Overview

Cremonello's Return is the sequel to the first novel Cremonello, which covered Thomas Cromwell's family background, youth and early adventures in Europe. He is now aged 22 and returns to London a wanted man. Until he can gain his pardon he retains his Florentine identity as Cremonello, envoy of The Frescobaldi Company. Cromwell is pursued by his bitter enemies from the first novel: The Lomellini family from Genoa, who are becoming dominant in the textile trade across southern England General Bartolomeo D'Alviano, the mercenary leader maimed by Cromwell during the Battle of Garigliano in 1503. He builds his London reputation in trade and law while returning regularly to visit his mistress Maddalena de Medici, who now runs the Salon Marchesa, Rome's most prestigious venue for courtesans and gaming. With his friend Daniele de Bossi, the Florentine Ambassador to the Court of King Henry Tudor, Cremonello and his guards transport to London multiple boxes of secret records from the Salon Marchesa. These Marchesa Archives were built up over thirty years by the salon founder, Daniele's mother Valeria, and contain inflammatory details of the sexual behaviour and gambling habits of several members of the Vatican and much of Rome's nobility. On Cremonello's return to Italy in 1508, the Lomellini immediately kidnap Maddalena and their young son Giovanni Battista. To save them, Cromwell turns himself in to the Lomellini, who transport him to Genova to apply their own brand of justice. He escapes at the last moment thanks to Ottoman allies of his old comrade Amin al Bagrahbi. Added to Cromwell's list of adversaries are now Sanxit Praesidio, the secret Vatican force of elite agents, who are active in London attempting to seize these Marchesa Archives. When Henry VII dies in 1509, Sanxit also join forces with Maximilian I, Habsburg Emperor of The Holy Roman Empire, to undermine the succession of eighteen-year-old Prince Henry and favour the Yorkist Edmund de la Pole. Cromwell and his guards are alert to an assassination attempt and save the lives of newlyweds Henry and Princess Catherine of Aragon. The pardoned Thomas Cromwell then builds his money-lending and legal practice and becomes an essential provider of legal and commercial services to Thomas Wolsey, the Royal Chaplain. As Thomas returns to Florence and Rome every year or so, he maintains his relationship with Maddalena and Battista. He starts to acknowledge that his skills are not just in the detail of trade and the law, but also in languages and politics, to make him a unique figure in the axis between Tudor London, Antwerp, Florence and Rome. This allows him to gain many commissions from leading merchants or from dioceses in England to achieve favour and benefit from the Vatican. In 1512 Maddalena becomes the architect of an alliance with Spain to achieve renewed Medici rule over the Florentine Republic. Thomas is there to advise and support her. The Medici power base grows further in 2013, when Maddalena's brother Giovanni becomes Pope Leo X. General D'Alviano has mixed success as a mercenary leader but waits until 1515, when he is in a position to lure Cromwell into his battle camp by capturing the young Battista. Cromwell engages a small force of his own from another old friend, the Duke of Sarzana, to mount an attempt to rescue his son.

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I grew up just outside London and lived and worked internationally for half of my life, mostly in Italy and The Middle East. My experiences and studies of history and art, while based in Rome, Cairo and Florence, all contribute new detail, unforeseen connections and startling conclusions throughout my writing. I studied History of Art at The British Institute Of Florence, using their vast library to research deeper into Renaissance life and the world of the condottieri for Cremonello and Cremonello's Return. For Too Noble For Anger, I created a story of the six years in London exile for Jose' Maria Torrijos and his wife Luisa. I am indebted to Estaban Alcantara and the Asociacion Torrijos 1831, who commemorate their hero's life every year, in the Malaga museum and square that now remember his name. The painting of the fateful execution of Torrijos and his comrades by Antonio Gisbert, is acclaimed as an iconic marker for Spanish history. It moved me more than any old master work could at the Prado in Madrid, to the extent of wanting to create this hypothesis of the experiences of Georgian London life for Jose' and Luisa. I was able to refer extensively the excellent summary of Spanish exiles in 1820s London: Liberales y Romanticos, by Vicente Llorens. I have drawn on several biographies and accounts of those who shaped English life, late Georgian culture and London architecture. All Britons owe infinite debt to the leaders and visionaries of the early nineteenth century, from Wellington to Turner; from Peel to Nash. Once more I thank the British Institute of Florence for shaping my appreciation of the arts and giving me the foundations to research and develop stories about those who shaped our history. I am now based in Oxfordshire and endeavour to keep in close touch with my children and grandchildren as they spread their own wings.

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