NON-FICTION

Charles Spencer in conversation with Paul Blezard

If your family have lived in the same home for nineteen generations - and just over half a millennium - it’s hardly surprising that you will grow up to have an acute sense of history. Charles Spencer has taken this concept to a new level with his superbly researched and beautifully written six books, two of which have been Sunday Times bestsellers.

Here, Charles discusses his most recent work To Catch a King: Charles II’s Great Escape, explains the importance and occasional joys of deep research and the sense of responsibility he feels to the memory and legacy of those about whom he writes. A thoughtful and generous custodian of his own family’s history and home, he is no less so when dealing with the history of those whose voices echo across the centuries.

That The Sunday Telegraph wrote, “as gripping as any thriller” of his latest work is testament to his ability to craft a pacy action narrative from his sources, one of which might well surprise you.