Joined a packed audience at the local library last night to hear Alison Weir read from ‘Innocent Traitor’,   her bestselling novel about Lady Jane Grey.

In a sense this was two for the price of one:  we heard the Tudors brought to life with both the passion of a novelist and the understanding of a historian.

Not only are the novels closely based on the source material, but even the covers are put together using costumes and models chosen and supervised by the author herself*. As she says, novels are where a lot of people learn their history.

The trouble is, not everyone reads novels… which brings me to World Book Day . There’s a fresh batch of ‘Quick Reads’ being launched to celebrate it today – and  Alison Weir’s ‘Traitors of the Tower‘ is one of them.

Quick Reads are ‘ideal for regular readers wanting a short, fast read, and for those who have lost the reading habit or find reading tough. They are short, sharp shots of entertainment.‘

Looking at the selection, they seem to have something for everybody.  Anyone not wishing to shell out the very reasonable £1.99 a copy can stroll across to the Quick Reads website before the end of the week and download a Ruth Rendell story for free.

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*The cover for  ‘Traitors of the Tower’ isn’t: it’s based on a painting. Not 100% historically accurate, according to the author, but  still a jolly good picture.