight’s Forbidden Princess, and The Princess’s Secret Longing). At evening, after the crowds have gone, if you wander along the path outside the soaring walls, you can look up at the very tower where the three princesses were imprisoned and see Venus, shining significantly above.