‘At the age of seven I was a skillful pickpocket. Her ability to handle historical detail, work it effortlessly into a story and endow it with great emotional charge, is certainly second to none. I first came across Norah Lofts at thirteen, when I was making my first forays into historical re-enactment and was advised by the organiser to read Lofts for her incomparable grasp of historical detail, and because many of her books are set in Suffolk, where the Tudor house we were re-creating, was. The Oxford Book of Historical Storiescalls her ‘one of the undisputed queens of historical romance.’ Over a long and busy career she wrote more than 60 books, mostly historical, but with a good handful of excellent psychological thrillers too (the Hammer horror film The Witcheswas based on one). She came from a farming family, something which had a lasting influence on her writing, as you will see, but worked as a history teacher before she turned to writing full time. Alison Weir has been plugging away at it, and, brilliantly, was instrumental in getting some Lofts books back into print, while the availability of ebooks and the possibility of finding out-of-print books on ABE or Amazon means that there’s never been a better time to discover her. Lofts is a deeply unfashionable writer who people in the know keep saying should be rediscovered. I had a massive Norah Lofts binge over Christmas.
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