Birstall history author is fully booked

A life-long interest in George Villiers, the first Duke of Buckingham and confidant of Charles I, led Pamela Womack to write the novel Darling of Kings.

Pamela, of Upper Batley Lane, said: “I thought it was a fairytale, of this handsome young man who came from a minor gentry background to be the ruler of England.”

She also had An Illustrated Introduction to The Stuarts released for a new history series by publishers Amberley.

In free time outside teaching young people with learning disabilities at Kirklees College, Pamela trained to read Old English and researched period documents about the Villiers’ life.

“When you can start to read old manuscripts, it opens up so much more,” she said.

“You cannot beat getting to the original documents and looking at what people were writing at the time. I found out massive things about his life which haven’t been printed before. The Stuarts have been neglected – there’s absolutely everything that people could want to write about.”

Parents Kate and Ronald encouraged Pamela with museums visits and reading from around the age of 12.

She said they were “thrilled” about the books and son Peter, who lives with her, was hugely supportive.

Pamela is now working on two more books about Villiers, a biography due out in 2016 and a profile of his many loves to follow a year later.

Hayloft Publishing, which released her novel, has also put Pamela forward for the Costa Book Award and Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction.