Jesse writes for the Hereford Times

“The King is strange to look at: he has bulging, expressive eyes, a slobbering mouth and an awkward gait. He dresses finely, yet somehow contrives to look ill-kempt. He speaks Scots with an accent, loves to drink ardent alcoholic spirits and swears like a tavern brawler.”

This is the description of James I in my new novel The Winding Stair, but any resemblance between the politics of the early 17th century and of today is unlikely to be coincidental. Political skulduggery was just as common then as now, even if the stakes were considerably higher.

Fall the wrong side of the King and the result could be, and frequently was, not merely political embarrassment but personal ruin. So it proved to be in different ways for both my main characters, Edward Coke and Francis Bacon.

Even so, I have been astounded by the positive reaction to the book -- at one point it had risen to a barely imaginable 26th place of all the books listed on Amazon.

No less exciting have been the reviews. The brilliant historian and columnist Dominic Sandbrook described the book in the Sunday Times as "dazzling... a gripping thriller about the feud between two deadly rivals.. and a delight to read."

Coming from him, that is very exciting indeed, especially to a first-time novelist like me.

Novels are not like other books; they are more personal. But this generous praise has a much wider value for Herefordians, because the proceeds from The Winding Stair are going to fund student bursaries and other support for NMITE, our pioneering local university project, which readers of this paper will be well aware of as it continues to grow, going from strength to strength.

The rivalry of Coke and Bacon is a remarkable story, not just of jealousy, intrigue and revenge, but of ambition and achievement. Great deeds in politics do not require such scheming and deceit, but they are rarely entirely free of them. We may think recent times are something special. History, however, suggests otherwise.

Thanks to Rossiter Books and The Friends of St Mary's, I will be talking to the great Andy Rossiter about the book *this Thursday* at St Mary's Church, Ross-on-Wye at 8 pm.

Please do come along! Or if you can't, you can buy a copy in all good bookshops or online, and you will be helping to give a young person a fantastic technical and engineering education, and lifting our local Herefordshire economy besides.