“This is a gracefully written and engrossing novel based on solid historical research. The personal touches are deftly handled.”

Dr Jane Hathaway, Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor Emerita, Dept. of History, Ohio State University

Twelve-year-old Leonardo Michiel is destined for a privileged future in Venice — until Adriatic pirates tear him from his family and carry him to Constantinople. There, in the imperial palace, he is castrated, trained in the palace school and renamed Gazanfer, the lion-hearted.

What follows is one man’s astonishing rise from slave to imperial power broker. As Chief Threshold Eunuch, he is the confidant to sultans and one of the most influential figures at the heart of an empire that spans continents. In a court ruled by ambition, deception and shifting loyalties, he is drawn into the lives of two extraordinary women – Nurbanu and the alluring Safiye – whose influence reaches far beyond the harem.

At the height of his powers, Gazanfer is reunited with the family he left behind in Venice thirty years before. His sister Beatrice settles in Constantinople and spies for the Venetian Republic, forcing him to confront his own divided loyalties.

In this sweeping historical novel of love, loss, survival and identity, the reader travels at Gazanfer’s side across five decades and four sultans, encountering scheming viziers, foreign ambassadors, concubines, artists and poets. As armies clash and economic chaos threatens the empire from within, Gazanfer comes to realise that, for all his power and influence, no position at the sultan’s side is ever truly safe.

Drawing on meticulous historical research, The Lion at the Threshold re-tells a largely forgotten true story, bringing to life the splendour, danger and hidden politics of the world’s greatest empire.

To be published by Rowanvale Books, 2027. Note that the cover shown is a temporary, AI-assisted, design used as a placeholder pending agreement of a fully human-designed final cover.

“Greedy vicars, a school bully turned merchant, child brides, hellfire preachers, eccentric generals, family curses and dynamic women. This wide-ranging and thoroughly researched work weaves vibrant personal stories into a national and sometimes international narrative. This is local social history at its finest.’

Dr Elizabeth Goodwin, Senior Lecturer, Late Medieval and Early Modern Stdies, York St John University

Walking the Hamster to the Fountain is a highly entertaining and well-researched book which chronicles, in lively and unforgettable detail, some of the thousand year history of Hempstead, from the Norman Conquest to the Kray twins. It will appeal to anyone who enjoys disappearing down historical ‘rabbit holes’.

The title comes from an interview with a former resident, recalling summers between the wars when the wells dried up. People had to ‘walk into Hempstead to the fountain’ for water. When this was transcribed, the computer produced the hamster.

Published by the Conrad Press, 2025. ISBN 978-1916966871

At the Going Down of the Sun is a fascinating and often gripping account of the lives of the eighteen men commemorated on Hempstead’s War Memorial.

Until recently, relatively little has been known about these men (fourteen from the First World War and four from the Second) other than their ‘name, rank and serial number’ and the location of their graves. Ross Midgley’s detective work – building on the research for Walking the Hamster to the Fountain, his book of Hempstead history – has brought to light some incredible stories of their lives in both peace and war, and the manner of their passing.

Published by the author, 2025. ISBN 978-1036903695. Note that all profits from this booklet will be donated to the Royal British Legion’s Poppy Appeal