Shadow of a Favoured Brother

This book tells the early life of Samuel Dunche. He was born in the late sixteenth century into a well-respected family who had sat at the heart of Government since the times of Henry VIII. He was the third son and, as such, expected to play a supporting role of the family future.

He lived in incredible times. A change of royal dynasty from Tudor to Stuart. Intense poverty and taxation at a time the middle classes began to emerge. The ever-present threat of plague and pestilence that culled swathes of the population. A New World being discovered and the world's most famous playwright, William Shakespeare, at his peak. Conflicting religious beliefs between Catholicism and Protestantism fuelling national paranoia and the rise of extremist Puritanism and the ever-present fear of witches. Disillusion with the monarchy, leading to dissolution of the monarchy, regicide and Civil War.

Through these times, Samuel survives and thrives despite family opposition and finds himself thrust into the heart of great events, shaping his perspective on what is right and wrong, just and unjust. He experiences torturous loss, becomes uncle to a young Oliver Cromwell and finds a love he could never have imagined.

My motivation for this story lies not only in writing about the fascinating times that shaped modern Britain, but in a personal connection with Samuel. The first house he built and lived in with his wife, where he started his family, is called Hall Place in Sparsholt, Oxfordshire. It was built in 1623 and celebrates its quatercentenary this year. I own and live in this house today. 'If the walls could talk, what a story they would tell,' I often say to myself. I hope to try and tell his story