Margaret of Anjou and her pivotal role in the Wars of the Roses.​

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​ “Blood and Roses is a huge achievement. By reimagining the life of a woman history labelled a villain, Catherine Hokin reminds us to look carefully at the things we think we know about history that just aren’t so.”

Barb Taub

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 Portraying the dynastic struggles of the Wars of the Roses as a medieval House of Cards, debut novelist Catherine Hokin re-interprets the story of Margaret of Anjou as a feminist re-telling of one of the bloodiest periods of English history.

In a powerful revision of a woman frequently imagined only as the shadowy figure demonised by Shakespeare, Blood and Roses examines Margaret as a French Queen in a hostile country, born to rule but refused the right, as a wife trapped in marriage to a man born to be a saint and as a mother whose son meets a terrible fate she has set in motion. As Margaret desperately tries to stave off the judgement of  history by writing her own truth—a desire she knows is almost certainly  doomed – she unfolds a web of intrigue, shifting alliances and secrets and reveals herself as a woman forced to play the highest stakes to pull a throne from the spoils of the battlefield.

 "A vividly imagined account of the life of Margaret of Anjou"

​ The Writes of Woman

Want to know what's coming next?

To find out more about who you will meet in  my forthcoming second novel, click here

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Blood and Roses: 1460

The English Crown – a bloodied, restless prize.

The one contender strong enough to hold it? A woman. Margaret of Anjou: a French Queen in a hostile country, born to rule but refused the right, shackled to a King lost

in a shadow-land.

When a craving for power becomes a crusade, when two rival dynasties rip the country apart in their desire to rule

it and thrones are the spoils of a battlefield, the stakes can only rise.

And if the highest stake you have is your son?

You play it. 

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 "An accomplished, absorbing tale" 

Antonia Senior, The Times