Jan Knights

From the age of eleven, Jan-Marie Knights became fascinated with history of all ages and read every history book – fiction or non-fiction - she was able to get her hands on. Fiction went out of the window when Jan-Marie read her first primary source with its first-hand view of Tudor court life. This was The Life of Cardinal Wolsey written by his gentleman usher, George Cavendish. From then she was hooked on reading primary sources along with those books written by eminent historians. However, she found she did not necessarily concur with the conclusions reached by those historians. Having a burning desire to reach her own conclusions soon led her to read next the Letters and Papers of Henry VIII (printed in the 1800s) and the fascination of reading words so immediate and alive of people who had lived long before.

Jan-Marie enjoyed her research as a hobby while she worked for most of her career as a writer, journalist and editor. She worked for a while in London, in Holborn and on Fleet Street, before moving north to an area of England which is called the Dukeries rather appropriately where she has lived the last quarter-century.

Close friends suggested she used her journalistic skills to write a book that did not have conclusions or theories, just an enjoyable read accurately portraying key events, interesting characters, ceremonies, the food, the clothes, the tragedies, the love affairs, scandals and deaths. Thus, assisted by the lovely people at Amberley Publishing, The Tudor Socialite came into being with its bite-sized entries meant to enthral, amuse, entertain or make one laugh, or even cry.