A big surprise a couple of days ago when a box of books lobbed onto my doorstep – the German translation of the Janna Mysteries, Book 1 – no longer Rosemary for Remembrance but now called Janna: die tochter der heilerin (Janna, daughter of the healer – I think!) To any readers from Germany who may have accessed my website and this blog – welcome! I hope you enjoy Janna’s quest to find her father – and also to find true love along the way! Do you know that, although the novels are set in England in the 1140s, during the civil war between King Stephen and the Empress Matilda, her title of ‘Empress’ came about because she was first married to the Emperor of Germany. She was betrothed to him and went to live in Germany when she was 8, she was married at 12 and widowed at 25, after which she was brought back to England by her father, Henry I, and then married off to Geoffrey of Anjou. In fact, the Empress was much beloved by the German people, who begged her to stay on after the Emperor died – but her father wanted an alliance with Anjou and she was the way he could achieve this. That’s what happened to women in those times – and it’s one of the reasons why I find it so fascinating researching the middle ages!
