Brian Wainwright has had a deep interest in the middle ages for most of his life. He cannot explain this satisfactorily, although he spent a fair bit of his childhood climbing over castles in Wales.

In his teens he developed a particular fascination with the era of Richard II, another king he believes history has sadly misjudged. There were few novels about that period and Brian eventually came across The White Boar by Marian Palmer, which started him off on his fascination with the Third Richard. The 14th and 15th centuries remain his favourites and his particular interest is the House of York throughout its existence.

Brian destroyed much of his early writing work due to his dissatisfaction with it, although there are a number of articles in various obscure places. He wrote The Adventures of Alianore Audley by way of light relief during a lull in the long task of researching and writing about Constance of York (daughter of the first Duke, Edmund of Langley) in Within the Fetterlock, a novel published by Trivium in the USA in 2004.

Brian lives in the North West of England and is currently working on another book about the House of York, centring on Richard III, Francis Lovel and the Mowbray family.

Conversations with Writers - an interview with Brian Wainwright: Part One, Part Two, Part Three (05/02/08)

An interview with Brian can be read here.

The Adventures of Alianore Audley

Roger wore his collar of golden Yorkist suns to show that he was one of the King's knights, ludicrous piked shoes to show that he was fashionable, and a massive codpiece to show that he had a vivid imagination.' Alianore Audley is a good, submissive, demure woman of the fifteenth century … and if you believe that, you'll believe anything. But she is a spy in Edward IV's intelligence service, and the author of a chronicle that casts - well, a new light, let's say, on the times of the Yorkist kings. History will never be the same after Alianore. Nor will most other novels. Brian Wainwright's debut novel The Adventures of Alianore Audley is a brilliantly funny, subversive spoof. Read an excerpt